Footbeds' ideology

[sabestian]

I am wondering if there is someone knowledgeable enough to answer my simple question about footbeds: should they be corrective or just supportive? Or perhaps both if that's possible? I mean the ones you ride on, for people with posture problems.

I've had a few pairs done by couple of podiatrists, they are made for walking and correcting my posture. They are uncomfortable enough for me not try molding my liners around them... But I am getting foot pain when riding, so I need a solution of some kind.

I was thinking about making my own footbeds, based on silicone impression of my feet. They obviously would be just supportive in a passive way. I think this would work. The problem is that my thermo-liners are at the end of their life and I think this would be their last time so I have only one shot left. Opinions?

PS Merry Christmas!

[lafcadio]

I'm definitely no expert in this area, but from talking to bootfitters and a podiatrists friend, my guess is the answer will depend on the individual as every foot is different. What may be right for my feet, is probably not right for you. In fact, on some people, the difference between the left and right foot is significant.

[KingCrimson]

I am wondering if there is someone knowledgeable enough to answer my simple question about footbeds: should they be corrective or just supportive? Or perhaps both if that's possible? I mean the ones you ride on, for people with posture problems.

I've had a few pairs done by couple of podiatrists, they are made for walking and correcting my posture. They are uncomfortable enough for me not try molding my liners around them... But I am getting foot pain when riding, so I need a solution of some kind.

I was thinking about making my own footbeds, based on silicone impression of my feet. They obviously would be just supportive in a passive way. I think this would work. The problem is that my thermo-liners are at the end of their life and I think this would be their last time so I have only one shot left. Opinions?

PS Merry Christmas!

I made my own footbeds. The balls of my feet are essentially right on the boot board.

I put excessive arch support. My 29.5 cm feet fit in 27.5 shells with 27 liners. It's fun! I think load bearing footbeds are important in snowboarding so you can use smaller shells.

[Hans]

They both are supportive, and corrective if you have a flat forefoot like most of the northeuropeans have here (source: my orthopedist who made hundreds of footbeds for professional soccerplayers here).

[scrapster]

I think supportive and corrective go together. For example, typical orthotics for flat feet focus on correcting the heel (or heel post) so that the alignment of the entire foot is correct. Simply trying to support a flat arch without correcting the heel would be a recipe for pain. It would feel like you had a golf ball under your arch.

Funny thing, my last podiatrist swore to me that orthotics made absolutely no difference in hard shell boots because the foot is essentially locked into place and not moving. Of course, he was neglecting the fact that a misshapen foot will affect how well a boot fits in the first place. Still, there may be a grain of truth to it. If a boot is wide enough for my severely pronated feet, I can sometimes ride all day without orthotics and be perfectly comfortable. There's no way I can do that in softboots where my feet have to work much harder.

Good luck! Foot pain sucks.

[Mr.E]

Simply trying to support a flat arch without correcting the heel would be a recipe for pain. It would feel like you had a golf ball under your arch.

I have a pair of footbeds that feel this way- much worse the the Conformables they were meant to replace.

Foot pain does suck- hopefully 2011 will the the year of slipper boots.

[sabestian]

Thanks for all the input, it gradually becomes less of a witchcraft to me. Fortunately I have high arches and flat forefeet, so it should be easier to support my feet. If I forcus on arches (just supporting) and possibly outside of heels (to correct supination a little) I should be better already.

[Michael Pukas]

I believe foot beds can do two things; correct posture - particularly of the lower leg, but then alignment works it's way through the knees, hips, waist, lower back, etc.; and provide support. Now let me clarify...

I think foot beds only provide "support" in the sense that if you have a high arch, and you crank on your boots tightly, the boot will compress your foot from the instep down. An arch support can help reduce the amount of stress put on the foot due to this compression. I do not believe in "arch support" in general - the arch of the foot is it's own structure, and the arch itself is not supposed to bear any load directly by having a contoured surface under it. The foot is not designed to bear load equally across the entire underside surface - I believe arch supports get in the way of the foot flexing and moving and doing what it's supposed to do.

As far as posture correction, that's very individual. The foot bed industry likes to say their foot beds put you in the perfect athletic stance, neutral, whatever each company likes to call it. And while I think there is some merit to that, I think that's more important for people that have real structural issues in their bodies. If you have a slight problem with your knees bowing in for example, I think it's much more effect to adjust the canting in your boots than to try to get your knees aligned by tweaking the tilt in your foot with foot beds. And even if you do have correct posture with your fancy expensive foot beds standing on them flat on the floor, if the canting of your boots is off for you, everything the foot beds are supposed to do is negated.

All this being said, go with whatever works for you. There are lots of guys n gals in alpine & telemark skiing that don't even use foot beds in thermo-liners (Snowman for one). I even think Intuition says foot beds are not necessary in their liners. I've spent hundreds in foot beds for hiking, running, skiing and snowboarding foot beds over the years. I'm just trying to find something that's comfortable - I don't need or want arch support or posture correction.

For the last couple of years I've been using some custom foot beds made for my alpine SB boots that use a two-piece product, heat molded to the foot with and inflatable air-pillow - they've been OK, but take a long time for my foot to get used to at the beginning of each season, and I still have a lot of pain in my feet. So yesterday I put in a cheap pair of $18 SoftSol foot beds from the local sporting goods store - almost no pain, and I can buckle my boots tighter which gives me better performance when riding. And I can hang out for hours afterwards in my boots without feeling like my feet need to be cut off.

Foot pain and boot issues suck.

[murphy12]

Please remember that a footbed meant for use in a ski, or snowboard boot is intended to help support, and stabilise the foot.

It is not intended to be corrective for posture.

Excessively rigid beds may well cause more problems than they solve. A competent bootfitter can evaluate your individual needs, and make an appropriate footbed.

[Wun]

I made my own footbeds.

Could you share what you did? Maybe you have a post elsewhere on these boards detailing how you did it?

I'm sure anything I make that's sort of custom will be a better solution than $10 beds for my pronated feet. :p

[rjnakata]

Could you share what you did?

+1 :)

[NateW]

The answer probably depends on the nature of your feet.

All I know for sure is that custom footbeds make my feet happy. It's worth trying some off-the-shelf footbeds too though, I use those in half of my shoes, and used them in snowboard boots with some minor modifications to lower them around the outside of my heel (due to the nature of my feet).