I have always had a problem finding shoes with sufficient arch support (and toe box room). Recently I’ve started wearing Keen hiking shoes and they come very close to solving my shoe fit problems completely. The low tops are so comfortable that I now use them for everyday wear. However, their mid-rise hiking shoes felt too pronated. I was advised by the salesman (at REI) to try the Sole Softec insoles, so I did. I wear a 9 1/2 or a 10 depending on the shoe – so I bought the men’s 9 1/2 to 10 size insole and followed the instructions for heating and forming them in my boots exactly. Here’s what I discovered.
I first trimmed the soles so that they fit in my shoes. I did this using the Keen insoles as a guide. That worked well. I put the soles into the boots before heating them to see how they felt – I wanted to get a feel for how the heating and forming process changed the soles. The support hit me too far behind the arch on the inside of the heel. That was uncomfortable. I heated them according to the instructions, put them into my boots and stood in them for about five minutes. Nothing changed. At least I could not feel a change. So I wore them for two days to let my foot adjust. That didn’t help, so I tried the heating process again. Again no detectable change or improvement. Nonetheless, I wore them for 3 more days with no improvement in comfort and again tried the heating process. The support was simply in the wrong place. I flew to Seattle and wore them walking around Seattle for a couple of days. I then went to Glacier National Park and wore them while carrying a pack on the Highline and Loop trail (fantastic hiking). The insoles retained the original problem – the support was too far back on my foot – it was not under my arch where I needed it – it was under the inside of my heel. So I switched back to the Keen insoles and then hiked from Lake McDonald to Sperry Glacier and then out over Gunsight Pass, about 20 miles of rugged and spectacular terrain. My feet felt much better and the Softec soles won’t be going back into my boots.
Obviously, they weren’t so bad I couldn’t walk in them, but I gave them more than enough chance to work and they made my feet hurt throughout the process due to the misplaced distribution of the support. I had hoped that the heat forming process would form the support to my foot. It did not and, in fact, I could not detect any customizing of the fit.
You can check my story for yourself. Just look at the heel in the Sole Softec insoles. You can see that the inside of the heel well right behind the arch is too high. It’s not a rounded heel well. There is a visible bump where the inside/forward part of you heel will be – and that won’t come out as the result of their heat forming process.

I’m in the Army and I run about 15~20 miles a week. My normal run is minimum of 3 miles and goes up to 10 miles. I run different routes everyday of the week and some are on paved streets and some are on dirt trails. My running shoes are Asics GT-2090 and 2100. I have normal arches and never had a foot problem until about 4 years ago when I first had plantar fasciitis and pain at the bottom of my heel. At that time, I had to stop running for 3 ~ 4 months and get a custom made footbed/sole for my combat boots from a doctor. But I hesitated running longer distance since then, until I found this product early 2004. Before that, I’ve tried probably at least 10 different types from Dr. Scholes products to gel pads, etc.

This product forms to the shape of your feet. So, I use this exclusively, for my combat boots, my running shoes, and my hiking boots. Earlier this year, I consulted Army podiatrist and she basically told me that this is probably the best one I can use short of getting more custom made soles from the hospital. But compared to the custom made soles I had, I find this product more comfortable. It provides a very good support.

This is really easy to use. You simply have to heat it up in an oven to make it malleable, take it out and slip it in your shoes and stand on it with your weight evenly distributed for a couple of minutes. It’s much faster than trying to go see a podiatrist and waiting and getting custom made soles.

Bottom line is that even though this costs about half as much as my running shoes, this is well worth it. Definitely recommended.

Just got my Spenco’s yesterday:

Pros: deep heel cup, decent arch support, snug fitting straps that keep the sandal in place, barely feels like you are wearing shoes!

Cons: the arch is not as high as I am used to in the Orthaheels and they are a light shoe and there is not much shock absorption under the heel

I have decided to keep these purely as a house shoe – good to put on first thing when getting out of bed.