Surprise!

Igor Gets Help On Anderson Cooper’s Show

May 29, 2012 -- 2:00 PM


MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The tallest man in America, who lives in Rochester, Minn., was on Anderson Cooper’s daytime talk show Tuesday morning.

Igor Vovkivinskiy is 7 feet, 8 inches tall, and got national attention after WCCO’s Holly Wagner did a story in March about his inability to find shoes that fit his feet.

He needed a new pair of shoes because of all the foot surgeries he had to endure because of his height.

Since the story ran, an online fundraiser helped him raise more than $45,000, and Reebok pledged to make him a custom pair of basketball sneakers free of cost.

In addition to that, Igor planned to order dress shoes and sandals.

On Tuesday, talk show host Cooper found more people to help him out, including a business that specializes in custom orthotics and shoes. They provided Igor with a pair of dress shoes as well as another pair of athletic shoes.

“That’s probably going to be the first time in 15 years where I’ll have a choice of what to wear,” said Igor.

Also on the show, a tailor promised to make Igor $10,000 worth of custom-made clothes. He was also given a new $12,000 dollar mattress to fit his tall frame.

Igor also talked about his future plans on the show.

Ideally, i would like to be a paralegal. I got interested in politics and law in general and I would just like to be at a point in my life where I don’t have constant pain, I don’t have to worry about walking places. And paralegal is really what I want to do,” he said.