When Caerus Corp purchased New Options Sports, we noticed that NOS had dozens of pediatric braces in the catalogue, but most of them hadn’t been purchased in years. I was tasked with figuring out why people had not wanted to purchase the pediatric braces and fix whatever was wrong with them so that we could start selling them again.
I figured out that many of the pediatric braces were very well designed and could be very useful for children, but that the sizing was terribly off. For example, there was a wrist brace that was sized for a 2″ wrist…which is about the size of an adult’s thumb. If a child that small needs a wrist brace, they need something custom made by a doctor, not an off-the-shelf brace that their parents can buy off the internet!
After discussions with doctors and orthopedists, we decided to resize all the pediatric braces so that the smallest size would fit children the size of an average 4 year old. Then I graded the sizes up until they reached the bottom of our adult lines. I based the height on what percentage of the child’s leg the brace should cover (about 30%).
If you put the old braces next to the old ones, the new ones might look horribly big…
But it’s really that those old sizes were oddly small.
| Old Size Large | New Size Large |
| Thigh = 8.5″ to 9.5″ (average thigh circumference of a 1-2 year old) | Thigh = 16″-18″ (average thigh circumference of a 10 – 12 year old) |
The new braces are wider and shorter than the old. For example, here is a picture of the original size MD plastic pattern superimposed on the new pattern sizes. The new size MD is highlighted in pink for comparison.
This chart shows the old and new sizes. The SM is circled to show that the new is the same circumference as the old LG, but shorter to fit smaller children. The new small should fit an average 4-6 year old.
This is what the new braces look like on real children.
