You’ve spent the whole day on your feet and by the end of it your feet ache, your knees hurt and your back’s letting you know it’s there. Sound familiar? You need some of these Conform’able customised footbeds. They’re insoles moulded specifically to the shape of your feet. Sounds crazy doesn’t it? I thought so too until I tried them.

Find out more about them here.

The market for these things started out with professional athletes demanding perfection in sportswear and moved on to providing comfort for ski boots but the lastest range is good for hiking boots and sturdy shoes too.

To fit them you stand on what feels like a warm gel-filled sack that slowly deforms to the shape of your feet. They then place a special mouldable insole into the dent you made, which you stand on again to complete the fit and in about 15 minutes when they’ve hardened you get a pair of boots customised to your feet.

The ski boot footbeds are worth a mention - you can get them with embedded electric heating elements! How cool is that? Unfortunately I’m not skiing any time soon, so I went for the much simpler “trek” footbeds to go with some new walking boots.

“So…” I hear you ask “…why bother?” Well… Imagine boots that fit so well they feel like an extension of your foot. Boots you can forget you’re wearing. That’s the effect we’re talking about here. There are other benefits too - if your feet are correctly supported then your legs, knees and back also fall into a correct posture which eases the discomfort in these areas after a long day walking.

The downside - they’re not cheap. In fact they’re about the same price as the boots they’re going in… I’d still recommend them though, to anyone who does a lot of walking.