History of Step Flex

German educated George Alzner was one of the first to recognise that, for most people, custom-made orthotics were not working satisfactorily. During the 1950’s he migrated to Canada and developed two new concepts for orthotics, both of which are key to why the Step Flex orthotics are so effective. These are discussed elsewhere on this site.

In 1974 the Alzner concept went into commercial production, as Step Forward and other brands, sold mostly in USA & Canada with great success. In 2004 Mark & Vida Vogt, based in Melbourne AU, became the national distributor of Step Forward for Australia. After rapid acceptance by Autralians, they expanded their distribution to New Zealand and then to many European countries.

During the business hiatus caused by covid restrictions, they partnered with their German distributor to establish production of Alzner-design orthotics in Germany. This opportunity allowed some minor improvements to the design, and much better control of quality and logistics. The material used to make the orthotics is absolutely the same as before, giving perfect performance in function and longevity. The change allowed and required a change of brand, from Step Forward to Step Flex.

These orthotics have been distributed throughout New Zealand since 2006, firstly under the Step Forward brand (by the Hansen family) and since 2020 under the Step Flex brand (by the Stone family). Step Flex New Zealand is staffed by knowledgeable and caring people. Very few customers have any trouble adjusting to, and benefitting from, their Step Flex orthotics. For those few people who experience difficulties, we pride ourselves on the quality of our after sales care.