As a Pedorthist – I spend a lot of time thinking about feet. They are the foundation of your body and carry you every step of the way. It's my mission to make sure that my patients' pain and fatigue is reduced as much as possible. Most people experience pain from long days working on their feet, high impact exercise – as well as poor fitting footwear. However – this doesn’t mean that everyone requires a custom orthotic designed by a professional like myself.
Shoes are a good starting point for pain relief, especially if your shoes are showing signs of wear, are more than a year old and used on a daily basis, or causing you discomforts you never experienced before. Keep in mind to look for shoes that suit your activity and choose function over form. Other options include ready-made insoles such as Superfeet – that are designed to improve the feel of your shoes by providing heel stability and some arch support. The problem however with an off-the-shelf insole is that they are not necessarily made for you. The next level is a custom or corrective foot orthotic – that can generally be prescribed by a medical doctor and then completed by a pedorthist like me.
Every foot – person to person, and even left to right – is totally different. Off-the-shelf inserts cannot account for that. Sure – you can come in to see someone like me and I can recommend a ready-made insole that might be suitable – but our partners at FitMyFoot have taken this a step further with custom insoles that you can capture using a smart phone in your very own living room.
They are hence able to capture an accurate image of your medial (inner) arches that will provide you with a device that offers support to an area that can cause a significant amount of foot fatigue. The fatigue being a direct result of excessive arch collapse causing muscle overload. Their device's proprietary heel design is also really thin and fits in most shoes. With a lowered heel cup, there is bio-mechanical neutrality allowing your stride to impact the ground as it is supposed to.
Some people with more severe foot issues are definitely in need of a corrective orthotic and will require the face-to-face interaction with a specialist – but there is a large portion of the population that will do just fine with some additional support.
FitMyFoot has two insole types available for you to choose from. Comfort, which is available in high or low-medium arch support, and Comfort Plus, which is fully customized to fit your feet. Either way – we are here to help you walk a mile in your own shoes.
