Insoles & Inserts

About Insoles & Inserts

What are the different kinds of insoles available?

Insoles come in a large variety of shapes and sizes, and they are designed for a large variety of usages, as well. At a glance, however:

• Shoe insoles are either full-length or 3/4-length. Full-length insoles are designed to completely replace your existing shoe insole and will fit from heel to toe inside your shoes. 3/4-length insoles, on the other hand, are designed to sit on top of your existing shoe insole and only cover the heel and midfoot.
• Shoe insoles either offer arch support or no support. Arch support insoles help support and align the foot and are the preferred option for many in order to provide additional foot support, prevent foot injury, alleviate foot pain, and treat existing foot conditions. Insoles without support (known as sock liners or replacement insoles) are designed simply separate your foot from the unfinished bottom of the inside of your shoes, and sometimes to provide a little extra cushioning.
  • Arch support insoles come in three different levels of firmness: Rigid arch supports offer extra-firm, inflexible arch support. Flexible arch supports offer light & completely flexible arch support. Semi-rigid arch supports offer semi-firm yet semi-flexible arch support and are the most popular type.
  • Arch support insoles also are designed to suit the shape of your foot arch. Medium arch insoles are designed to best suit medium/neutral-arched feet, while high arch insoles work best for high-arched feet and low arch insoles work best for low-arched feet. Don't know your arch type? There's an easy at-home method to find out!
• Insoles can also vary based on the materials they're made from, how much cushioning they offer, whether or not they have strike padding, and other extra features. Our Insole Guide has a more in-depth breakdown of the types of insoles available and where to get started when shopping for your perfect insole.

How do I choose the best insole for me?

The first step is always to identify why you're looking for an insole. This might be for any number of reasons, but some common reasons are:

• To alleviate general foot discomfort.
• To provide more foot support during athletic activities.
• To address a foot condition, such as plantar fasciitis.
• To provide better foot alignment and control.
• To help your shoes fit better.
• To replace the worn-out insoles in your shoes.

This gives us a starting point for identifying the core features that we'd be looking for in your ideal insole. For example: If you suffer from plantar fasciitis, we know that you'd want an insole with a semi-rigid or rigid arch support, a moderate amount of cushioning, and good heel support. If you suffer from heel pain, however, we'd focus primarily on an insole with plenty of heel cushioning and heel strike padding, with arch support optional.

Our Insole Guide goes into this more in-depth, but we've also provided some good starting points for the most common foot pain and foot conditions as well as some of the most common activities and occupations. Simply choose the category that best describes your foot condition or activity and narrow your search from there based on your preferences.

Need additional help? Our Insole Selector can help quickly identify products that match your needs, or you can always contact us for a personalized product recommendation.

How are insoles sized? What are "trim-to-fit" insoles?

Most insoles are sized such that one size insole fits a range of shoe sizes. For example:

• A Superfeet size "D" insole covers men's shoe sizes 7½-9 as well as women's shoe sizes 8½-10.
• A PowerStep size "D" insole covers men's shoe sizes 7-7½ as well as women's shoe sizes 9-9½.
• A Spenco size "#3" insole covers men's shoe sizes 8-9 as well as women's shoe sizes 9-10.
• A Currex size "Medium" insole covers men's shoe sizes 7-8½ and women's shoe sizes 8½-10.

Note: Nearly all insoles are unisex, meaning that the insole will work equally as well in a women's shoe as it would in a men's shoe. Many brands list both the men's and women's shoe sizes that each size insole is compatible with.

When you see a size range for the insole size like those in the examples above, the insole is what we call "trim to fit." Out of the box, the insole should closely fit the largest shoe size compatible with that size insole (for the Superfeet size D, this would be a men's 9 shoe or women's 10 shoe). However, the forefoot of the insole is able to be trimmed so that it can be made to fit into smaller shoe sizes, down to the lowest listed compatible size.

Also: Even if you wear the largest listed size, please note that you still may want to trim the insole slightly. If your shoes have a slightly different toe shape than the insole, trimming the forefoot slightly to better match the shape of your shoes will help the insoles fit better and feel more comfortable.

Our help desk has additional information on the trim-to-fit process.

Should I size up or size down if I'm between sizes?

We recommend sizing up whenever the insoles are trimmable or 3/4-length. With a full-length, trimmable insole, this ensures that you can trim the insoles so that there's no gap between the end of the insole and the toe of the shoe, and with 3/4-length insoles sizing up tends to ensure the best fit.

For full-length insoles that are not trimmable, we recommend sizing down to the next closest size. If the insoles are too big, the tip of the insole will curl inside your shoes. Since non-trimmable insoles often come in whole-size increments, sizing down when you're between sizes means that there won't be too noticeable of a gap between the end of the insoles and the toe of your shoes.

Can I move my insoles between shoes?

We generally don't recommend doing this unless you're moving the insoles between two identical pairs of shoes. This is for two primary reasons:

1. All insoles will begin to conform to the shape of your foot and the shape of your shoe as you wear them (this process is called "wear-molding"). When you move an insole from one shoe to the other, it likely won't fit or feel as well since the insole had begun to mold to the shape of the first pair of shoes. While this may not be a big deal if you're simply moving from one pair to another pair permanently (the insoles will eventually mold to the second pair), switching shoes often could cause the insoles to not mold correctly or comfortably.
2. Most shoes (even those within the same brand/size) have slightly different shapes from one another. A men's size 10 New Balance sneaker likely has a different inside shape than a men's size 10 Nike sneaker, and even two different styles of New Balance sneakers in men's size 10 could be different. If your insole fits well in one pair of shoes (especially if it was trimmed to fit into those shoes), it probably won't fit as well in your second pair of shoes since the shape is different. We always recommend one insole per pair of shoes.

Will I need to "break in" my insoles?

This is largely dependent on your personal experience as well as the kind of insoles you purchase, but the short answer tends to be "yes." Most insoles, especially rigid and semi-rigid arch supports as well as insoles with stiffer cushioning, will require a short break-in period. For insoles like this, we typically recommend wearing them in your shoes for an hour or two a day for the first few days before wearing them full time.

That said, some people are able to wear their insoles full time from day 1 without any discomfort, and for others it may take a week or two for the insoles to break in. Our best recommendation is to simply try the insoles for a short period of time: if they're not causing discomfort, keep wearing them normally, and if they do cause discomfort to simply limit wear to a few hours for the first several days.