MN Company Offers New Shoes For America's Tallest Man

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A new Minnesota company has pledged to create new shoes for 7-foot-8 Igor Vovkovinsky.

Palidium, Inc. founder Greg Johnson said he saw Vovkovinsky during a pre-game visit to a Minnesota Timberwolves game on April 22 -- and got an idea. He said he felt compelled to help out Vovkovinsky after learning that he was trying to raise money to buy custom-made shoes.

Johnson said he contacted Vovkovinsky through Facebook and promised to make him a brand new pair of "state-of-the-art" shoes for the next basketball season. Vovkovinsky's size 26 shoes could take weeks to make but if he OKs the deal, he'll be the first person in the state to wear new ZeroTie technology shoes.

While the offer has been made, nothing is finalized.

ZeroTie features technology that will tighten the shoelaces without manually re-tying the laces, according to Johnson.

Shoes with the ZeroTie technology will be available this fall.

Vovkovinsky said he is very appreciative of the offer but hasn't accepted it yet.