About Pouliot

Laboratoire Pouliot — today Pouliot Orthopédique — takes its name from its founder, Carol Pouliot, a pioneer of foot orthotics in Québec. Coming from traditional footwear, he began crafting orthotics in his workshop, eventually mastering the fabrication techniques and orthotic principles needed to provide contract fabrication services.

In the 1970s, no academic program in orthotics or prosthetics existed in Québec. Carol Pouliot therefore trained in Europe and South America in what is now known as orthotic technology.

As his expertise grew, Carol Pouliot moved beyond contract work to deliver orthotic services directly to patients. The hallmarks of his reputation — custom foot orthotics and exclusively imported orthopedic shoes — remain at the heart of Pouliot Orthopédique's offering today.

In 1987, he opened a custom-shoe department, a field in which Pouliot Orthopédique is now an undisputed leader, with clients across Canada under the Pouliot and Afana Pouliot brands. The company operates one of the best last-design technologies on the market and continuously invests in technological and operational innovation.

During those same years, the product line expanded into compression — first compression stockings for patients with venous disorders, and over time the full range of compression garments, including those for patients living with lymphedema and lipedema.

In 2001, Carol Pouliot sold the business to its current owners, Hélène and Marc-André Bisson. The brother-and-sister team took the reins of a company that was running a branch in Gatineau alongside its head office in Sainte-Foy.

Today, the company operates two branches in Québec City — in Sillery–Sainte-Foy and in Lebourgneuf — and a permanent clinic in Winnipeg dedicated exclusively to custom footwear.

Hélène and Marc-André Bisson are also co-owners of Laboratoire Pierre Marchildon in Montréal and, more recently — with partner Naïla Nehme — of Laboratoire Génération Confort and Actimed Blainville in Blainville. Pouliot Orthopédique also serves the Côte-Nord region through outreach clinics in Sept-Îles and Baie-Comeau.

Pouliot Orthopédique is an authorized supplier to the Canadian Department of National Defence and to several Québec municipalities for custom shoes and boots, as well as to a number of large international companies.

The company specializes in foot orthotics, lower-limb orthotics — including AFOs and custom Arizona-style ankle orthoses — and small upper-limb appliances. It is also a benchmark in the sale and fitting of prefabricated orthopedic shoes.

Pouliot Orthopédique enjoys an unblemished reputation with payers (CNESST, SAAQ, MESS, Veterans Affairs Canada, Indigenous Services Canada, and others), private insurers, prescribers, colleagues — and, we dare say, competitors as well.