List of knee-brace-manufacturer contact numbers and website addresses, in no particular order.

This list was compiled by Michael Frind. The initial version dates back to 1997, and has been revised extensively as brace firms have changed, renamed themselves, or have been bought out.

This list was last updated on February 13, 2005. Extensive efforts were made to verify website addresses and other details. Please note that the proffered toll-free telephone numbers may not work from all jurisdictions.

Although all of the firms listed below (in the first section) are known for their functional knee braces (as prescribed for injury-history knees) and OA knee braces (as prescribed for knees with unicompartmental osteoarthritis), many of these same braces are also used prophylactically (i.e. to prevent injury). Some are publicly owned corporations, while others are private (family-owned) entities.

- Townsend Design http://www.townsenddesign.com (Bakersfield, California). 1-800-432-3466, 1-800-840-2722, 1-661-837-1795. (This firm, formerly known as Townsend Industries, produces a variety of full-tibial-shell and open-frame carbon-fibre custom-made braces as well as some aluminum off-the-shelf braces. This firm is one of the few functional-knee-bracing manufacturers which additionally produces a line of braces for people with disabilities such as post-polio syndrome and other motion impairments at the severe end of the spectrum. Townsend is presently the only major manufacturer to produce a custom-made hardshell elbow brace. The firm's name arises from the surname of its founder, Jeff Townsend; the firm originated in 1983. Braces made include the custom-made Premier, Air/Original and OA Reliever models, as well as the off-the-shelf Rebel. Although the full-tibial-shell Original/Air was this firm's flagship model for many years, the open-frame Premier has superseded it in terms of sales.)

- Innovation Sports (ISI) http://www.isports.com (Foothill Ranch/Lake Forest, California). 1-800-222-4284, 1-800-331-5491, 1-949-859-4407. (This firm produces the carbon-fibre custom-made CTi2, today the most widely used full-tibial-shell-type functional knee brace on the market, as well as a number of carbon-fibre off-the-shelf braces. Founded in 1983 by Jim and Ed Castillo. In addition to the CTi2 family, this firm's product lines include models such as the Edge, C180, Flex, Morph, and OAsys Carticare. The latter's design has recently been copied by Townsend, in its Loadshifter OA-bracing feature. Innovation Sports remains the only brace manufacturer to offer a twist-arresting ski-boot attachment for alpine skiers.)

Note: In January 2006, Innovation Sports was acquired by the global orthopedics firm Össur, based in Reykjavik, Iceland. Össur also owns Generation 2. According to Össur news releases (available on the Össur website), integration is in progress. My interpretation of this is that commonality of distribution arrangements is to be expected, and so all the products will appear under the Össur name. As a long-time user of the CTi2 knee brace, and also as someone whose knee injuries have rendered me permanently dependent upon knee bracing, I inquired about what would happen to the CTi2. I was informed that all of Innovation Sports' existing products will remain unaffected. All fabrication and servicing will continue to take place out of the existing facilities in Foothill Ranch, and all of Innovation Sports' employees remain on-staff.

- DonJoy/DJ Ortho http://www.donjoy.com (Vista, California). 1-800-321-9549, 1-760-727-1280. (Full name is DJ Orthopedics LLC; note that this firm bought out OrthoTech in 2000 and today is completely separate from Smith and Nephew. After the OrthoTech purchase, DonJoy proceeded to shut down said firm entirely, to the dismay of users of the OrthoTech Performer brace. The DonJoy name arises from the first portions of the first names [Donna and Joyce] of the wives of the founders. Founded in the mid-1970s, DonJoy has grown tremendously and is today acknowledged to be the largest producer of functional knee bracing in the world. It produces a number of braces. Its flagship model is the carbon-fibre open-frame-type Defiance, the most popular custom-made functional brace in the world. In the off-the-shelf realm, it makes aluminum-framed models such as the Legend, Armor, 4Titude, and Fource Point.)

- Omni Life Science http://www.omnils.com (formerly Omni Scientific at http://www.bw-omni.com) (Vista, California). 1-800-448-6664. (This firm, which makes carbon-fibre composite braces with an unusual rubber-and-strap top section, is currently owned by the New Zealand-based firm Bodyworks. Omni dates back to the 1980s. Braces include the Icon, Rage, and V-Force.)

- Breg http://www.breg.com (Vista, California). 1-800-321-0607, 1-760-599-3000. (All of this firm's hard-shell braces are made of stamped aluminum sheet metal. Note that this firm’s “custom” braces, despite aggressive marketing, actually fall into the off-the-shelf category since they are merely bent to shape. Because this firm is so hugely successful in selling such cheap-to-make braces at "custom-made" prices, its profit margins are unreasonable, unfair, and staggeringly huge...and therefore it is apparent that this company is the biggest money-maker of all the bracing firms. The firm's name arises from the first names of the principal founders Brad Mason and Greg Nelson who, along with other investors such as Patrick Cawley, were formerly DonJoy employees. The firm, founded in 1990, is one of the newest in the field. The founders' initial goal -- to make a brace which can cleverly be sold as "custom-made" but which can be bent to shape by hand, even by the end user -- remains at the company's core today. Breg is now part of the Orthofix conglomerate. Braces include the X2K [formerly Tradition] series and the Fusion.)

- Bledsoe http://www.bledsoebrace.com (Grand Prairie, Texas) 1-888-253-3763, 1-972-647-0884 (This firm's products are made from aluminum, and are considered off-the-shelf; it also makes a prophylactic brace specifically for motocross racing, the XOSkeleton. This firm's website includes a number of white-paper articles which are very rich in marketing. The firm's name is the surname of the founder, Gary Bledsoe. Braces include the Axiom, Ultimate series, and OA Thruster series. This firm has encountered financial problems as a result of a protracted multi-million-dollar lawsuit from Generation 2, over issues pertaining to Generation 2's patent on its strangely designed hinge in its single-upright OA braces.)

- Generation 2 USA http://www.gen2.com (Bothell, Washington). 1-800-462-7252. (This firm makes several biomechanically worrisome single-upright-type braces, and has come out with the dual-hinged 3DX, an off-the-shelf brace [even when sold as "custom-made"] brace whose design raises more questions and concerns than it answers. Other models include the Paradigm. Generation 2 is part of the Reykjavik, Iceland-based Össur conglomerate.)

- Generation 2 Canada http://www.g2orthotics.com or http://www.genii-orthotics.com (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada) 1-800-663-5982, 1-604-241-8152. (This was originally the Canadian version of G2 USA; essentially same product line. The Canadian arm is responsible for selling to Canada and the rest of the world, while the American arm is responsible for sales to the United States.)

- Karl Hager Limb and Brace http://karlhagerlimbbrace.supersites.ca (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) 1-780-452-5771. (This is a Canadian firm which makes several carbon-fibre custom-made models, and is named after its late founder. Dates back to 1977. Braces include the Bladerunner, Double X, Flex X [a full-tibial-shell model], Accelerator, and the single-upright OA Neutralizer.)

- DeRoyal Flextech http://www.deroyal.com/sportsmedicine/default.asp (Powell, Tennessee) 1-800-251-9864, 1-865-362-3002. This firm makes the carbon-fibre-prepreg-composite Flextech Flexgard F1. (Flextech was formerly a separate firm; the large medical-surgical products corporation DeRoyal bought it in about 2001.)

- Lenox Hill/Seattle Systems/USMC http://www.seattlesystems.com (Poulsbo, Washington) 1-800-248-6463, 1-800-222-8837 (The Lenox Hill name is now part of Seattle Orthopedic Group Incorporated [SOGI] which, for a number of years until 2001, existed as part of J.E. Hanger. In 2001, SOGI was bought by United States Manufacturing Company, at which point SOGI became Seattle Systems. USMC, which made orthotics and prosthetics in Pasadena, California, subsequently moved its entire orthotics-and-prosthetics operations to the Poulsbo facilities of the firm it took over. Lenox Hill is acknowledged to be the oldest name in functional knee bracing, and dates back to the late 1960s. The Lenox Hill name dates from the founding location, in New York State. Braces include the Challenger, CrossTrainer, and PrecisionLite, as well as the thoroughly anachronistic Custom Classic Derotation Brace.)

- EBI/Biomet http://www.ebimedical.com (Parsippany, New Jersey) 1-800-526-2579 (This firms makes the Alliance knee brace, a custom-made brace with a lot of unusual attributes, questionable characteristics, and a short warranty. The EBI name stands for "Electro-Biology Incorporated", and hints at this firm's first product line. EBI also serves as sales distributorship for off-the-shelf braces from Innovation Sports.)

- Medi http://www.medi.de (Bayreuth, Germany) 0921/9212-0 (This firm, based in Germany, makes a direct copy of the DonJoy Defiance, known as the Mediortho M4; it also produces the Medi Premium Lite. The website is available in German or English.)

- Biedermann Gruppe http://www.biedermann.com (Villingen-Schwenningen and Donaueschingen, Germany) 07720/8510-0. This firm produces the custom-made semi-flexible-frame Ultratech brace. For the American market, said brace was formerly manufactured under license by Montana Medical Brace; however, Montana Medical Brace has now become a mere reseller, and therefore is no longer listed here. (Biedermann's website is available in German or English.)

- Bauerfeind AG/Bauerfeind USA http://www.bauerfeind.com (Zeulenroda, Germany, and Kennesaw, Georgia) 49 (0) 3 66 28-66-10 00 and 1-800-423-3405. (This large German conglomerate makes a variety of soft pull-on braces, in addition to the customizable off-the-shelf hard-framed dual-hinged-strut MOS Genu.)

- Exotec (Professional Products Inc.) http://www.ezywrap.com (DeFuniak Springs, Florida). 1-800-234-9004, 1-850-892-2731. (This firm makes the Guardian series [successor to the Audacity], the Dual Instabilities, as well as OA braces.)

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Part 2: Lesser-known firms

- Empi http://www.empi.com (Saint Paul, Minnesota). 1-800-328-2536 x 8556, 1-800-325-5663. (This firm currently only makes rehabilitative-type bracing. Includes Protonics.)

- Mueller Sports Medicine http://www.muellersportsmed.com (Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin) 1-800-356-9522. (This firm, known for its protective sports equipment and its sleeve-type knee guards, no longer produces hardshell knee bracing.)

- Anatech http://www.anatechinc.com (Richmond, British Columbia) 1-800-667-3442. (This firm is one of many which produces only soft knee bracing.)

- Kinetic Research, Inc. http://www.oandp.com/commerci/kinetic/index.htm (Tampa, Florida) 1-800-919-3668 (This firm produces hinges and other parts, as would be used by a local othotist in making a knee brace in-house. The firm can also make braces to order.)

- Composit Orthotic Design (Montreal, Quebec). 1-514-369-3311 (Little is known about this very small firm.)

- Leading Edge Products (Grimsby, Ontario). (This firm is small. It produces the rather odd K-System brace, which uses a mechanically trouble-prone sliding-rod assembly underneath the hinges.)

Some additional names in the realm of knee bracing seem to have faded away or drifted out of the knee-bracing realm, for example Zinco (a large medical-surgical firm which in any case made only rehab bracing; given its size, Zinco was probably bought out by some other large firm), Hollister (a large medical conglomerate which briefly made an off-the-shelf functional brace under the InCare name), EMT (Enhanced Medical Technologies; this tiny firm made the Stealth brace, a product which struggled in the marketplace and seems to have disappeared), Cincinnati Brace (which also seems to have disappeared), Sutter (which vanished some time ago; it was either absorbed into some other firm or simply closed shop).

Note that there are also orthotists who fabricate braces on a local basis, using materials (e.g. hinges) provided by outside firms. It is impractical to list all these local orthotists here.

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Part 3: Other entities

In addition to the above, there are numerous firms which make off-the-shelf bracing solely as protective equipment (i.e. not as medical orthoses). Most of these firms focus on the motocross-racing realm. Here are two examples of such firms:

- Extreme Velocity Sports http://www.dualsport.com/evs (Santa Monica, California). 1-800-229-4387. (Makes off-the-shelf prophylactic braces for motocross use.)

- Asterisk http://www.asterisk.com (Lake Forest, California) 1-800-459-2999 (This firm, a spin-off of Innovation Sports, makes off-the-shelf braces for motocross use.)

(A British firm, Doyle International, which marketed its Defender Pro-1 for motocross injury prevention, seems to have faded from existence. As of the October 2005 revision of this listing, no current website can be found for this firm.)

Additionally, many of the earlier-listed functional-brace manufacturers also produce off-the-shelf braces for prophylactic use.

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As with any list of corporations in a specific field, buyouts, fade-outs, merges, acquisitions, and bankruptcies mean that regular updating is required. Please e-mail any corrections or additions to the above list to Michael Frind at frind@execulink.com.

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