While longevity may be the buzzword du jour in the wellness industry right now, the sorts of advancements initially targeted toward enhancing the performance of elite athletes could also help to improve our quality of life.

Take cleats, for example. Many of us probably haven’t laced up a pair since our youth soccer days, but since shaking up the sports world last year with its injury-reducing smart cleats, Caddix is eyeing the opportunity to pivot and begin designing everyday footwear that could benefit the rest of us.

So often, the focus on footwear advancements is related to enhancing performance, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to people who spend many hours on their feet—even if it’s not on a sports field.

“The emphasis needs to be put on longevity as it relates to wear and tear,” Jack Rasmussen, founder and CEO of Caddix, said while speaking at a Fast Company World Changing Ideas conversation at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center. 

That’s true even of products that weren’t initially designed with professional athletes in mind.

Jason Wersland, a chiropractor, came up with the idea for the Theragun out of necessity to deal with the pain he was experiencing in the wake of a motorcycle accident.

But over the years, the Therabody founder has seen firsthand how “highly motivated” professional athletes incorporate his company’s tools into their recovery process—information that’s valuable when thinking about how to help someone dealing with more routine pain, like a headache, the founder said.

“If I can change an athlete’s behavior, I can probably change every person’s if I’m in front of them long enough with the right information,” Wersland said during the panel discussion.

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