SOLE SECURITY: How GPS sneakers could be a solution for families facing Alzheimer’s

When Donald Rothrock was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2020, his family began to worry that one day he might wander off – as many people with the memory-destroying disease occasionally do.

So his family did some research on tracking devices. They looked at those designed specifically for people struggling with Alzheimer's, such as bracelets, watches and rings embedded with GPS technology.

Ultimately, Rothrock’s family bypassed all of those options in favor of a tracking device that is far more discreet and less likely to be forgotten – GPS insoles that could be placed in his shoes.

Rothrock – a former star quarterback in high school back in 1955 who almost went on to play for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels before he suffered a knee injury – initially didn’t want to wear the GPS insoles, his granddaughter Lila Grovic, a first-year psychology major at American University, recalled recently. But she said her grandfather ultimately agreed to start wearing them to give his family peace of mind.

The family set up a monitoring portal and “geozones,” which are virtual perimeters. If Rothrock ever stepped out of the perimeter, the GPS insoles would send an alert to his family.

“I’ve never seen my grandma so relieved,” Grovic told Sneaker Theory at a recent “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” event in Reston, Virginia. “If he left the area, my grandma would be notified and I think that just really took a load off.”

Rothrock – who passed away in 2022 – was one of what is now nearly seven million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s. About six out of every ten people with Alzheimer’s have wandered off at least once.

Are GPS insoles an effective way for people to prevent their loved ones who are living with Alzheimer’s from becoming lost?

Limitations seen

Lolita Nidadavolu, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, says while GPS insoles offer certain advantages, they’re not foolproof.

“These devices definitely have limitations,” Nidadavolu told Sneaker Theory.

On the upside, a tracking device in the form of a GPS sole is less likely to be forgotten than, say, a smartphone or smartwatch with GPS technology. 

“Shoes are something that people would generally wear,” Nidadavolu says. “So if your goal is to track someone, this would kind of achieve that goal.”

However, if the person decides to wear a different pair of shoes, then the GPS soles won’t be of any use.

“Are they going to wear that one set of shoes that you put the sole in?” Nidadavolu asks. 

She says another scenario – especially if it’s summertime – is a person with Alzheimer’s may wander off without wearing any shoes at all. Indeed, there have been cases when Alzheimer’s patients have wandered off barefoot. For instance, in August 2024, a 76-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s wandered off from her home in Brandon, Florida without wearing any shoes. She was located an hour or so later by a Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy with the help of a K-9.

“So I think it's not a foolproof kind of solution,” Nidadavolu says.

Beyond remembering to wear the shoes with the GPS soles, there are other practical considerations, such as durability and keeping the batteries charged.

Nidadavolu notes that there are also ethical considerations involved with using technology to track a person’s whereabouts.

“That is infringing a lot on kind of, like personhood and like the autonomy of person,” Nidadavolu says. “That doesn't mean that there aren't situations where it could be helpful, but I think that we should probably think twice and really, kind of having a family sit-down to see if it really is the best option is probably a good first step.”

In the case of Rothrock, wearing GPS SmartSoles actually made him feel more autonomous, according to Grovic, his granddaughter. 

“I think he felt like he was being coddled,” Grovic said about her grandfather before he started using GPS SmartSole.

The GPS SmartSole made its debut in 2012. The idea for the device was inspired by the 2002 kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted at age 14 and held hostage for nine months.

Other people at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s event in Reston, Virginia, told Sneaker Theory they wish they had known about GPS SmartSoles when their parents with Alzheimer’s were still alive.

Tracy Cheifetz attended the walk in honor of her mother, Amy Shimkus, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2013 and passed away in 2022. Shimkus worked as a cardiology nurse at Virginia Heart in Fairfax, Virginia but retired at age 68 when she started to forget things, a year before her diagnosis, Chiefetz says.

“She was really worried about forgetting patients' information and having it hurt someone,” Cheifetz said. “She was kind of devastated.”

During her retirement, Shimkus regularly walked with her family’s dog, Ribby, who had a GPS tracking device in his collar. Life360, a mobile tracking system, was also downloaded on Shimkus’ phone. But what about when Ribby wasn’t around or if she forgot her phone?

“The phone worked when she took her phone, the dog worked when she took the dog, but if she didn’t take either or someone else, she could’ve gotten lost,” Cheifetz said. “She would never have gone out without her shoes.”

Ellen Isaacson is a journalism major at the University of Maryland, College Park.