Well this is a product you won’t be seeing reviewed in Soldier of Fortune or Serviam. LOL But I do believe in this product and it has a lot to do with the security contracting industry in my opinion. That product is Superfeet insoles.
Superfeet are insoles with a hard plastic arch support cup. They come in various sizes and thicknesses and they are well made. I have had my insoles for literally years in all of my shoes, and I have never had knee or ankle problems. The thing with these insoles, is that they maintain the shape of your foot and they maintain a consistent bio-mechanics for your ankle-knee-hip-back relationship. And a healthy body equates to being deployable and doing the job day in and day out.
And if you are like me, you have had leg or knee or hip problems do to years of wear and tear, and you also depend upon your body for your job. So if you are walking and standing all the time, and you are wearing crappy boots and shoes that do not provide good support and your insoles are not supporting your arches, then you will suffer. So the answer is to get well fitting boots or shoes, and get a good solid foundation for your foot that is consistent through all of your footwear.
In Iraq, I wore a pair of Bates M-6 boots with Superfeet insoles and I loved them. And I never had tired feed after those long 12 hour days at some gate or on post. It was the same thing when I was a smokejumper and forest fire fighter. I had a pair of Danner Rainforest boots with Superfeet in them and I never had leg or foot problems. And for running I always put Superfeet in my ‘go fasters’ and had no problems. I guess my point with this, is that if you have the same foot bed in all of your footwear, then your body will have an easier time adjusting from shoe to boot to shoe again. And the muscles and arches in your foot will thank you too, because they are properly supported and they are not strained from going back and forth between foot beds.
I should also mention that I had a serious leg injury in 2003 when I was a smokejumper. I broke my right femur during a parachute accident on a fire jump near McCall Idaho. And after they operated on me and I healed up after a long haul, I ended up with an inch shorter right leg! So bio-mechanics was really important to me now, and I have been totally paranoid that my back or something will get thrown out from just walking or running again. But thanks to a lift in my right shoe coupled with Superfeet insoles, I have not had any back or hip or knee related injuries.(knock on wood)
Also, if you do get into the whole Superfeet thing, be sure to put them in all of your footwear to make it work. The idea is to get your foot used to the same foot bed in everything you wear. And the benefit of this, is that from now on you can buy a new shoe or boot and put Superfeet in them and your feet will recognize the same foot bed every time. That means less footwear break-in time and less pain in your feet.
One other point I want to make is do not just buy them off the website blindly, if you can help it. One suggestion is to go to REI Outdoor Equipment Stores and in their shoe department they have bins of Superfeet insoles that you can put into your shoes to try on. Or just go to any running store and ask to pull a pair out of the box to try on. They will feel weird at first, but trust me, your feet will get used to it and love them. But definitely play around with them and find the Superfeet insole that works for you.
http://feraljundi.com/2008/07/06/gear-review-superfeet-insoles/
My name is Matt and I am a security industry blogger. I own a blog called Feral Jundi, which deals with security contracting in such places like Iraq or Afghanistan. Jundi in arabic means soldier by the way.
In the blog, you will find job postings, interesting articles about the industry, gear reviews, weapon reviews, book reviews, and anything else that might be interesting or funny to my readers. I also offer a free subscription to the Feral Jundi newsletter, which is sent out daily.(just look in the upper right hand corner of the blog and you will see where to sign up)
