Our Story
In 2007 Bill Bue`s daughter started to play youth volleyball, by the end of 2008 she had injured both of her ankles in the ankle brace of choice, then. When her teams started to compete nationally Bill noticed long lines of female athletes waiting to be taped or treated for ankle injuries. With 30 years of experience in Sports Medicine and current on published research, it was apparent that a product designed to enhance proprioception and neuromuscular communication had to work better than the existing product script for these athletes.
To accomplish this Bill started to hand pick forward-thinking Sports Medicine professionals to create products that activate/train the specific muscles that stabilize ankles. The 1st teammate was Athletic Trainer Betsy Russell who explained that by applying topical pressure to the peroneal and posterior tibialis, which are the muscles that stabilize the foot/ankle. Then the girls can get and keep healthy ankles.
By the time Bill`s team constructed a prototype, his daughter had injured both ankles twice. He asked her to wear Topical Gear prototype on her right ankle and keep the brace on the left ankle, 55 games later Bill asked her what she thought. Her simple response was "I caught myself a couple of time in the new design". Betsy and Bill immediately knew they should get products made for her entire team at Lake Travis HS, Tx. Once the girls who wore braces felt Pro Taco they walked over to the trash can and dropped their braces in it.
U of Texas and Austin Juniors were the other programs in Austin willing to allow players to wear Pro Taco.
In 2011 Penn State U Athletic Trainer sent a report to the NCAA stating, the Pro Taco shows signs of preventing ankle injuries. For the next 3 years, Bill exhibited at 20 national tournaments, fitting some 2,700 players with Pro Tacos who found the same result PSU reported.
By 2013 we designed an ACL tube with Mike Decker PhD assistance. Numerous published papers and our experience with ankles suggested that we apply topical pressure to the medial quads and hamstrings to activate/train those muscles. We were very fortunate to meet Commissioner Noftsinger of ECNL who said, "injury prevention of the youth female soccer player is the most overlooked aspect of the sport". We traveled nationally with these elite athletes for 3 years, fitting some 850 athletes with ACL tubes. Dr. Decker collected data from 3 well know youth clubs and 2 collegiate programs, which were accepted for presentation at the Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine Meeting 2016, where the ACL tube won "New Technology of the Year in Sports Medicine"!
During the next two years, Dr. Decker collected data on 424 youth female soccer athletes, which we co-presented at the ACL Study Group in New Zealand 2018.
In 2018 we came out with T:25 Ankle and T:25 Knees, both 2nd generation designs made of medical-grade compression.
During our evolution, Bill had rekindled a relationship with Dr. Vince McInerney, Seton Hall U team Phy. Dr. Vince had a master of Locomotion, Bob Narcessian rehabbing his athletes for the last 30 + years. After reviewing our research Dr. McInerney and Bob attended a large soccer tournament in north Jersey, where Bill was working with a few athletes. Once they saw the immediate functional changes in the athletes’ gait Dr. Vince decided to start applying Topical Gear products to his patients, 2018. Some 200 positive responses later, he suggested we start to collect data on his patients that were 50 yr +. When Bill asked Dr. Vince why he wants us focused on the 50 yr + he replied, when I tell them we have a product that will train the specific muscles that allow you to become active again, their response is "I can't wait to try that product"! This population knows their muscles have been on vacation for years/decades and are losing their independence. Wearing a 2 oz product that trains those muscles is very appealing to them, especially when a cane or walker becomes their next option!
Dr. Decker and Dr. Davilla constructed a Survey Monkey questionnaire that was sent to every patient who purchased T:25 Knees, 53 of the patients that responded were pre-COVID, 54 of the patients were during COVID. 89% of the patients who purchased T:25 Knees during COVID reported a return to activity or sport in 30 days. We have since labeled T:25 Knee as the "New Norm in Knee Rehab". These patients were able to rehab in the safety and convenience of their own home at a cost of 55 cents an hour. They will continue to rehab in T:25 Knees next 7 to 9 months.
Today forward-acting professionals in medicine and sport have become attracted to our Movement. Collaboration has always been the key to success, so Topical Gear founded an open forum held on zoom, called WE Digg MOVEMENT. This Forum provides forward-acting professionals the chance to meet and learn more about how to best Rehab their 50 + patients and athletes!
To accomplish this Bill started to hand pick forward-thinking Sports Medicine professionals to create products that activate/train the specific muscles that stabilize ankles. The 1st teammate was Athletic Trainer Betsy Russell who explained that by applying topical pressure to the peroneal and posterior tibialis, which are the muscles that stabilize the foot/ankle. Then the girls can get and keep healthy ankles.
By the time Bill`s team constructed a prototype, his daughter had injured both ankles twice. He asked her to wear Topical Gear prototype on her right ankle and keep the brace on the left ankle, 55 games later Bill asked her what she thought. Her simple response was "I caught myself a couple of time in the new design". Betsy and Bill immediately knew they should get products made for her entire team at Lake Travis HS, Tx. Once the girls who wore braces felt Pro Taco they walked over to the trash can and dropped their braces in it.
U of Texas and Austin Juniors were the other programs in Austin willing to allow players to wear Pro Taco.
In 2011 Penn State U Athletic Trainer sent a report to the NCAA stating, the Pro Taco shows signs of preventing ankle injuries. For the next 3 years, Bill exhibited at 20 national tournaments, fitting some 2,700 players with Pro Tacos who found the same result PSU reported.
By 2013 we designed an ACL tube with Mike Decker PhD assistance. Numerous published papers and our experience with ankles suggested that we apply topical pressure to the medial quads and hamstrings to activate/train those muscles. We were very fortunate to meet Commissioner Noftsinger of ECNL who said, "injury prevention of the youth female soccer player is the most overlooked aspect of the sport". We traveled nationally with these elite athletes for 3 years, fitting some 850 athletes with ACL tubes. Dr. Decker collected data from 3 well know youth clubs and 2 collegiate programs, which were accepted for presentation at the Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine Meeting 2016, where the ACL tube won "New Technology of the Year in Sports Medicine"!
During the next two years, Dr. Decker collected data on 424 youth female soccer athletes, which we co-presented at the ACL Study Group in New Zealand 2018.
In 2018 we came out with T:25 Ankle and T:25 Knees, both 2nd generation designs made of medical-grade compression.
During our evolution, Bill had rekindled a relationship with Dr. Vince McInerney, Seton Hall U team Phy. Dr. Vince had a master of Locomotion, Bob Narcessian rehabbing his athletes for the last 30 + years. After reviewing our research Dr. McInerney and Bob attended a large soccer tournament in north Jersey, where Bill was working with a few athletes. Once they saw the immediate functional changes in the athletes’ gait Dr. Vince decided to start applying Topical Gear products to his patients, 2018. Some 200 positive responses later, he suggested we start to collect data on his patients that were 50 yr +. When Bill asked Dr. Vince why he wants us focused on the 50 yr + he replied, when I tell them we have a product that will train the specific muscles that allow you to become active again, their response is "I can't wait to try that product"! This population knows their muscles have been on vacation for years/decades and are losing their independence. Wearing a 2 oz product that trains those muscles is very appealing to them, especially when a cane or walker becomes their next option!
Dr. Decker and Dr. Davilla constructed a Survey Monkey questionnaire that was sent to every patient who purchased T:25 Knees, 53 of the patients that responded were pre-COVID, 54 of the patients were during COVID. 89% of the patients who purchased T:25 Knees during COVID reported a return to activity or sport in 30 days. We have since labeled T:25 Knee as the "New Norm in Knee Rehab". These patients were able to rehab in the safety and convenience of their own home at a cost of 55 cents an hour. They will continue to rehab in T:25 Knees next 7 to 9 months.
Today forward-acting professionals in medicine and sport have become attracted to our Movement. Collaboration has always been the key to success, so Topical Gear founded an open forum held on zoom, called WE Digg MOVEMENT. This Forum provides forward-acting professionals the chance to meet and learn more about how to best Rehab their 50 + patients and athletes!
