Igor Vovkovinskiy is big. In fact, he’s now the tallest man in America – and he’s been having trouble finding shoes that fit him.
Vovkovinskiy came to Rochester, Minnesota when he was just seven years old. At the time, in 1989, he was already approximately 6 feet tall and weighed 200 pounds.
Igor and his mother, Svetlana Ladan, came over from Kiev after waging a world-wide letter writing campaign in the hopes of finding a treatment for her son. It seems a rare pituitary gland tumor is the cause for Igor’s incredible growth.
The Mayo Clinic was unable to remove the tumor, as it was too deeply embedded, so Igor just kept growing.
Igor has quickly become known as the world’s “biggest” Obama supporter.
On 18 May 2010 he was measured at 7’8.33″ and took the record for tallest man in the U.S.
To get a sense for just how big he is, take a look at the photo below.
As the folks over at Reddit point out, the man on the RIGHT is 6-foot-11 and weighs 290 pounds. Yes, the man on the RIGHT…
Vovkivinskiy isn’t really even sure what size shoe he wears anymore. He hasn’t been able to buy shoes in a store since he was a teen. His inability to find shoes that fit him has led to 16 surgeries on his feet in the past five years. This has left him with some foot deformities and has also left him in constant pain.
Vovkivinskiy took matters into his own hands and started a fund-raising website and a Facebook group asking people to help him pay for a new pair of shoes.
Thousands of people opened up their wallets, donating over $37,000 to help him find shows that fit.
Then something incredible happened. Reebok announced that it wanted to fly Vovkivinskiy out to its headquarters in Canton, Massachusetts to make him a custom pair of shoes.
Igor Vovkivinskiy got fitted for new shoes at Reebok headquarters on Thursday, May 3. Shoe engineers did tests and measurements of Vovkivinskiy’s feet, and designers met with him so he could weigh in on how his shoes should look.
Reebok did all of this for Vovkivinskiy free of charge!
Finally, Igor Vovkovinsky will have shoes that fit.
See more photos of the tallest man in America below.
[Photos via: TheTallestMan.com]
Related articles
- 6 Amazing Photos Of Igor Vovkovinskiy, The Tallest Man In The United States Getting Fitted For Shoes (buzzfeed.com)
- Reebok makes shoes for tallest man (upi.com)
- The Tallest Man in the Country Pays Massachusetts a Visit to Get Some Shoes (bostinno.com)
- Tallest Man in US in Mass. Seeking Shoes, Normalcy (abcnews.go.com)
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