words & photos :: Feet Banks
Sure, new gear is awesome, but have you ever tried OLD gear? Those proven, time-trusted pieces of equipment that feel like an old friend? Hiking boots in particular, can get better with age—but what happens when they don’t?
My hiking boots are old: La Sportiva something or others (K2’s maybe?). I got them second hand off my buddy Chili in 1995 because he was upgrading to a newer version of the same boot. These babies are fully leather high-tops (ankle support!) with the waterproof tongue and a semi-rigid ¾ shank for proper scrambling over any terrain. Plus, they take a crampon for glacier travel and look like the kind of hiking boots people used to wear back when mountains were summited with gumption and stubbon wills, not ultra-light gear and energy gels.
And best of all they’re comfy. Or at least they can be. But over the years, the stock insoles have deteriorated at about the same rate my feet have (most adult feet naturally “flatten out” growing a bit longer and wider as you age and your arch collapses). So when a spur-of-the-moment opportunity came up to embark on a 6-day, 65-kilometre trek through the Yukon tundra (my first bit multi-day hike in a few years), I needed to breathe some life into my trusty old boots, and do it on a very tight timeline. I certainly didn’t feel like dropping $350–$600 on new boots, and besides: there was no time to break them in.
So I pulled the SOLE footbeds out of my skate shoes, slid them into the hikers, and that was that. Problem solved. But first off, let the record show SOLE footbeds didn’t pay for this review (they sent me a couple footbeds to try though) so this not “sponsored” or fake. These footbeds are actually my faves, in my aforementioned skate shoes, in my (thankfully not getting much use these days) fancy shoes for weddings, and in my trusty old hiking boots to keep them feeling trusty while also feeling new.
Which footbeds are best?
I survived the sharp, loose, most shale-filled valleys the Yukon had to offer, as well as stiff ascents, slippery descents and even a bit of snow with the SOLE Performance Medium which doesn’t lift the foot too high that your toes bang but also features a base made with recycled wine corks rather than synthetic crap. Ultimately this was the footbed in my skateboard shoe but it performed perfectly fine in my hiking boot. SOLE also makes this footbed with something called a Met pad which is basically a small bump built into the mid-foot to support the metatarsals in their natural spread. “Met” pad, get it? This footbed is great for people who get forefoot pain, tingling toes, and general soreness even with other footbeds.
There are thicker footbed options for workboots of boots that fit loose (not ideal in hiking boots in my experience) and slimmer footbeds like the Active Thin (with our without Met pad) which will gussy up your skates, running shoes, ski or snowboard boots, or in my case, fancy dress shoes that used to kill my feet but have my name embossed in them so I’d usually just suck it up for fashion’s sake. Now they just fit comfortably.
SOLE footbeds are easy to customize, you just trim them to size, put them in the oven, then slam them into the shoes/boots and stand in them. The Performance/recycled cork ones are naturally antimicrobial and shock absorbing but they don’t transfer from shoe to shoe as seamlessly as the Active collection, which is made with EVA, a lightweight rubber-like polymer. (I transferred the cork ones and it worked fine but do it a bunch of times and little pieces of cork will probably start to fall off.)
SOLE has a Footbed Finder tool if you want to sort yourself out the exact right one, and did I mention they are a Canadian company founded in Vancouver?
Old gear rules, but only when it performs correctly. A good pair of footbeds can make your favourite old-timer hiking boots feel young again (and help you stay nimble to avoid the pile of grizzly bear shit!). Buy less stuff!
