Insoles for Edea Skates

[Nikita]

I have Edea Chorus skates and am looking to purchase insoles. I’m not sure which brand to go with. Edeas typically have higher heels so I wouldn’t want to add extra heel height from certain insoles. Would anyone here be able to recommend any? Thank you.

[tstop4me]

Are you looking for simple insoles (just for cushioning) or more complex insoles (to correct foot conditions)?

[Nikita]

Are you looking for simple insoles (just for cushioning) or more complex insoles (to correct foot conditions)?

Hi! I’m just looking for simple insoles. I don’t know if I’m getting ahead of myself though as I have yet to break the skates in.

[tstop4me]

Hi! I’m just looking for simple insoles. I don’t know if I’m getting ahead of myself though as I have yet to break the skates in.

I'm confused then.  So these are new boots?  Don't they come with insoles?

[Nikita]

I'm confused then.  So these are new boots?  Don't they come with insoles?

Yes, they are new and did come with insoles, but I was reading that the Edea insoles in particular aren’t very supportive. I’m not used to breaking in boots, so I don’t know how long it typically takes to feel comfortable in them.

[tstop4me]

Yes, they are new and did come with insoles, but I was reading that the Edea insoles in particular aren’t very supportive. I’m not used to breaking in boots, so I don’t know how long it typically takes to feel comfortable in them.

Simple insoles provide cushioning only and are not supportive:  they are essentially cut out from nominally flat sheets of foam, and perhaps are covered with a more durable layer (some have a slight degree of contouring).  If you have "normal" feet [and how many of us do? :-)], they may be adequate.  If you have foot problems (such as over-pronation or over-supination, or weak arches), then you need corrective insoles.  Do you need corrective insoles in your other shoes (e.g., regular street shoes or running shoes)? 

[Nikita]

Simple insoles provide cushioning only and are not supportive:  they are essentially cut out from nominally flat sheets of foam, and perhaps are covered with a more durable layer (some have a slight degree of contouring).  If you have "normal" feet [and how many of us do? :-)], they may be adequate.  If you have foot problems (such as over-pronation or over-supination, or weak arches), then you need corrective insoles.  Do you need corrective insoles in your other shoes (e.g., regular street shoes or running shoes)?

Thank you for the information! I haven’t needed corrective insoles in my running shoes. It has been over a year since I purchased the skates and saw a skate tech (I had to let a minor injury heal before getting back to skating), but I do remember being told that I had a little bit of over-pronation. The boots didn’t fit perfectly and required some punching out, but I suppose that is normal/expected. I might be jumping the gun inquiring about insoles. I will wait to see if discomfort/pain persists too long.

[Christy]

I use yellow Superfeet insoles, as do a lot of people I know. I found the Edea insoles to be useless.

[Nikita]

I use yellow Superfeet insoles, as do a lot of people I know. I found the Edea insoles to be useless.

I’ve also heard the same about Edea insoles. Thank you for recommending the yellow Superfeet!

[masterblaster]

I'm also using the yellow superfeet in my Edeas. I don't find they lift my heel significantly compared to the original insoles.

[Nikita]

I'm also using the yellow superfeet in my Edeas. I don't find they lift my heel significantly compared to the original insoles.

Thanks for the comparison! I was wondering how much higher the heel would be lifted.

[Query]

If you just want to lift your heels, you can take out the current insoles, and add cloth first aid tape under the heels, then put them back in. (I've tried some other tapes. Some don't stick well. Duct tape sticks, but changes shape with time.)

Are you looking for another type of support? You can add the tape anywhere under the insoles. Alternately, if the insoles are thick enough, you can sand them down to make them thinner anywhere, if you are careful.

BTW, that isn't specific to Edeas, and I've never worn Edeas, so can't speak directly about them - but believe this to be true of all insoles.

It seems unlikely that Edea would provide insoles if they were truly useless. Don't they at least provide padding, or suppress the feel of some bumps at the bottom of the footbed? Or maybe they absorb moisture?

Some skate brands come with insoles that provide shaping or support, some don't. But, AFAIK, they can always be modified or replaced. I tore mine out, traced them on foam, and cut the foam to the 3D shape I wanted with a scissors. The foams I have tried don't last forever, but the fit is as perfect as I can make it. That takes some time to learn, but just using tape is easy.

The hardest part is figuring out WHERE you want more support or pressure. To some extent that is trial and error, and working by feel. I believe skates can and should be almost completely comfortable - except that, as with downhill ski boots, they have to be a bit stiff and heavy, to support your ankles, and provide precise control.

In your running shoes, the insoles probably provide both padding and support, based on the manufacturer's arbitrary assumptions about what most people's feet need - but that varies brand to brand, and model to model, too.

[tstop4me]

Alternately, if the insoles are thick enough, you can sand them down to make them thinner anywhere, if you are careful.

You need to be careful about this modification.  Most insoles are made of plastic foam of some sort.  I have seen el-cheapo insoles cut from bare foam; sanding those won't do much harm (though many foams are hard to sand).  In better insoles, however, there is either a covering bonded onto the foam, or the foam is fabricated with a skin.  The covering or skin provides protection against abrasive wear.  If you remove the covering or skin, the underlying foam degrades more quickly (some foams will shed small clumps).  If you go this route, make allowance to at least bond a replacement covering to protect the modified area.

[Query]

In better insoles, however, there is either a covering bonded onto the foam, or the foam is fabricated with a skin.  The covering or skin provides protection against abrasive wear.

My bad! Modify the bottom surface, not the top.

(Since most insoles are flexible, modifying the bottom also reshapes the top.) Not only to protect the top layer, if there is one, but because it also avoids creating sharp edges and rough surfaces that your foot contacts. Also, in some cases it is to provide a skin-safe layer, if the bottom layer(s) of the insole aren't made of skin-safe materials. E.g., you often see a skin-protective layer if the next layer is urethane foam, which is used in a lot of professionally custom-built insoles.

AFAIK, the protective layer is always on the top - you can still sand the bottom. Do you know of any exceptions?

Likewise, if you apply tape to the top layer, then peel or sand it off because you change your mind, the tape may tear off the top layer too. So, there too, leave the top layer alone.

I don't think I have seen any hard inflexible insoles per se in skates, where sanding the bottom won't do any good, in terms of reshaping the top - but some types of heat mold-able insole (or "orthotic" - pretty much the same thing) are thin inflexible materials, which would be hard to sand. I admit that, for inflexible materials, taping the bottom cannot alter the shape of the orthotic, but can alter the tilt. I've had bad luck with those thin heat mold-able insoles by the way - if they fit tight enough not to move around, they can push out on the side of the boots, and may gradually stretch them so as not to fit you snugly any more. (The ones I had that did that were from SuperFeet - and they denied it could happen. They claimed they weren't hard enough to stretch the boot.) If they don't fit that tight, they shift around unpredictably. But some people love them, and a lot of podiatrists use them. Perhaps they work better in high level freestyle boots than in lower level or soft dance boots.

Some very cheap skates have no removable insoles per se. And some insoles are are "tack-glued" - meaning that there is a weak glue, so you have to pull the insole out a little harder - and that might even mean that the insole doesn't fit the shoe well enough to avoid sliding around if not glued back. But I feel very strongly you shouldn't use a strong glue, even if that is true - maybe use a dot or two of hot-glue-gun glue, because you want to be able to modify or replace insoles.

Leather insoles, BTW, are quite easy to sand, and have been used in some high quality boots. Of course some leathers have a thin smooth top layer too, so, as with foam, modify the bottom.

Anyway, I'm sorry I forgot to specify modifying the bottom, and leaving the top surface be.

[tstop4me]

AFAIK, the protective layer is always on the top - you can still sand the bottom. Do you know of any exceptions?

Yes, in some better grade insoles with foam bottoms I'm familiar with, the bottom surface has a protective skin.  If you sand this away, the underlying material will degrade more quickly; you should then bond a protective layer over it.

[Nikita]

I've had bad luck with those thin heat mold-able insoles by the way - if they fit tight enough not to move around, they can push out on the side of the boots, and may gradually stretch them so as not to fit you snugly any more. (The ones I had that did that were from SuperFeet - and they denied it could happen. They claimed they weren't hard enough to stretch the boot.) If they don't fit that tight, they shift around unpredictably.

Wow, it makes me nervous to hear that! May I ask if you were using the Superfeet Yellow? I also wanted to try out the Shock Doctor Skate insoles, but I don’t know how well they’d work with my feet. I’m worried about stretching out my boot with certain insoles now, especially because I was told I might have a better fit in a narrower model of the boot (it wasn’t available to try at the time).

[Nikita]

Yes, in some better grade insoles with foam bottoms I'm familiar with, the bottom surface has a protective skin.  If you sand this away, the underlying material will degrade more quickly; you should then bond a protective layer over it.

Thank you for the helpful information! Hopefully I won’t have to do any sanding, but this is useful to know.

[Query]

Wow, it makes me nervous to hear that! May I ask if you were using the Superfeet Yellow? I also wanted to try out the Shock Doctor Skate insoles, but I don’t know how well they’d work with my feet. I’m worried about stretching out my boot with certain insoles now, especially because I was told I might have a better fit in a narrower model of the boot (it wasn’t available to try at the time).

I don't recall. It was a long time ago. I'm afraid that one bad experience of this type was enough to scare me away from trying them again (boots aren't cheap). And all I really know is that shortly after using them, my boots became less snug at the bottom. I can't prove they wouldn't have done so otherwise - especially since I seem to recall it was on relatively soft boots. Many soft boots, like ballet slippers, if I understand correctly, were specifically designed to do a stretch-fit to your feet - though that is less common now that very stiff boots are the norm.

It is my personal feeling that there are other ways to obtain a great fit, even if they take longer, so it isn't worth risking expensive boots.

But, as I said, a lot of people love them.

On top of that, when I tried the more common type of SuperFeet, they didn't happen to fit what my feet needed well, so, after that and other trials of commercial insoles and inserts, I came to the conclusion it made more sense to make my own custom modifications, fit to me by me, than to hope to buy and try an endless supply of expensive commercial insoles and inserts, that would each only work for a limited subset of their customers. And I came to enjoy figuring out what mods would work for me.

So I am probably the wrong person to ask. Maybe you should start a new thread with a title like "Do SuperFeet Yellow stretch boots and make them loose?"

In any event, if it is only a slight stretch, you can probably compensate by tossing the SuperFeet, then thickening your other insole, which pushes your feet up into a presumably smaller area of the boot, or by creating what I call "wings" - little extensions to your insole that are along-side your feet, created out of tape, or by cutting yourself a slightly wide new insole.

[Nikita]

I don't recall. It was a long time ago. I'm afraid that one bad experience of this type was enough to scare me away from trying them again (boots aren't cheap). And all I really know is that shortly after using them, my boots became less snug at the bottom. I can't prove they wouldn't have done so otherwise - especially since I seem to recall it was on relatively soft boots.
In any event, if it is only a slight stretch, you can probably compensate by tossing the SuperFeet, then thickening your other insole, which pushes your feet up into a presumably smaller area of the boot, or by creating what I call "wings" - little extensions to your insole that are along-side your feet, created out of tape, or by cutting yourself a slightly wide new insole.

Thank you so much for your candidness! This has really deterred me from using insoles in my boot if I can help it. I really do not need to stretch them any further as areas of my feet are already too narrow. I think I may add gorilla tape to the sides of the boot (I also read another post where someone did that) and hopefully that will keep my heel in place. There was a heel lift placed under my insole by a skate tech, but I really don’t want to be pitched forward in my Edeas more than I already am (because of the relatively high Edea heel). I may ask the question about Superfeet/commercial insoles expanding the inside of the boot like you suggested. Thank you again for sharing your experience! Boots are expensive like you mentioned, and I don’t want to prematurely stretch them. I really appreciate the help.