Walking-Specific Footbed Launched

The inner footbeds that come with new boots are, inevitably, a compromise between cost and performance and offer relatively little support for your feet - most, in fact, are cheap foam. Then again, if they weren't your boots would mostly likely cost an extra tenner or so.

The answer is aftermarket footbeds and there's another one on the market designed specifically for walkers. The Trek Step-In + from Conform'able is a walking-specific replacement footbed that claims to offer a combination of extra stiffness, bio-mechanical correction and anti-vibration that will stabilise and support your foot.

We've used Conform'able footbeds in the past and, to be honest, we didn't think that they performed as well as the Superfeet Green footbeds and certainly weren't as durable with a nasty tendency to disintegrate with heavy wear, however we're going to get a set of the Treks on test and see how they go.

Good aftermarket footbeds use designs based on specialist medical footbeds to provide extra support for the foot - particularly the instep and heel area - and counter the effects of mild overpronation, where the foot collapses slightly on impact with the ground.

See the links to previous OM articles below, but one thing we'd stress is that if you have serious biomechanical problems leading to leg or even back pain, you should consult a sports podiatrist as off the shelf footbeds are designed for people with close to normal biomechanics.

The The Trek Step-In + from Conform'able costs £35 and you can find more information at this web site.