Dr. Scholl's Custom Fit Orthotics Review

My foot history: If you're anything like me, you have a hard time finding comfortable shoes. When I walk into the shoe store, the salesperson hides in the stock room. I dread the prospect of shoe-shopping. I spend endless hours trying on every shoe in the store, while the salesperson rolls his eyes behind my back. Many times, I walk out empty-handed, frustrated and with a big guilt trip that the clerk spent so much time with me and has nothing to show for it.

It's frustrating having hard-to-fit feet. I can't find comfortable dress shoes. It seems that the only shoes that feel half-way decent are the ugliest shoes on the shelf. It's like I sacrifice comfort for the ridiculous.

Someone told me once that my feet were deformed. What? All I can say is that I inherited the the affliction from my mother. I've got this long, skinny foot (Size 9.5), with a very narrow heel, a long arch, and the ball of my foot spreads out to a regular size when I walk. Flexible and humiliating.

Dr. Scholl created the Footmapping Technology kiosk to aid in determining which custom orthotic is best for you. It measures the areas of your feet that get the most stress. From that reading, it detects which arch type you have.

I passed by the Footmapping Technology contraption in Walmart at least a dozen times before I actually set foot on the thing. It was easy enough. I just placed my feet in each rectangular square and waited for the thing-a-ma-bob to tell me what to do next. It flashes a thermo-pic of your feet on the screen. It asks you to put pressure on the right foot, then the left, as it measures and calculates your pressure points. It thinks for a minute, and PRESTO!!! Your results are in. That's modern-day technology for you!

I was skeptical. After all, I'd tried every arch support in the book. So I purchased my brand new pair of beautiful orthotics for around $50.00 bucks and settled into the business of placing them in my athletic shoes.

I had a pair of New Balance shoes I'd recently purchased and, as always, I was already having problems with them. Yep, you heard right, I can't even wear New Balance comfortably! So I put the inserts in and walked around a while. Yikes! I felt 2 feet taller!. But I noticed there was no pressure on my metatarsal (ball of the foot). It was rather like walking on a spring that rocked back and kept the pressure off my heel but evenly distributed it in the middle.

I still had trouble with my heel slipping in the shoes, not made any better by the height and thickness of the inserts, but it was a huge improvement. I wore the orthotics in the New Balance shoes for a few days, then decided to go back to my trusty SAS insoles. I wanted to try something different.........

I placed the Dr. Scholl's Custom Fit Orthotic inserts into my brand new pair of Y-Not boots, hoping for a miracle. Just to be sure, I fitted a regular Dr. Scholls foot pad on top of the insert. I slipped my feet into the boots and, wonder of wonders, they felt great! At last, I was wearing a cool pair of knee-high brown boots that didn't kill my feet and legs!

The real test came when I wore them all day. By the end of the day, I didn't experience any excessive achy feet or legs that instantly led me to an epsom salt soak bath. Now that's success!

Star Rating:

Out of 5 Stars, I give them 4 Stars; only because the thickness was a bit much. They do what they are supposed to do. The inserts take the pressure off those impact areas that give you so much trouble and give your feet the proper support they need to produce an overall satisfactory experience.

Would I recommend these orthotics to others? The answer is a big, fat YES!