Cushioned Insoles

What does the cushioning on an insole do?

Aside from giving your feet a nice surface to rest on, the cushioning on an insole does a couple of important things:

1. It helps alleviate pressure on the foot by absorbing some of the weight and strain that your feet experience when standing and walking. If you're wearing an arch support insole, this in turn helps the support even better distribute the pressure since the cushioning will have already absorbed some of it, and even without a support your feet will feel less tired than they would have otherwise.
2. It helps mitigate impact shock by providing a shock-absorbing layer between your foot and a hard surface. Whenever you walk, and especially when you run or jump, you place a momentary shock on the foot when you place your foot down and when you push off. Over time, this can lead to soreness, fatigue, and even some painful foot conditions like heel spurs. By absorbing some of this, however, your feet will take less of the brunt of the shock.

Whenever you step into a pair of shoes with good cushioning, you've probably made note of how good it feels. This is because of the pressure relief that the cushioning provides, made even better by the fact that any impact shock takes a lot more to "punch through" the cushioning to get to your foot.

More cushioning is better, then?

Not necessarily. When it comes to cushioning, there's always a trade-off between the benefits of cushioning vs. how much volume the insole will take up inside your shoes. While it's easy to say that more cushioning equals more comfort, in reality that's only true so long as your feet can comfortably fit into your shoes. If your insoles are overly cushioned and take up too much volume, you'll find that wearing them will be uncomfortable.

A little bit of cushioning can go a long way, especially when it comes to everyday wear & use. If you're simply running a few errands or just going to be on your feet for a brief bit of time, a moderately-cushioned insole tends to be completely sufficient. And even for high-impact activities such as running or basketball, we typically recommend a moderate amount of cushioning for pressure relief supplemented by strike padding for shock absorption only where you need it the most.

So when would you want maximum cushioning, then? This tends to be best for those who have plenty of room in their shoes, those who spend long periods of time standing, and those who have already found that a moderate amount of cushioning simply doesn't do the trick. However, we always want you to ensure that you have plenty of room for your foot in your shoes first!

Our general rule of thumb is that your insole should have some cushioning, and also that you should never sacrifice fit for cushioning. If that means that you have only moderate cushioning because your shoes are only moderately roomy, that typically is what will work best.

If I have plenty of cushioning, do I still need arch support?

Again, this depends. In most cases, though, we find that a combination of support and cushioning provides the best results in terms of foot comfort. While cushioning alone will help to absorb some of the pressure on your feet, an arch support will distribute the remainder so that no one part of your foot is bearing the brunt of this pressure. Just like how an arch support without any cushioning would still distribute pressure without absorbing any of the pressure, a cushioned insole without support will still absorb some pressure without properly distributing the remainder.

When we think about comfort, we tend to think of a triangle with each of the three corners representing Support, Cushioning, and Fit. Our goal is to find an insole that provides good support, good cushioning, and which fits well. While it's admittedly more complicated than this, it's a good starting point to help visualize what goes into determining what makes an insole comfortable. For most people, a combination of support and cushioning is ideal.