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American Morning

Possible Solution for Dangling Feet

Aired June 04, 2002 - 08:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Maybe the idea of dangling your feet in a cold pond on a hot summer day is appealing, but if you're young or you're short -- we have a young one here this morning, Michael Reagan (ph), good morning -- you probably have to dangle them all the time.

CNN's Jeanne Moos, who certainly isn't vertically challenged and doesn't have this problem, but dangles one possible solution for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're probably watching this seated. Your feet may be planted squarely on the floor, but pity those poor dangling tootsies, unable to reach the ground, condemn to dangle for years.

(on camera): Let's switch places, do you mind?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

MOOS (voice-over): No wonder we jumped at the chance to walk in their shoes, or at least sit in them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now you see what it is like for a 2-year-old.

MOOS: It may look like a flashback to the antics of Edith Ann.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's the truth.

MOOS: But the truth here is that a company called Stokke uses the gigantic furniture to market a new kind of kid's chair.

(on camera): You sit up on this part.

(voice-over): It resembles a step ladder, but the top step is a seat and, the bottom, a foot rest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It grows with the child.

MOOS: Adjust the two steps in the grooves. Eventually, you get to the adult position. The KinderZeat, it's called. It was designed in Scandinavia 30 years ago, popular in Europe, and now being introduced in the U.S.

(on camera): Wiggle your butt around, make yourself comfortable. (voice-over): No more dangling. But what's so bad about dangling anyway?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dangling feet is a distraction.

MOOS: Dr. Alan Hedge (ph) is an expert in ergonomics at Cornell.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I literally can't lean back to the chair unless I actually scoot myself back to the chair, and now that's really uncomfortable.

MOOS: And look at how the world looks in a regular chair from the kid's point of view. But in the KinderZeat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're now up in the adult world.

MOOS: At adult pricing, $199 for the beechwood chair. The KinderZeat improves body stability and a child's reach distance. Check out how Mia has to kneel to reach in a regular chair, and then there is the fidget factor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wanting to squirm around.

MOOS: There's about three times more fidgeting occurs when you don't have good foot support in a chair.

(on camera): Now give this one a try?

(voice-over): Now, what do kids say?

(on camera): Now, which one do you think is more comfortable?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That one.

MOOS: How come?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because it has two steps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can lean back all the way and you have, like, a foot rest.

MOOS: Just check thought out this one for me.

You got to try this one now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one fits.

MOOS: Only a couple of kids opted for the regular chair. The KinderZeat isn't just kids stuff. The company plans to tap the small stature mart. Consider this, Spider-Man may be able to dangle from webs, but actor Tobey Maguire's feet dangled when he appeared on "The Tonight Show," proof that even superheroes suffer from dangling feet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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