Igor Vovkovinskiy, the nation's tallest man, flew to Massachusetts on Thursday from Minnesota so sho

(9 May 2012) HEADLINE Tallest man in US seeking shoes, normalcy
CAPTION: Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, flew to Massachusetts on Thursday from Minnesota so shoe engineers at Reebok could try to custom build shoes strong enough to support his massive frame. (May 4)
[Location - Date:CANTON, MASS - MAY 3, 2012]
[Source:AP]

[SOT/:IGOR VOVKOVINSKIY/TALLEST MAN IN UNITED STATES]
("i havent been able to go for a joyful walk for more than six years now. And that's something that i've missed and I know my dog has missed and I want simple things that normal people don't really think about just going grocery shopping.")
[SOT/:AMBROSE HAYES/REEBOK]
("we're going to take measurements of your feet we're going to have you walk across a pressure pad, we're going to scan your feet, we're going to scan the orthodics in your shoes so we can have a better understanding of what we need to do to help make you some shoes for the future.")
("We have to pay attention to a lot of different things, we have to think about his medical conditions, how his feet are going to change, physically just how big they are is a huge challenge for us.")
[SOT/:IGOR VOVKOVINSKIY/TALLEST MAN IN UNITED STATES]
( "We have turn to our insurance, written letters, but no one has ever responded to any call for to help me, to get someone to make shoes.")
[SOT/:AMBROSE HAYES/REEBOK]
("The main reason we have him here is to make a thing that we call a Last. A Last is a generic foot form that we make the shoe around, so you can see I have his Last from 9 years ago in front of me, so this is about the size of his Last.")
("A Last for a size 9 person would be this big and the Last for a child would be this big.")
[SOT/:IGOR VOVKOVINSKIY/TALLEST MAN IN UNITED STATES]
("my doctors have written many letters stating that it would be a lot cheaper to make shoes that would fit his body than to keep having surgeries.")

STORYLINE:

CANTON, Mass. (AP) _ Finding shoes for the nation's tallest man takes more than a trip to the mall; more like a trip across the country.
Igor Vovkovinskiy flew to Massachusetts on Thursday from Minnesota so shoe engineers at Reebok could try to custom build shoes strong enough to support his massive frame.
He's 7 feet, 8 and one-third inches tall. Technicians estimate his shoe size at somewhere between a 22 and 25 _ sizes impossible to find at the mall.
Vovkovinskiy's 16 foot surgeries in six years have left him a virtual shut-in. All, he wants, he said, is shoes that fit so he can get outside, walk his dog, and enjoy his life.
The damage to his huge feet came from wearing shoes that don't fit, said Vovkovinskiy, of Rochester, Minn.
"Every time I've had surgery and the wound began to heal up, wearing these same shoes, or the previous shoes that I had, would just open the wound right back up," Vovkovinskiy said as technicians prepared equipment at a basketball arena for the shoe-fitting.
Medical insurers, Vovkovinskiy said, have ignored his pleas for help in paying for proper-fitting shoes and did not bother to respond to numerous letters that from physicians "stating that `it'd be a lot cheaper to make shoes that'd fit his body than to keep having surgeries."'
Vovkovinskiy says his only shoes have no traction, making it "suicidal" to leave his home, particularly in wet or snow conditions.
"I haven't been able to go for a joyful walk for six years now _ that's something that I've missed and I know my dog has missed," he said. "I look forward to just going for a walk with my dog, just walking around the neighborhood."

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