Author Topic: Footbeds for teenagers; forefoot pain  (Read 1251 times)

dan.boisvert

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Re: Footbeds for teenagers; forefoot pain
« on: January 01, 2013, 08:29:59 pm »
With regard to more flexible footbeds, do you have any experience with a specific brand? Are they simple off the shelf ones like the Conformable Volcano or Superfeet? Or are they custom? I have recently seen some interesting semi-custom heat moldable ones - Footbalance and A-Line come to mind.

I don't think the rigidity of the new footbeds caused your daughter's foot pain.  From what you've said, her pain is in an entirely different category than what I experienced and would expect if the rigidity was the cause.  I think it's mostly a volume thing.  The foot had less room to spread with the new footbed and nowhere to go, so the soft stuff got inflamed.

The kind of pain I'm talking about from rigid foot beds and flexible feet can be a couple things, but I'd look more for a cramping along the entire bottom of the foot, or excruciating arch pain--it feels like the footbed is trying to force out the "keystone" in the arch in your foot, and it hurts like hell, because you're bearing lots of weight pressing upward directly into the center of the arch, instead of through it in the strong direction.  It can also screw up your alignment something fierce, because your arch flattens, hits the footbed, and then the entire ski goes with it before your foot is in a load-bearing position.  You pretty much can't put any weight on your foot without the edge getting engaged hard.  It's a great combination of both painful and terrifying.

I'm also not against some forms of posting for people whose feet are inflexible and require more support.  The big thing I'm opposed to is the rigid footbeds that are so incredibly common.


The flexible footbeds I'd recommend would be custom made by a really good fitter.  I'm not sure which processes various ones use.  I know HH has his method, and my fitter found a new plastic last year he was really excited about.  The woman in Banff probably has her own preferred product, too.  I think the fitter you see is way more important than the specific product they use for something like this.  Just as there are a bunch of brands for rigid footbeds, there are a bunch that can be used to make flexible ones, too.

That said, I'm one of the rare ones who wouldn't be well-served by a custom footbed, so I use one of the thin black Superfeet cut-to-fit ones, which works great for me.  As my fitter put it, "for feet like yours, the boot board IS the footbed..".  ;D