How do you make an invisible disease visible? We could use AR or VR to prove our point. But in the land of complexity, simplicity is king. We choose a medium that everyone can relate to: shoes.

Introducing iMS, the world’s first 3D printed shoe. It simulates what it is like to live with MS by letting the wearer experience two of the most common symptoms, fatigue and imbalance. Many MS patients have difficulties maintaining their balance. The soles of the shoes have a special rounded and uneven shape to simulate the imbalance. To simulate fatigue and decreased mobility, the hollow soles are filled with lead weights. The weight can be adjusted to ensure the right experience and should be equal to 4% of the wearer’s bodyweight. To better understand what living with MS is like, a healthy person can walk a mile in an MS patient’s shoes.

Since the iMS shoe is the first of its kind, we started at the drawing board in the spring of 2016. The entire shoe was designed from scratch and 3D-printed in Ninja Flex, a soft yet strong material. To tell the story about the shoe while also striking an emotional chord, we created a film that was highly recognizable to the target audience. It portrayed Susanne, who suffers from MS, and her best friend Malin who walked a day in Susanne’s shoes. Data visualizations illustrated how wearing the iMS shoe affected Malin.

Meanwhile, a microsite presented information about the shoe, the symptoms and the costs of MS in Sweden, to help build our argument.

The campaign was launched on Sweden's largest non-commercial morning show, which reaches over 700,000 viewers in December 2016. The film was simultaneously released on the PAG’s social media channels.

The iMS shoe received media praise and our message got eight minutes of airtime on primetime morning TV. The campaign films have been viewed more than 420,000 times and shared over 1,300 times.

Politicians, patients and their families celebrated the campaign on social media: "Those who invented these shoes should get a Nobel Prize!" "Every case officer at the Social Insurance Agency should walk in those shoes for a day!" "Good invention to increase understanding of how MS patients can experience their everyday lives "

But most importantly, the message got through. Decision makers and healthcare professionals are now using the shoe as part of a national tour to spark change within Sweden's MS care. The iMS shoe is thus walking proof that it is indeed possible to visualize an invisible disease.