So after suffering for months with plantar fasciitis that has not responded to stretches, ice, or heel cups, I started searching for inserts. None of the inserts in local shoe or sporting goods stores came up high enough to touch my arch, so I ordered 3 of the top rated plantar fasciitis inserts of Amazon: Spenco, Tread Labs, and Easyfeet. For reference I have a high arch, narrow heel, and fat toes. I have been wearing size 7 Sketchers (probably why I have the plantar fasciitis in the first place, the arch support in Sketchers is a joke…). Spenco Total Support Max: “Padding” under the front of the foot is hard. “Padding” in the heel is hard. Arch support is hard plastic, no give. I would call it a medium high support, about as high as the off-the-shelf inserts at the local sporting goods store (does NOT come up high enough to touch my arch). Did not fit into my shoes without trimming. Did not feel like they provided any arch support while in the shoe. Also did not feel like they provided any padding, felt hard. I got the impression that if I tried doing a day at work with these in my shoes (I work in an urgent care clinic) I would have VERY sore feet after a few hours (didn’t test this though, since of the three these were definitely the least comfortable and I knew right away they would be getting returned). Verdict on the Total Support Max: Total fail, no Support, Max discomfort. 2. Tread Labs Ramble “High”: Softest padding of the three, the padding at the front of the foot is definitely much softer than the others. Padding in the heel cup is also fairly soft. Arch support is hard plastic, no give, but the padding makes it feel soft. These have the interesting feature that the hard plastic arch is velcroed to the padding, I guess so you can save money by just replacing the pad rather than the whole insert. It DOES come up high enough that I can feel it touching my arch and giving me some support. They fit into my size 7 Sketchers without needing to be trimmed. They were immediately comfortable to walk on. No feeling of needing to be broken in. Moved them to my size 7 Brooks (which I bought in an attempt to heal the plantar fasciitis since it was clearly just getting worse in the Sketchers). In the Brooks I was able to notice a small pad between the arch and the ball of the foot, which was not uncomfortable but felt a bit strange and took some getting used to. The next day wore the Brooks with the Thread Labs inserts to work. After about 30 minutes I no longer noticed that little pad just behind the ball of the foot. Overall the Thread Labs kept my plantar fasciitis down to a bearable level. What I noticed while wearing these during the day is that they helped prevent my foot from supinating (I have always been a bad supinator, I always wear my shoes out along the outer edge). The following morning my heel pain was there but was less than before. Verdict: Going to keep them. They seem to be helping the plantar fasciitis, and have the bonus of reducing my supination issue. Comfortable to walk on / no break in period. 3. Easyfeet Orthotic Sports insoles with hard arch support: Padding under the front of the foot is hard, almost as hard as the Spenco. Padding in the heel cup is midway between the Spenco and Tread Labs in firmness. Arch support is hard plastic but unlike the others it has some give and flexes a little. It DOES come up high enough to touch my arch, but on this one the arch seems to be placed farther back and it rubs agains my heel but does not support the front part of my arch well (a bit uncomfortable). They slipped into my size 7 Sketchers without needing to be trimmed. Once in the shoes the arch seemed to have better placement, with a bit more overall support but with pressure points at the front and back of my arch. For some reason every time I took a step in these I felt a stabbing pain in the ball of my foot on the side with the big toe. Tried walking around for a while but it did not lessen. Switched them to my size 7 Brooks walking shoes. Still got the weird sensation of pressure at the front and back of the arch with lack of support in the middle/top of the arch. Also noticed even more the stabbing pain at the front of the arch (medial and just proximal to the distal end of the 1st metatarsal), which was an even stronger pain in the quality Brooks then in the cheap Sketchers. I had planned to take these for a test walk outside but the stabbing pain was so unnerving that I decided to just put the inserts back in the box and return them.
