You already know something isn't right. Maybe it's the first step out of bed in the morning. Maybe it's the ache that's quietly changed the way you walk, or the run you've been shortening for months. Whatever it is, you're here because you're not ready to accept that this is just how things are now.

Neither am I. And I say that as someone who spent nearly two decades as a foot and ankle surgeon, someone who has seen, firsthand, exactly what happens when the small problems become the serious ones.

The moment everything changed

The idea that became 26 Apothecary didn't start in a boardroom or a business school. It started on a dirt road in the Dominican Republic, somewhere in the late 2010s, during a 5K race I was running with the medical team I'd brought down on a Surgeons of Service mission trip.

Kids were running past me. Barefoot. Not struggling but running. And as a foot and ankle surgeon who had just spent the week evaluating patients in the clinic and performing surgeries on those who needed them, I had a realization that stopped me cold: nearly everything I was treating down here could have been prevented. The right shoes. The right support. Basic care, applied early enough.

From fixing things to preventing them

That moment changed the mission. We had gone to the Dominican Republic to fix things. We left asking a different question: what if we could prevent the problem from happening in the first place?

We started the Shoes of Service campaign, partnering with elementary and high schools in Georgia to collect donated pediatric shoes, which we brought back down on subsequent trips along with inserts and supportive care items. Small interventions. Preventable outcomes.

The same philosophy followed me home. Back in my practice at 26 Foot and Ankle, which I'd built from a solo practice into a five-location organization across Georgia, I found myself applying the same lens to every patient I saw. What's the most conservative, most effective intervention we can try before we talk about surgery? What products, what supports, what changes in mechanics could interrupt this problem before it requires an operating room?

"Why plan on surgery when we have the opportunity to prevent it?" The question that started a nonprofit, reshaped a practice, and eventually built a brand.

Why a surgeon's curation is different

26 Apothecary is the direct extension of that question into a consumer context. Every product in this collection has been evaluated through the same clinical framework I apply in practice, not for how it's marketed, but for whether it actually addresses the biomechanics underneath the problem. Heel loading mechanics. Plantar fascial tension. Forefoot pressure. Toe alignment. These are the same frameworks I've taught at The Podiatry Institute as a faculty member and surgical skills instructor since 2008.

A double board certification in foot surgery and rearfoot and ankle reconstruction means I understand not just where the pain is today, but where it's going if the underlying cause goes unaddressed. That changes which products belong on this shelf, and which ones don't, regardless of how well they sell.

Credentials

• Board Certified, Foot Surgery & Rearfoot/Ankle Reconstruction — American Board of Foot & Ankle Surgery (2011–present)
• Fellow, American College of Foot & Ankle Surgeons (FACFAS)
• Faculty Member & Surgical Skills Instructor, The Podiatry Institute (2008–present)
• Published Research, Journal of Foot & Ankle Surgery (2009, 2010, 2011)
• Founder, Surgeons of Service — medical missions in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and El Salvador (surgeonsofservice.org)

Disclaimer

This catalog is not a substitute for professional medical care, and purchasing a product here does not create a physician-patient relationship. If you are experiencing significant pain, new symptoms, or a condition that isn't responding to conservative measures, please consult a licensed healthcare provider who can evaluate your individual situation.

What I can offer is the same prevention-first philosophy that drives everything at 26 Apothecary and Surgeons of Service: the right support, applied early, changes outcomes. The barefoot kids in the Dominican Republic didn't need surgery. They needed support. So do most of the people who eventually end up in my OR, they just found it too late.