As someone who suffers a lot from foot pain, I can tell you that insoles have been a saving grace. The arch support they give goes a long way to significantly ease pain in the foot, ankles and even in my back. It is amazing how the feet are connected to other parts of the body and when the feet are not happy, you are definitely going to feel it elsewhere.
Finding the right insole is not always easy though and sometimes, you end up getting support where you do not need support. Which is why I was particularly excited to try Soul Insoles. They are insoles unlike any you’ve ever seen before. It was certainly my first experience with an insole made from gel pads. This soul insoles review attempts to lay out my experience, including the parts that were not so thrilling.
What exactly are Soul Insoles?
The Soul Insole is a small orthotic gel pad that can be slipped inside footwear to give increased support. What makes these insoles unique is that they can be used in every shoe, and I mean EVERY shoe including sandals and flip-flops because they stick to surfaces.
According to the makers, Soul Insole uses the existing structure of the shoe to increase support to your arch. So if you use it in a shoe already has some form of arch support, it will feel different from when you use it in one that has no support. These insoles are also supposed to do the following:
- Add support and offload pressure for all-day comfort
- Work perfectly for high arches and for flat feet alike
- Stay firmly in place, yet can be moved from shoe to shoe
- Promote good balance and alignment for all day
- Save hundreds and have support in the shoes you actually wear
- Is made of Medical Grade Gel: anti-shock, high elasticity, antibacterial, odorless, soft, flexible, smooth, clear color, maintains shape, long life expectancy
- Is washable and reusable – if soiled, just rinse with water and set out to dry – stickiness renews
It is also great for athletes, any person who works on their feet and people experiencing any type of foot, let or back pains like plantar fasciitis, over-pronation, Morton’s neuroma, metatarsalgia, heel pain, heel spurs, joint pain, arthritis, flat feet and high arches.
Even if you don’t work standing on your feet all day, as long as you walk anywhere, you will benefit from good insoles.
But do you really need Soul Insoles? Read on to decide for yourself.
Comfort
Soul Insoles are small and do not crowd your shoes. Unlike some other insoles for plantar fasciitis, you don’t have to suffer with shoes that are suddenly too small, thanks to the insoles. If you suffer from plantar fasciitis, then you will appreciate the soothing comfort from these insoles. And repeated use really does heal the pain in your foot.
They worked quite well with different shoes including the tennis shoes, slippers and office shoes. It felt really nice to have arch support with slippers, especially when walking on hard tiles. Even though these insoles are soft and a small size, they don’t move around in your shoe.
Also, they come in three handy sizes; small, medium and large, which makes it easy to find your size.
Easy to Use
These insoles are pretty easy to use. Once you take them from the packaging, it’s just a matter of sticking them onto the shoe you want to wear. They are small and so don’t crowd your shoe so you can position them wherever you want in order to achieve the best support.
Probably because they are so small, they feel a bit strange the first time you use them and take some getting used to. But the makers recommend that you take some time breaking them in, so you should keep that in mind.
The size of the insoles also has a flipside. Because they are quite small, it takes a while to position them perfectly. So you might have to play around with it a few times before you get the right position on both feet. The good news is that they are sticky so you can remove them and stick them back on, no problem.
Placing them inside the shoes is pretty straightforward. However, once it got cold outside and I took out my winter boots, I found that figuring out the optimal placement in them is a bit frustrating. Why? The reason was two-fold. My boots did not have removable insoles and they had their zippers on the back. While this is not a common problem, I figured that there might be other people who can benefit of a solution. So I turned to the creator of the Soul Insoles herself, Laina Gossman.
I asked her for tips on how to a) place them correctly in boots without removable insoles and b) match the placement of the insoles. Here is her reply:
It can take a few times to get used to placing them and with practice it becomes easy. One tip, once you find the perfect placement, mark it with a pen so that when you take them off to clean them or move them to another shoe, you will more easily find the same placement again. The insoles can feel slightly different in each shoe, and sometimes will need to be placed in a slightly different spot in each shoe depending on how the shoe is constructed. This can be challenging in the beginning, to find the spot, but in the end, it’s a real benefit because you will have the ability to have the support in the perfect spot in each shoe.
Boots without removable insoles are a bit more difficult for placement, but once you get used to placing them, these types of shoes feel so much more comfortable with the Shoe Bubbles inside. A simpler way to place them into boots without removable insoles is to hold it by the inner and outer edges, curled like a taco. Make sure the pointy corner (the point that is at the inner edge, closest to the heel) is at the crease where the base of the shoe meets the inner wall of the shoe so that the inner wing of the insole curves up the inner wall of the shoe. Make sure there that the insole is about halfway between the front and back of the shoe so that it’s not directly under the ball of the foot or the heel. If you have a very difficult time with placement, and if your shoes have room for a little cushion, you can always stick the orthotics to a thin liner and slide the liner with the orthotic in and out of the boots more easily.
To match the placement of the insoles, you can find the best placement of one side and measure and mark your shoes. Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I’m always happy to help.
Best Regards,
Laina
Stickiness
How sticky are Soul Insoles? This is a very important question as the stickiness of the product is one major advantage these insoles have over others. While you don’t need to stick full size insoles such as Powerstep, Superfeet or Spenco full size insoles, with insert pieces this is a must.
The Soul insoles shoe bubbles are really sticky and you can easily remove them from one shoe and transfer them to another shoe, which is something you can’t really do with other insoles. After a while however, you might begin to notice that the insoles are not very sticky anymore.
There is a solution for this though. The makers suggest using water to thoroughly rinse the insoles and it should be as sticky as ever once the dirt is washed off. But does this work, really?
Actually, to my surprise, it really does work. If you notice that your insoles are losing their stickiness, simply wash them with water. You should not use soap or detergent because the insoles don’t seem to do too well around those. You might end up losing their stickiness.
Conclusion
Soul Insoles are not for everyone for the simple reason that we all have different types of feet. However, if you discover that you could do with added arch support or you are suffering from any form of foot pain, then you will enjoy these soles.
They are small, easy to use and reusable. They take the pressure off your heels without crowding your shoe, which means you can enjoy the benefits of using insoles without having to go out and buy another pair of shoes in a larger size.
Overall, does it do what it says it does? What I can tell you for sure is that Soul Insole definitely delivers on its promises. Like the vast majority of people who have tried Soul Insole, I wouldn’t ever want to be without mine. They definitely make life easier, less painful and more comfortable.
