steptics blog
Engineering Spirit Meets Prosthesis
steptics – a young company from Munich develops prosthetic feet with the aim of making high-quality technology more accessible.
When Peruvian para-athlete Maria Fernanda Medina Torres tested her new sports prosthesis at the end of last year, it was more than just a sporting moment for her. The Peruvian athlete, who lost her leg in 2022 due to a initially mishandled bicycle accident, now sees her amputation as a turning point in her life. Her Catholic faith gave her support and the strength to view the loss of her leg from a different perspective: “Through my amputation, I have been given the opportunity to become a better person, and with my athletic successes, I now have the chance to give courage to other amputees in Peru.” She receives support from a young German company: steptics.
Innovation from Southern Germany
Founded in 2023, the company currently has six employees and is part of a new generation of small, highly specialized developers in orthopedic technology. Instead of large corporate structures, short decision-making processes, direct communication, and a strongly engineering-driven approach characterize the development. “We want to develop high-quality prosthetic components in Germany using modern development and production methods that are also affordable for self-payers. From the beginning, we wanted to build a company that works very closely with users,” explains Managing Director Daniel Kun. “The best ideas do not emerge in meeting rooms but in direct exchange with the people who use our products every day.”
How seriously this approach is taken became clear to me during a visit to steptics in Berlin. There, I was able to test an early prototype of the prosthetic foot “Vision LP” myself. My feedback on certain walking characteristics came with specific recommendations for adjustments – all the more surprising was the reaction of the development team: Just one week later, new prototypes were available, incorporating exactly these suggested changes. “Our development cycles are intentionally short,” says Kun. “When a user provides precise feedback, we try to understand as quickly as possible what the technical background is – and how we can improve it.”
The “Vision LP” is a low-profile everyday foot that can be particularly well used in cases where only limited height is available due to short residual limb lengths or other conditions. The goal is to provide a practical, robust, and simultaneously dynamic solution – at affordable prices. I will report on this separately. “Many users need above all reliable technology for their daily lives,” says Kun. “Our goal is to develop products that are functionally convincing and at the same time accessible to as many people as possible.”
High-Performance Sports as a Development Platform
To demonstrate the high quality of its self-developed products, steptics also works on components for high-performance sports, such as carbon or composite running blades. “High-performance sports are a kind of development platform for us,” explains Kun. “Similar to motorsports in the automotive industry, many ideas emerge there that can later be incorporated into everyday products.” The collaboration with para-athlete Fernanda Torres embodies this exchange of experiences. For the athlete from Peru, high-performance sports prostheses were long inaccessible. Only through targeted support was she able to use modern carbon sprint blades, which significantly improved her training and competitions. I had the opportunity to meet Fernanda in person in Peru (see Rehatreff Issue 1/26). In the interview, she described the support from steptics not only as technical assistance but also as personal motivation: “When someone believes in you, you take a step further!”
steptics is still a relatively young player in an established market. However, the combination of technical development dynamics, close collaboration with users, and a focus on international engagement shows the potential inherent in such new structures. We users can look forward to what’s next!
Thank you to the RehaCare team for featuring us in your magazine! We appreciate the opportunity to share our story and mission.
Link to the article: Engineering Spirit Meets Prosthesis