Orthosole insoles

OrthoSole insoles

          A few months ago I wrote a short blog about superfeet insoles, this week I am going to write about their main rivals, OrthoSole. I was actually given a pair by the OrthoSole rep for free at the place I work and whilst I stick by my superfeet I thought I would at least give these a try and see if there was any real difference, there is one major difference between these and the superfeet but I will come onto this later, the first difference to note is the heel cup, on the superfeet they are rigid plastic, on the OrthoSole this heel cup is much softer, this makes it easier to bed down and makes it feel more comfortable underfoot straight away.

there is also a sizeable pad pad directly under the heel to cushion heel strike which the superfeet do not have as they use the body`s natural fat pad to cushion heel strike.

 moving to the front of the insole under the ball of the foot and the toes the insole itself is nearly twice as thick as the superfeet which did cause a few problems when I put them in my shoes as it forced my foot up into the very top and made my foot very uncomfortable, luckily this didn`t happen in my boots and so they remained in these for the duration, having twice as much padding does provide a more comfortable feel underfoot but may push your foot up the same as it did mine.

A couple of other things that OrthoSoles have an advantage over superfeet is that they can be bought straight from the shelf and do not have to fitted to your heel or have any part ground down to fit the shoe.

           The unique selling point of the OrthoSoles is the fact that the arch support and mid foot support can be customised to how you want and when you buy them all of the pieces to do this are (usually) included, these range from light through to firm support (not all of these pieces came with my insoles but I can`t complain as they were free).

The soles themselves have a recess to allow the pieces to fit and have velcro to prevent the pieces from falling off, to compare them to the superfeet I used the firmest of the pieces.

          So how do they actually compare? well being softer than the superfeet they were comfortable straight away and they had no breaking in period so "pebble under the foot" sensation and they certainly provided the same support as the superfeet insoles, however about an hour or so of using them the edge of the left insole started pinching the sole of my foot against the side of my boot which became more irritating as time went on this of course could lead to all sorts of issues in the future, the other thing I found with the OrthoSoles is although they don`t need it, my pair could probably do with some trimming to fit properly in my boots.

          Overall I am not entirely convinced by OrthoSoles and will be sticking to Superfeet for the time being, this doesn`t mean that they don`t work or aren`t any good, they may indeed work for you the only way to find out is to try them.  

            

          One more piece of information is OrthoSoles can be used by people who have a range of foot problems, although it is best to consult a podiatrist before using them as they may not be suitable.

follow the link below to go to the Lone Wolf Mobile Bushcraft website:
www.lwbcfs.com