Sole Men's Sport Medium Footbeds

The custom fit and heat mouldable Sole Sport Medium footbeds sit at a great price point and do an excellent job of supporting your feet for all-day comfort.

• Pros: Trim to any shoe shape, heat mouldable, odour control
• Cons: No ventilation, may be a little thick if you have 'tall' feet

I'll say it now – I've found custom footbeds to be a revelation. Having suffered in the past with hot spots and just plain sore feet on long rides, I bit the bullet and had some custom footbeds made a couple of years back, which eliminated all of the problems I was suffering (assuming the shoes were the correct size and fit).

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The only downside is that I only have one set, as they were pretty expensive. I was interested then, to see how an off-the-shelf set at around a quarter of the price would fare, and if they would perform anywhere near as well.

> Buyer's Guide: All you need to know about cycling shoes

Sole has a range of footbeds to suit a large range of applications, with these, the Sport, suited to... well, sports shoes of all types. There are five sizes available from XS to XL that cover shoe sizes 3.5 to 13, each covering two-and-a-half shoe sizes.

Made of layered foam of varying types depending on the model, and a wicking top sheet, the beds are firm but flexible and can be transferred between shoes. You pick the pack nearest to your shoe size and trim to suit as required. Sole recommends that you take the original insole and use that as a template to trim the new ones.

Once you have trimmed to fit comes the fun and slightly scary part – putting the footbeds in the oven to warm through enough to mould. I followed the instructions and put them in at 80 Celsius for two minutes; there is a heat-sensitive sticker which changes colour so you know when they are ready. In my case it was a little over the two minutes and I went by the sticker rather than the fixed time.

After carefully taking them out of the oven, you pop them into the shoes, put the shoes on and stand in a knees bent position to mould. Alternatively, you can just wear them out of the pack and they will mould over time, but it can take a week or more so the oven is far more efficient and will get you the benefits from the off.

Once you have trimmed and moulded them to your satisfaction – you can pop them back in the oven if not happy first time round – the immediate feel is great. From new, the arch support is quite high, with the idea being it will compress if needed, so from the first time of wearing they feel super-comfortable.

As mentioned, they are designed to be flexible which isn't relevant to cycling shoes, but the 1.6mm deep foam does provide a nice cushion which adds to comfort. In use, the now-moulded shape held my foot at the heel and supported the arch for a very natural feeling movement when pedalling, and stayed that way no matter how long I was riding, with no hot spots.

The only slight downside I found was that in this unusual hot spell my feet did get a bit hot as there are no ventilation holes in the footbeds (which most standard insoles will have, especially if the shoe has vents in the sole). This did highlight another feature, though: the Polygiene tech uses low concentrations of silver salt (silver chloride), which has antimicrobial properties, so despite sweaty feet, there was no associated smell. And there still isn't, weeks on.

Also, although it didn't affect me at all, another thing to note is the depth of the footbed – 1.6.mm doesn't sound much, but if you have a tall foot where there is slight pressure on the top of the foot to start with, these might make it worse, reducing space in the shoe. Sole does a range of thin footbeds which may be better for you.

In all, there really isn't much to dislike here. Ian tested the Active Thin footbeds with met pads and found they made little difference, but in his review admits he's never had trouble with hotspots when cycling; I'd say if you suffer from foot pain on the bike the Sole Sports are well worth trying to see if they can make a difference for you, especially for the price.

> Everything you need to know for pain-free cycling

The added bonus is that they can be transferred between any shoes to see if they help in day-to-day stuff too.

If you try them and are sold on the idea you can always look at a professionally made pair of cycling-specific custom footbeds, but personally I think these are good enough for most and well worth a try.

Verdict

If you want comfortable feet for all-day riding, these heat-mouldable footbeds could be a cheap and effective solution