HBN Shoe LLC develops Insolia®, a family of products and technologies unlike any other in the market. Insolia Products and Technologies provide foot and back solutions proven by medical science, with worldwide patents issued and pending.

HBN is based in the greater Boston, US area, with R&D offices in San Antonio, Texas, Business & Technical Support offices in Taiwan, and manufacturing facilities in Dongguan, China, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and Ahmedabad, India.

With solutions for both women and men, Insolia Products and Technologies have earned the American Podiatric Medical Association's Seal of Acceptance and the endorsement of the UK Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists.

Our company's mission is to bring technological innovation to shoes while establishing Insolia Products and Technologies as indispensable components for the world's best footwear.

Our Managing Members

Michael Backler - President and CEO

Michael joined the company in 1999 in a part-time consulting role to assist in marketing and sales strategy and implementation. He joined as Chief Marketing Officer in 2001 and became its President in 2002.

Michael brings over 25 years of experience in international business development, branding, marketing, operations, and strategic planning. With his ability to create value for all stakeholders in a business relationship, Michael has successfully developed growth with retailers and manufacturers.   He has experience on a global basis, including in Asia, the EU, and the US. He has significant experience developing integrated communications and promotional plans to drive customer awareness and retail sales. As part of this, Michael has a track record of success in expanding business during changing market conditions.

Before joining HBN full-time, he built and grew an independent consulting company, which provided executive team assistance in strategy, brand marketing, and overall business management. His clients ranged from Fortune 500 companies to small start-ups and included HBN at one point. Michael sold the consulting firm before joining HBN full-time.

Michael was also Corporate Director of Strategy and Marketing at Malden Mills, where over ten years, he built sales and equity of the Polartec® and Polarfleece® brands. Before Malden Mills, he was a partner in a successful venture capital-funded start-up and Vice President for a division of Xerox®.  Mr. Backler holds BS and MBA degrees.

Dr. Howard Dananberg - Founder and Director of Technology

Dr. Dananberg was one of the original three HBN Shoe, LLC founders. His work in biomechanics and footcare/footwear technology began with athletic shoe patents and shoe design improvements. Dananberg pioneered computerized in-shoe-pressure sensing in his medical practice and could look inside a shoe to see what was happening to the feet and body.

As a practicing podiatrist, he knew that high-heeled shoes hurt women, but he didn’t yet understand precisely why. He measured the forces present during walking and standing in high heels using computerized in-shoe-pressure analysis. He identified the problem: the poorly designed inside of a high-heel shoe creates a forward weight shift and an imbalance in the wearer’s body. Dananberg then developed a series of formulae that change the internal contour of the shoe to shift weight backward and properly align the body. These formulae are the foundation of Insolia Heels.

Dananberg recently retired from his practice as a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine. He is a Contributing Editor to the Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association and a world-renowned speaker on the biomechanics of human gait. He is also a consultant to Tekscan, Inc, a high-tech company in Boston, MA, that produces pressure sensing technology for in-shoe gait style testing. Dananberg is an adjunct faculty member of the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and a former member of the Executive Board of the American Association of Orthopedic Medicine.

Dr. Dananberg received his undergraduate degree from Queens College. He received his podiatric medical degree from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine and conducted his residency in Central New England.

Brian Hughes - Chairman and Director of R&D

Brian was the founding seed investor in HBN Shoe and is its largest investor. Over time his role expanded. He joined the board and later became Chairman, and finally, in 2004, he also assumed the role of Director of R&D during the commercialization of Insolia Heels.

Brian received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, where he is a life member of the MIT Corporation, its board of trustees. He also received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he focused on technology and innovation management.

After graduating from Harvard, he spent five years insuring spacecraft. In 1984 he co-founded PTAT System Inc., which built the first private transatlantic fiber cable linking New York and London, which was sold to Sprint in 1989, thus ending AT&T’s international telecom monopoly.

Brian then switched back to the space business and became CEO of the American Rocket Company, which he closed in 1995. The hybrid rocket technology developed by American Rocket has been further developed for Virgin Galactic, which successfully launched an entire crew, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, to space on July 11, 2021.

Norman Soloway - Founder and Director of Intellectual Property

Nick is one of the original three founders of HBN Shoe Company LLC. He is a founding partner of Hayes Soloway LLC, a full-service firm specializing in all aspects of intellectual property law. He is AV peer rated by Martindale Hubbell and included in Woodward White’s Best Lawyers in America. Nick is also an angel investor and has founded five for-profit companies, a technology business incubator, two not-for-profit organizations, and a chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. 

He received his Bachelor of Science degree from MIT and his law degree from Boston College, where he taught chemistry. 

Nick also serves on several boards of not-for-profit companies and is a member of the University of Arizona College of Science Dean’s Advisory Board and the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts Dean’s Advisory Board.