And medically compromised muscles, nervous systems, etc. I know someone in that situation who loves scooters. They say it's like flying - they finally can move at will, instead of the lifelong difficulty and pain of walking.
Not sure I would buy this product, but I see more than 0 use for it.
Have you considered running faster?
But seriously though, I’ve gotten pretty decent at running (3h15min marathon PR) and the difference between hiking a trail and running the same trail is kinda bonkers. These days I can run a trail in 2 hours that took me 6 hours to hike 10 years ago. Hits totally different. The whole dynamic changes.
Hiking feels immensely boring now
PS: If you run fast enough you don’t even notice the scenery.
Instead of running 10km in an hour, I could bike from Silicon Valley to the ocean and back in 3-4 hours, and have views over city, hills, oceans, suburbia, etc.
They say:
> Engineered to augment natural lower leg and ankle movement
Meanwhile, most people who can't walk/run as they would like have issues from their knees upward.
Worse, having heavier lower leg means more strain on the upper leg.
Yes, there's probably a narrow niche of people with lower leg only issues that can be helped by this device, but most people have issues upward ; and this device have the potential to create issues upward on people not yet concerned by them.
The use cases I can see for others are “anyone who might find this useful or fun”. To me, that means
1) people with medically compromised joints who would like to engage in experiences that their bodies don’t currently allow.
2) people who want to challenge themselves by making these joint additions add more resistance.
3) people who want more strength and/or power for any reason. “Fun” is a valid use case.
These joint enhancements exist for hips, knees, and with this, now ankles. The logical end for this is a powered exoskeleton (and, after that, power armor).