Heel2Toe Panel Review
Review updated:
Heel2Toe is a wearable device that clips onto your shoes and provides you with an auditory reward for walking well. While some reviewers experienced benefits, most found the instructions to be confusing and the app data too scientific.
Highs
- Some experienced improvements in their walking
- One reviewer found the data interesting
Lows
- The instructions are small and difficult to understand
- The flashing lights and beeps are confusing
- The clip can be uncomfortable and difficult to reach
- The data in the Docking Station app is too scientific
Our six reviewers are Elaine, Helen, John, Laurel, Paul and Sean. They were asked to test out Heel2Toe for four weeks in July/August 2026 before sharing their feedback with us.
Symptoms: Our reviewers are living with a wide range of Parkinson’s symptoms, including balance issues, falls, freezing of gait, stiffness, lack of dexterity, slow movements, dysarthria and fatigue.
Tech confidence rating: Ranges from ‘very unconfident’ to ‘very confident’.
Location: Buckinghamshire, Conwy, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and Warwickshire.
Gender
- Men: 3
- Women: 3
Age range
Years since diagnosis
Background
Heel2Toe is a wearable device that rewards users who have walking issues. The device clips onto your shoe and makes a beeping sound every time you take a ‘good step’. The goal is to help train your gait and reduce your risk of falls.
The device was created by Canadian health tech company Physio Biometrics Inc. in 2025, and was showcased at the AGE-WELL 10th Annual Conference in Montreal that same year.
“Essentially, Heel2Toe harnesses the power of the brain to change gait from the top down, so individuals re-learn to walk optimally,” said founder and president Dr. Nancy Mayo.
“Clients say that once they start using the sensor, they continue to ‘hear’ the beep even when not wearing it. They know which foot movement produces the sound.”
Heel2Toe is categorised as a Class 1 medical device.
First impressions
Getting started
When you receive your Heel2Toe device, you’ll find two items in the box. This includes the clip-on sensor device and a USB-C cable.
It also includes an SD card which is built into the sensor. The SD card allows the device to store your walking session data, including your steps, beep events and gait metrics. You can then upload this data to the Docking Station app on an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Windows PC via the USB-C cable provided. If you have an older phone or laptop that requires a different connection, you’ll need to provide your own cable.
The Docking Station is a mobile and PC app designed to analyse the data recorded by your Heel2Toe device. The app lets you view your walking session data and see personalised exercise recommendations.
The device itself works by detecting your steps and playing an audible beep in response to every ‘good’ heel-first step to reinforce the movement. Physio Biometrics recommends practising with the device for six minutes, twice a day. However, this setting can be changed to make sessions longer or shorter.
There are also lights built into the device that indicate how well you’re walking. Green means your right foot is doing well, while orange means your left is doing well. Yellow and red indicate low battery, blue means that the beep function is switched off and purple means you need to calibrate the device.
Instructions
The device comes with a two page user manual. However, most reviewers found the instructions to be fairly unclear.
“There was such a lot of information squashed up fairly small on the page of the user manual,” said 77-year-old Helen, a reviewer who has used cueing devices to help with her gait in the past.
Paul, a 70-year-old reviewer who has recently found himself unable to go on the long walks he used to enjoy, said that the diagram included was also notably small and the instructions difficult to read.
69-year-old reviewer Ann noted that the instructions failed to explain some technical terms, such as what an SD card is: “The instructions didn’t have enough depth and didn’t align with what the device was doing. They also used too much techie language which was not helpful.”
Two reviewers did find the instructions easy to follow. Sean, a reviewer who shared that he feels uncomfortable walking in social settings, said the instructions were “clear and well defined.”
John, a 79-year-old reviewer whose shuffling gait mainly affects him at home, called them “quite easy to follow.”
Along with the user manual, Heel2Toe provides a digital guide titled ‘Getting the most from your Heel2Toe sensor’. While John and Sean found the 30-page guide helpful, Helen was still confused.
“I don’t think it was particularly helpful”, added Ann. “I think they need to do more testing with people who’ve got Parkinson’s.”
Setting up the device
The same four reviewers who disliked the instructions also found Heel2Toe difficult to set up. This led to every member of the review panel contacting the company’s customer service for help at one point or another.
Helen couldn’t get either of the two cables supplied to work with her phone as it was an older model, while Paul had trouble getting the app to read the SD card in his Heel2Toe device. Elaine needed help getting the app to work. All three contacted customer service, with Paul specifying that it took around 24 hours for him to receive a response.
“The customer support were excellent,” said Elaine. “I arranged a call within 24 hours and from the conversation I realised that the Heel2Toe could produce some very effective data that would be helpful to clinicians.”
Even Sean and John, who said they found the set-up “fairly easy”, encountered problems connecting the device to their phones. However, where Sean received guidance from customer support, John did not hear a response.
Ann asked her husband and Heel2Toe’s customer service for help when setting up the device. She said that the most difficult part of the set-up process involved the Docking Station app.
“[There are] no clear instructions on how to access the Docking Station,” she said. “The worst thing was interpreting the data – I didn’t know what to do with it. I needed a clinician to interpret.”
“The person helping admitted it wasn’t user-friendly,” she added.
Ann also had problems with the LED indicators on the device, sharing that she struggled to process them and the colours didn’t correspond with those listed in the manual.
“There were other flashing lights which made it difficult for people with Parkinson’s as our brains function a bit more slowly, so having quick flashing lights in different colours aren’t a very good way to indicate if something is doing the right thing or not.”
Daily use
Using the device
Some people found the number of different beeps and flashing lights from Heel2Toe confusing.
“The beeping was encouraging but it didn’t say how many beats meant what and if it meant I was doing well or not,” said Ann.
John said it was “very easy to use at first attempt but the light sequence changed after a few times and it wasn’t clear when the device was ready for use.”
Elaine found the sounds and changing colours to be challenging. “I would have found it helpful if it bleeped when I did a correct step but it bleeped all the time,” she said.
Helen noted that the beeps were also quite loud: “I found people looking at me wondering what it was.”
Helen also found the device too heavy for any shoes that weren’t trainers and Sean said the clip popped off his thicker walking boots. Elaine said that the clip caused a sore to develop on her ankle, while Ann found she needed to wear thick socks or multiple pairs to prevent the clip from digging into her foot.
Ann and Paul also found it difficult to bend down and press the on/off button.
Paul required help attaching and using the device. He also found it to be loud and couldn’t figure out what the beeps indicated at first, though he did find himself getting used to it after a few days. He suggested that the company add support for Bluetooth headphones in the future.
Sean, on the other hand, found the device very easy to use and got used to it after a few hours: “The sensor mounted to my shoe easily and switching on was simple.”
On his second use, he worked out how to switch the beep off and found that this let him walk more naturally: “[I was] definitely feeling a conscious need to stride properly just by knowing I was wearing the sensor and despite having switched off the audible prompt.”
He suggested Heel2Toe add a physical switch for audio to make it easier to switch the beeps on and off depending on your environment.
The Docking Station app
Heel2Toe pairs with an accompanying app called the Docking Station. This lets you upload your walking data and learn about your heel-strike data and risk of falling.
As a former data analyst, Sean found the app “relatively straightforward.”
“I soon got to grips with the data offered and found it interesting to see what was being presented. However, I can’t imagine it being used by everyone nor easy to navigate,” he said, adding that the app was “not inspiring enough” to make him want to check it every time he used the device.
The other five reviewers found the data to be either difficult to understand or useless.
“I couldn’t make sense of the data it produced,” said Elaine.
“It’s too complicated and needs a simple guide or to present the data in a simple way,” said Ann. “It would be good if it was simple and provided clear, actionable feedback on gait improvement rather than raw data.”
Durability
Some reviewers also had concerns about durability.
Ann thought it looked “fairly flimsy” and “like it might break if you drop it”, while John questioned the weatherproofing, saying it looks “robust but open to the elements.”
Both Paul and Sean found the cover on the on/off switch easy to lose, though Sean thought the device itself was “well made.”
“I think more work is required on a lot of parts of this to ensure reliability long term,” said Helen.
Value
Did they get any benefit?
Elaine said that Heel2Toe helped her “to remember to walk heel to toe and take a big stride.”
“It doesn’t inspire me to walk each day but when I did use it, I made more effort to walk efficiently,” said Sean.
John found the device useful to begin with: “Initially, the beep or lack of was helpful but after a week using it, I was able to pick my feet up without being reminded every time.”
Helen, Ann and Paul said that the device made no difference to their lives.
Ann said it was “over-engineered.” She explained that she didn’t feel motivated to use it as she couldn’t see it helping her gait. She found herself getting frustrated with the device, though difficulty understanding the data was her biggest gripe.
Only Elaine thought her walking had improved after using Heel2Toe for four weeks.
Price
Heel2Toe costs £81, which most reviewers agreed was too much money.
“It was no use at all to me so I feel the cost is immaterial,” said Helen.
Ann and Elaine thought the price would be worth it if the instructions were clearer.
“It would be worth the price if it was easier, if it came with much better instructions and if it was much more user-friendly,” said Ann.
“I think it’s got potential but at the moment, if I’d spent £81 on it, I’d be quite disappointed.”
All of the information provided in this review is accurate up to the time of publishing. Any major changes to the app or device will be reflected on the product page.