[Equipment Spotlight] Sanitizable Shoes

Customer feedback can be an important tool for ensuring that your product is meeting the needs of its market, and in some cases, it can even lead a company into entirely new markets.
Such was the case with New England Overshoe (NEOS) in Burlington, Vt., when President and Founder Scott Hardy was contacted by Dr. Graeme Magor of Schneider Foods, Ontario, Canada. Magor was a long-time customer of NEOS’ line of outdoor overshoes, wearing them on his highly publicized, year-long Arctic expedition. The overshoes worked so well in that environment Magor asked if a customized overshoe could be developed for food plants.
As Schneider’s Director of Occupational Health & Safety, Magor saw a number of plant employees with foot problems from poorly fitting, non-supportive boots. In most cases, rubber boots are not much better than a shell, Magor said in a NEOS video, and the rubber boots, “as a rule, brought us a new set of problems that we’d not encountered before in health and safety.” This is due, in part, to the aging demographic in food plants which is already predisposed to foot problems, he explained. The plant also had tried several overshoes but found that most of them were uncomfortable, difficult to get on and off, and hard to clean, with some lasting only two weeks in the plant.
“We needed to come up with something which gave the properties that the conventional rubber boot might in terms of being impervious and being sanitizable, but would provide some ability to give foot comfort and assure foot health,” Magor said.
Such challenges prompted Magor to contact NEOS about development of an overshoe for the food-processing industry: “Is there a way you can take out all the textiles so that it doesn’t harbor bacteria?” Hardy said Magor asked.
NEOS had not previously done — or even thought to do — any work in this industry, thus the first steps of development were research and testing. While Hardy saw the potential of moving into the food industry, the company needed to get to know the industry’s people, work environments and regulations, and do some testing to ensure that a resulting product would retain the quality for which the company was known.
 
FIELD RESEARCH. For two and a half years, NEOS conducted industry research and in-plant studies, as well as gathered information through “trial and error,” Hardy said, including bacteriological research with the University of Vermont — particularly studying the effects of Listeria; design, implementation and testing with Schneider Foods; health and safety analysis with medical teams; and assessment of various materials.
One step of development included testing the overshoe in a variety of plant environments. To do so, NEOS took samples to trade shows and passed these out to plant and quality assurance managers. The overshoes were worn in the plants, and then the managers provided feedback to NEOS. The overshoes provided in this test were made of industry-standard PVC, and the test proved to be invaluable when it was found that the PVC did not hold up well in some plants, particularly those with fatty acid environments.
In addition, Hardy said, one of the challenges of development was a lack of standards in certain areas of the industry. “What made it so difficult is that there is no standard as far as cleaning,” Hardy said. “Every plant handles things differently.”
But in December 2004, NEOS had a product it was ready to take to market. “We felt we had had enough months of testing. We were ready to go,” Hardy said. The resulting industrial overshoe is made of a high-quality thermal plastic urethane (TPU), “a very light-weight, and chemical-resilient material.”
The overshoe is unique in a number of other ways as well, said NEOS Vice President Ken Freedman, including its easy-on, easy-off construction. Many overshoes fit tightly against the worker’s personal shoe, causing difficulty in donning and removal. The lightweight NEOS overshoe, in contrast, is not only looser fitting but has an extra-wide front gusset entry making it easy to slip on and off. And this comfort extends to the wearing of the overshoe, Freedman said, with workers able to wear their most comfortable shoes while working — from well-worn sneakers to orthopedic prescriptives, or even comfy house slippers. With the ANSI-approved, steel-toe version, he explained “you can be in OSHA compliance wearing your sneakers.” Freedman cited one case in which a woman was able to return to work sooner than expected, because with the overshoes, she could wear her custom slippers and be in compliance with all regulations.
The two and a half years of research, study and testing also provided an overshoe:
• that, through NEOS’ work with the University of Vermont, has been clinically proven to reduce the introduction of Listeria and other pathogens into a plant’s food supply.
• is easily sanitized inside and out by complete submersion in or spray down with “whatever sanitizer you use to clean the floor,” Freedman said; then rinsed with water, and left to drip dry on racks, pegs or flooring.
• that, because it can be completely sanitized, can be reused by any number of workers and lasts for six months or more.
• is constructed through patent-pending radio-frequency weld, making it 100% waterproof even before the sole is attached.
• with an open-tread design which increases slip resistance and decreases the tracking of foods or debris.
• with a visible colored symbol coding so boots can be designated to specific plant areas.
• is made in XS/S/M/L/XL rather than specific number sizing to reduce the stock a plant needs to have on hand to fit its workers.
“The greatest benefit I’ve seen is for the safety, engineering and quality assurance managers,” Freedman said. “By allowing their people to be more comfortable, it cuts down complaints; by being slip resistant, it cuts down on falls.” In fact, in plants which have gone to the NEOS overshoe, both worker injury reports and chronic medical problems have decreased.
Listening to the customer, taking the time for research and development, and maintaining a high-quality focus were all essential steps is making a formerly outdoor-focused company an emerging leader in the food-processing industry. But it was NEOS’ willingness and dedication to working with industry experts — from university scientists to plant health directors — that was a real key to its success. As Hardy noted, “We had some good partners who believed in it.”