We love natural materials on the inside of our footwear. Leather, suede and cork do a superior job of molding to our footprint and absorbing perspiration. What about wood? A brand called Zederna manufactures these ultra-thin insoles made of cedar wood, and I’m giving them a good walk-around.
Cedar is the world’s go-to freshening wood. Layering a thin piece of 100% cedar over 100% cotton to create a shoe insole seems brilliant at first impression. The pleasant smell is there. The soles are stiff, pliable, and about as thin as a penny.
Zedernas come in fourteen different sizes (women’s 5 to men’s 14), and are not intended to ever be cut with scissors. This product worked best in shoes with a relatively neutral insole shape and would not be ideal for sneakers or footwear with orthotic-style footbeds. More on that later.
The packaging says you can wear these without socks. After trying them in a variety of different types of shoe, I gave them a long-term gig inside my Softstar Portlanders which I tend to wear sockless around at home during the warmer months.
Why do we spend bundles on third-party insoles like the kinds shown above?
Our footwear had no insole of their own
Our insoles are lost, thrashed, or unsuitable
Once upon a time Dr. Scholl might had well been my podiatrist. I’ve tried everything from the gel heels to the thin, perforated cushiony things. No knock on Scholl’s and the like, because they all offer many useful products within and beyond the insole category. There are sole options sold at grocery and pharmacy stores, usually grouped with everything foot related- sometimes they were a quick fix, but left me largely disappointed for the following reasons:
The partial ‘heel-cushion’ ones never stayed well in the shoe
the super-thin ‘pillow’ ones never stayed well either
I hated walking with the gel ones, plus they never stayed well
Gluing these consumer products into your shoe is never recommended, for if the insole doesn’t work out, you’re stuck. Having to re-adjust cheap insoles every time you put on or take off your shoes is not good. Just a glance and seeing that bunched-up perforated piece of chintzy medical looking stuff won’t get you excited to put on your kicks and face the day. I tried the Superfeet product because I wanted something to stay solidly inside my footwear like it belonged there. I was loving the rounded heal shape as well.
Superfeet (no affiliation) come in different colors, each tone a different thickness and design. The Black and the Carbon (gray) are thinnest when it comes to maxing toe-room. You can pop these in and out of your shoes, stealthily adding ergonomic arch without neutralizing wiggle room. It’s what SF calls biomechanical support. The heel is rounded to better seat our round calcaneus (heel bone); Unless your feet are flat, the arch on a Superfeet can add great underfoot feel where before was fatigue.
Superfeet Black insoles were an excellent solution for my Frye Arkansas boots, which have no insole and were downright uncomfortable to walk a lot in before I found this solution.
Superfeet Black
Toe room, like leg-room on a plane is so key. I wondered if the Superfeet Carbon were even thinner than the Black.
Superfeet Carbon
Above pics from company site. Straight off the cell pics below:
Which are Thinner ?
The Carbons are; Their overall construction uses less substance than the Black. The heel material feels the same, but the foam used for the cushion body is honeycombed and squishier than that of the Black. The foamed/cushion part of both are approximately 1/16th of an inch thick in the all-important toe area. The Carbon are less dense and with the perforation, can be pressed thinner than the Black, making Carbon the thinnest in the Superfeet family.
DJ Squeaky Boot
One weird thing: The Carbons made a squeaking sound when I used them in my workboots (Chippewa and Frye). It seemed like the cupped shape of the heel interacted with the stiff inners of these kinds of boots in such a way that an audible sound happened as I stepped and they flexed. The occurrence was intermittent, but I imagined how it could even become embarrassing in a public setting where silence was required. The Black heel design features stilt-like stability construction which seem to keep the calcaneus part from flexing, and I experienced no such squeaking when I wore them in the same boots. The Carbons did not squeak when worn in the soft fabric inners of my New Balance sneakers. I tried them in two different pairs. Feet are shaped all manner of types, and different shoes are built in different ways so your mileage will vary. I’m curious to know others’ experiences in other kinds of shoes, so feel free to post in the comment section ladies and gentlemen.
To my naked eye and hand, I could discern no difference between the plastic-like material used in booth of these products’ heel.
I don’t blame Superfeet for calling the Carbons “Carbon” instead of “Gray”, and the loud light green color of the underside could have been any color, but they looked HD enough for me (Mr. consumer) to spend $50 for a pair online. Superfeet Black run around $30.
They’re both essentially fabric-covered foam beds attached to plastic heel/arch pieces- in other words the Black may contain the same carbon as the Carbons. I did not take materials to a lab for analyzation.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
As you can see, I learned to cut more carefully when I copped the Carbons. Unless your size is just right, you’ll want to trim your premium insoles with large high-quality shears, snipping slowly and carefully. Think slivers, not chunks
Popdiatry recommends trying these or any of the other pro-sumer insoles out at REI and LL Bean-type places (running shops, etc..) to ensure you have the right starting size. It’s always a great idea to keep whatever stock insoles came with your shoes to use as a tracer for cutting the Supers. If you don’t have the original, you can also try using some 99-cent cheapos as a guinea pig before you start hacking the expensive ish.
Superfeet also makes the Black DMP insoles (not tested, but felt), which are just the Black with memory foam instead of the regular fabric. This adds girth making the DMP thicker than the Carbons or regular Blacks- I narrowed this article down to the thinnest.
Mix N’ Match + Overtime
You should use these suckas for multiple pairs of shoes. Carbons are currently working full time in my New Balance running shoes, and pulling a second shift in some NB walkers. Chance are, one of the shoe pairs will die before the Superfeet, so they’ll occupy another pair someday soon.
The fabric material that touches your foot on both B and C have a solid synthetic sensation and feel good with a wide variety of my favorite socks.
Allow me to comment on the photo above. Some thoughts about foot powder are below. In an attempt to cancel the squeaking sound described before, I even cut corners off the bottoms of these (it didn’t work).
Avoid dumping large amounts of foot powder into your shoes/socks. A light dusting once every few days is plenty.
Most any body powder will be adequate for shoe use. Alternately, we would never use something designed as foot powder for the rest of the body.
More About Insoles
These days I love me a good leather insole, or some coated cork like Naot, Finn Comfort, and BIrkenstock does. I feel like when you start spending more than $300 on shoes- they should include an adequate insole. One nice thing about removable insoles is that you can remove them for an air-out. There are times though when you’re going to want to add sole to footwear that doesn’t have any, or upgrade to something more biomechanically respectful of the shape of the feet and make you feel a little more super.
Shout out to Dr. Scholl’s and Spenco. We look forward to trying more insoles of all kinds!
