Shoe Inserts-Yay or Nay (Read 985 times)

At least they have whiskey at the synagogue. For real.

What kind of mixers, or is it just straight up or on the rocks? I knew I selected the wrong faith.

Tell him about the pricking. That sort of ruined it for me.

Sorry to interrupt a cozy conversation between two monkeys and get back to the original poster's inquiry (;o))... Everybody's feet are different; and almost every shoe, or I should say, every different model of the shoe, are slightly different. If the shoe fits your foot completely; then there's nothing to worry about but it ain't work out that way almost 99% of the time. I'm a huge advocate of Japanese marathon racing flats (almost minimalist). I love them and I have about a half a dozen pairs of some different kinds. They have just a thin flat insole; no arch supporter, no nothing. The idea is; they fit so well that you shouldn't need any of that. Well, I happen to have rather narrow heel as a Japanese and these shoe's heel are a bit too wide for me. Plus, my arch seems to be a bit higher also and, without a bit of beefing up, there would be some space between my arch and where the arch part of the shoe is. To fill out these gaps, I usually remove this thin insole (they are glued) and replace that with more or less conventional insole from other shoe. I have 2 or 3 boxes-full of old insole from various shoes. When I get a new pair, I switch these around until I find a good fit. My right foot is very slightly smaller than my left and sometimes I get two different types of insole from left and right shoe. So sometimes I take my shoes off and you see a yellow insole in my right shoe and green insole in my left! ;o) I guess the point is; keep any of old insole from previous shoes; switch them around, play it around till you get a good fit. I just don't assume ANY shoe straight from the box will fit perfectly on your feet (both right and left). You DO need some adjustment. It's a given. I don't like too much build-up around the arch area because then they start to rub and may cause some blister; but at the same time, you don't want too much extra space because, then the shoe is not perfectly fit and that extra space may cause some premature break-down of the shoe--it's like you have this extra flab. I do know those SuperFeet products--I remember getting together and talking with them way before they are as popular as they are now; this must have been some 10+ years ago. They sent me some samples and I liked them a lot. I like the idea of those "U" shape plastic reinforcement around the heel. The only thing I didn't like about them is, in general, their shape is too straight. I prefer shoe that's slightly curved and quite often they didn't fit. When the shoe is too straight, which a lot of so-called training shoes seem to be; there'd be extra gap between your feet and the shoe because, primarily, your feet are banana-shape (curved). Shoe manufacturer (I think the one shoe first came up with this was Bill Bowerman) made their shoe straight for "stability"; to prevent feet from "over-pronating". It might have worked IF they have extra build-up around the arch area to enhance control of feet rolling medially. Well, if the shoe is straight but nothing to support the arch, this concept is not going to work. The bottom line is; you shouldn't have any pressure point when you slip the shoe on; and also you shouldn't have too much "extra gap" between shoe and foot. You do need some because foot is going to move around and also expand, depending on the individual, some. But any extra distinct gap would cause unnecessary friction; premature break-down of the shoe; and wiggling (unstability) of the foot. And they (extra gap) would have to be filled somehow. Am I making sense at all?

Two years ago I was having achilles tendonitis issues. I started using inserts and felt it helped me overcome the problem. This spring I was having achilles tendonitis issues again. I stopped using inserts and felt it helped me overcome the problem. I've been running for years and I still haven't figured any of this stuff out yet.