Handok (Chairman & CEO Young-jin Kim, Vice President Jin-ki Paik) will launch the “Dang-Dang Walking Challenge” with Big Walk to mark World Diabetes Day. The Dang-Dang Walking Challenge, to continue until December 9, 2020, is an online charity event open to anyone who is interested in “donating” their footsteps. The number of footsteps taken by the participant is donated to support diabetic patients in need.

The Dang-Dang Walking Challenge is part of the “Dynamic Walking to Overcome Diabetes (Dang-Dang Walking) Campaign”. This Campaign was launched in 2009 to raise awareness about the importance of controlling diabetes on a daily basis and need for footcare to avoid foot ulcers. Foot ulcers are a common complication experienced by four in ten diabetic patients and can become fatal because even a small wound can lead to amputation.

Taking Covid-19 into consideration, Handok will launch an online footsteps donation challenge this year. Participants can install the “Big Walk” app on their mobile devices to measure their footsteps and donate them to the Dang-Dang Walking Challenge. When the target of 100 million footsteps, which signifies walking once around the entire globe, is reached, Handok will present patients fighting against diabetes in underprivileged environments with “Dang-Dang Walking Socks”.

Dang-Dang Walking Socks were specially manufactured by Handok and the sock brand “I Hate Monday” for diabetic patients who need to wear socks every day to prevent foot ulcers. Based on advice by medical professionals and nurses, the socks boast functionality and design designed especially for diabetic patients. The socks have minimal ankle pressure for these patients whose feet are easily swollen, and the target blood sugar level (HbA1c 6.5%) was used as a design. The socks come in bright cheery colors that make it easy to check for wounds. The Dang-Dang Walking Socks launched this year come in two types and may be purchased at the Everyday Health website (www.everydayhealth.co.kr) operated by Handok. Sales profits will be put toward diabetic patients in need.

Handok has been committed to becoming a total diabetes solution company for more than 40 years since first launching its diabetic treatment Daonil in 1973. It also offers a variety of diabetes items, including Amaryl, Tenelia, Suglat, and Glarzia, the blood glucose monitor Barozen, and the Medtronic continuous glucose monitoring system. Handok developed and continues to operate the industry’s first-ever “Essential Guideline for Diabetes Management (EGDM)”, an educational program on management of diabetes. Since 2009, it has been hosting the Dang-Dang Walking Campaign to support diabetic patients and has presented specially designed shoes to 610 diabetic patients. Handok began producing Dang-Dang Walking Socks in 2019 and has since presented them to some 1,200 elderly patients living alone with diabetes.