Kifidis

The story of the Kifidis brand actually begins in a railway company. Tanaş Kifidis, the founder of the Kifidis brand, worked as a chief mechanic in a French-owned railway company at the end of the 19th century. After the company was nationalised, Tanaş Kifidis was looking for a new line of work and while thinking about it, he consulted his close friend Dr. Gurneos, a famous surgeon of the time. Dr Gurneos, who knew Kifidis’ technical skills, asked him to build a device for one of his patients as a test. This is how Tanash Kifidis started making technical devices to help people. He was delighted when the devices proved useful and decided to study abroad to develop this business. Kifidis received technical training in prosthetics and orthotics in Germany, and when he returned to Turkey, he became the first officially certified prosthetics and orthotics technician in Turkey. In 1919, Tanaş Kifidis decided to establish Istanbul’s first orthotic and prosthetic clinic in Galatasaray, Istanbul, under the name of “Kifidis Orthopedics”, opened his clinic, and his reputation spread when he fitted a member of the Ottoman dynasty with prostheses.

Tanaş Kifidis, who places great value on education, is determined to ensure that both of his sons receive an education in this field. Both sons were educated first at the German Gymnasium and then in Germany. After the First World War, when many people were crippled, Germany undertook serious research in this field and became the world leader in orthopaedics. When the sons returned to Turkey as specialists, they took over the business, but after a while there was a disagreement between them and they opened their new companies, one as “Modern Orthopedics” in the street of the Yeni Melek cinema and the other as “Turkish Orthopedics” in the Olivo Passage. After a while, Hristo Kifidis ran into a problem with the name “Turk” being banned under the name law and changed the name of the company to “Kifidis Orthopedics”. Kifidis, whose work has led to developments in the field, establishes the first technical orthopaedic workshop in Turkey at the Çapa Medical Faculty together with Akif Şakir Şakar.

From 1919 until the 1970s, Kifidis was the most famous orthotic and prosthetic company in Turkey. Hristo’s son, Tanaş, who started working for the company, married Efriz, the sister of the current chairman, Laki V. Vasiliadis, and emigrated from Turkey at that time. After sending his wife and children to Athens, Tanaş stayed for a while to rebuild the company. During this rebuilding process, he sought the help of Mr Laki, who lives in Paris. Mr Laki, who lives in Paris and has a degree in International Relations from the Hautes Etudes International University, actually dreams of becoming a journalist. But when his sister comes to his aid, he cannot resist and comes to Turkey to take over the business. Thus began a new era for the Kifidis brand.

The arrival of Laki Vasiliadis in Turkey and his takeover of the business revitalised the brand and prevented its closure.

Although both the business and Istanbul were new to Laki Bey, who was not familiar with the technical details of the business, as an energetic young man of twenty-five he travelled to Paris to receive training in the field and worked for a while in Tanaş’s brother’s studio, gaining the knowledge and experience he needed. 

From 1919 to 1975, Kifidis was a bespoke shoemaker, but after 1975, Laki Vasiliadis, a businessman and a man in love with his work, began fundamental reforms in the company. Laki Vasiliadis, who was open to innovation while preserving tradition, decided to continue his business and commercial logic by producing not only orthopaedic but also anatomic shoes. Laki Vasiliadis, who made some firsts during this period, explained that compression stockings should be applied according to pressure and not according to size, based on the training he had received in Germany. He also spread the knowledge in Turkey that anatomical shoes should be soft and not hard, contrary to popular belief, and created the concept of the first step shoe during this period. According to Laki Vasiliadis, Kifidis sells complementary elements needed by medicine, which is why he describes their business as “we are the spare parts dealers of the human body”. The Kifidis brand, which Laki Vasiliadis has developed with great dedication over many years, has become a brand known in the market for its healthy shoes, as well as a brand with a very wide range of products, offering all kinds of medical products. In Kifidis shops you can find all kinds of medical products, from crutches to trolleys, from insoles to waist corsets, from compression stockings to various physical and rehabilitation products. The most important issue that Kifidis has as its mission is to ensure that the value given to human health does not fall below the standards. That is why Kifidis is a brand that is constantly renewing itself. Laki Vasiliadis and the fourth generation of the brand, Marianna Vasiliadis and Viron Vasiliadis, together with their core staff, continue to develop the Kifidis brand as a dynamic organisation that keeps up with fashion trends.

Kifidis is one of those rare and special institutions that have managed to combine the modesty of the past with the innovation of the future. This success earned Kifidis the distinction of being the first medical company to be included in the Istanbul Encyclopaedia. Today, Kifidis continues to touch our lives with its wide network of stores and distributors and its slogan “Products that make your life easier”.