Insoles

Feet hurt after standing a lot in work. No diagnosed issues.

Seen insoles that are gel and have arch support etc. Wondering if they would help...
 
Standing for several hours. Not new, several years doing this...

Shoes are nothing special..
 
Probably not for long. Memory foam loses its "sponginess" after too much compression. An insole is a thin layer with a lot of compression on it, a person's whole weight applied over and over and over again.

I spend most of my work time (up to 12 hours/day) standing and walking. I found that gel insoles worked better, specifically ones with thicker gel under the heels of your feet. I also found that you generally seem to be getting what you pay for. Cheap insoles wear out quickly and expensive insoles usually don't. The pair I currently use were £30 IIRC, but I've been using them a lot for a year and they still look and function as new. I just take them out and chuck them in the washing machine on a 60C cycle every few weeks. They easily outwear my cheap shoes, which I bought solely because they're mesh but don't look obviously mesh. So they look OK enough for my job and they cut down on how much my feet overheat. And they're £13 a pair. So I just buy a few pairs at a time and bin them when they wear out.

I also found that a good pair of shoes with really good and suitably impact-absorbing soles, shoes designed as workwear for people on their feet a lot, worked at least as well. At ~5 times the price of my cheap shoes and the insoles combined. And they didn't last 5 times as long.

It's going to be subjective, though. Different people, different working conditions and different causes of discomfort. A quick cheap test that the OP could do would be to buy gel heel cushions for a few quid and stick those in their shoes to see if that helps. Something like this:


Two pairs for £7. That was just the first result on Amazon. You could probably shop around a bit and get one pair for under a fiver. If it helps, then they know that some impact absorption under their heels works. If it doesn't help, they only wasted a few quid.

Can you link to the £30 ones you use?
 
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