Inserts Outed -- 1 of 3

In the course of my many injuries running research, I’ve had cause to experiment with a few shoe inserts. So I’m going to discuss the three I’ve tried, starting with Spenco’s Polysorb.

My recommendation is to save your money.

They look comfortable and the extra padded “heel strike” seems just the thing to help avoid planar-type injuries, something I’ve had issues with at times.

But they didn’t help my foot issues at all.

In fact, I found them painful to wear.

Look at the edges of the insole -- they’re cut flush, perpendicular to the ground. While running, that becomes a sharp edge in your shoe that rubs and eventually cuts into your foot (ask me how I know that). You'll also notice that there's not much curvature happening here.



In the bottom photo, you can see a yellow reinforcement. That’s foam not much stiffer than jello. i.e., no support at all.


As I recall, these things were in the $25-$30 range. I could've had a dozen donuts washed down with 12 premium beers for that.