Insoles for football boots: what to look for and how to fit them

Of all the footwear people play sport in, the football boot gives the foot the least to work with. It is built for grip and for touch on the ball, and comfort comes a long way down the list. That is why insoles for football boots are a slightly different problem from insoles for any other sport: there is barely any spare room, and anything you add has to earn its place without changing how the boot plays. Here is what to look at before putting one in, and how to test it sensibly.

In this article

1. Why a football boot is a hard place for your feet
2. Natural grass, artificial grass and hard winter ground
3. What to check when you put an insole in a boot
4. Break them in at training, not in a match
5. Looking after the boot after a wet session
6. When to check the state of your insoles

Why a football boot is a hard place for your feet

Four features of a modern boot combine to make it demanding, and none of them are design mistakes.

A close-fitting last

Boots are made to sit tight against the foot so that nothing shifts during a change of direction and so that the ball feels close. The result is that the internal volume is small and there is very little spare depth to play with, particularly across the instep.

A thin, stiff sole

The sole plate has to hold the studs and transfer force cleanly when you push off, so it is thin and rigid by design. Compared with a running shoe or a trainer, there is almost nothing between the underside of your foot and the ground.

Studs that concentrate pressure

Where a flat sole spreads your weight across the whole footprint, a studded sole passes it through a handful of contact points. On firm ground you can often feel individual studs through the sole, usually under the forefoot, and that sensation gets stronger as the ground dries out and hardens.

Very little cushioning as standard

Many boots come with a thin liner rather than a proper insole, because every gram and every millimetre has been trimmed away in the name of touch and weight. It works for the ball; it does less for a ninety-minute match followed by two training sessions in the same week.

This is the gap a cushioning insole is meant to fill. Footgel Football is a high-cushioning insole designed specifically for football boots: it improves comfort inside the boot, distributes pressure more evenly and helps reduce strain on the main support areas of the foot in matches and training, which can also ease discomfort in the knees and lower back.

Natural grass, artificial grass and hard winter ground

The surface you play on changes what your feet have to absorb as much as the boot does.

Natural grass

A well-watered natural pitch is the gentlest of the three. The turf and the soil underneath give a little on landing, and longer studs sink in rather than pressing back. The catch is that natural pitches vary enormously: the same ground that is soft in November can be baked hard in the summer.

Artificial grass

Artificial surfaces behave more consistently, which is part of their appeal, but they are also less forgiving. The pile and the infill do not absorb impact the way soil does, and the shorter, more numerous studs used on these surfaces spread the load differently. Players who move from natural to artificial grass mid-season often notice tired, sore feet after sessions that would not have troubled them before.

Hard ground in winter

Cold, dry spells leave natural pitches hard enough that studs barely penetrate, so each one becomes a pressure point under the foot. Combine that with a stiff sole plate and a full training week and the forefoot takes a considerable amount of repeated impact. This is the situation in which extra cushioning inside the boot tends to be most noticeable.

An insole does not replace using the right boot for the surface. Studs made for soft natural ground on a dry, hard pitch will be uncomfortable whatever you put inside the boot, and no amount of cushioning compensates for that.

Comfort inside the boot, match after match

Footgel Football is designed to improve comfort inside football boots and reduce strain on the main support areas, distributing pressure more evenly on natural and artificial grass.

• Tested by UMANA Biomecánica
• Made in Spain

View Footgel Football

What to check when you put an insole in a boot

Because the space inside a boot is so limited, fit deserves more attention here than in any other footwear. Work through these points before you play in it.

• Take the original liner out first. Most boots have one, and leaving it underneath adds a layer that was never meant to be there.
• The boot should not feel tighter. Lace it up as you normally would: held and secure, yes; pinched across the instep or squeezed at the toes, no.
• Your heel should not sit higher. If the insole lifts the heel out of its pocket, the boot loses the hold it depends on and you will feel your foot moving when you turn.
• Ball feel should stay recognisable. You should still be able to feel the ball through the boot on the instep and the laces. If your touch feels muffled, the fit is wrong for that boot.
• Nothing should move inside. The insole has to lie flat and stay flat, with no curling at the heel and no bunching under the arch.
• Trim carefully. Footgel insoles use EU sizing and are adjusted to your footwear using the cutting guide. Cut a little at a time, put the insole back in the boot, check it, then cut again.

One point that is easy to miss: check the fit with the socks you actually play in. Thick match socks and a thin pair for a quick session are not the same, and in a boot that margin is enough to change the answer.

Break them in at training, not in a match

Adding an insole changes how the boot feels, and a match is the wrong place to find out how much. A gradual approach avoids almost every problem.

• Start by wearing the boot with the insole at home for a while, laced properly, just standing and walking.
• Move on to a session of light work: a warm-up, some running, straightforward passing drills.
• Add the demanding movements next, the turns, sprints and stops, and pay attention to whether your heel stays put.
• Play a full training session in them before you play a match in them.
• Only then use them competitively, once you have stopped thinking about them.

If something rubs or feels tight at any stage, stop and sort it out rather than pushing on. A hot spot ignored for a month becomes a blister at the worst possible moment.

Looking after the boot after a wet session

Boots spend a good part of the season damp, and a damp boot is harder on both the footwear and your feet. A short routine after playing makes a real difference.

• Knock off the mud and grass before it dries and sets, and clean the sole plate around the studs as well as the upper.
• Take the insole out every time. Both the boot and the insole dry far more quickly separately than together, and a boot left closed up with a wet insole inside stays damp for days.
• Open the boot up: loosen the laces fully and pull the tongue back so air can get in.
• Let them dry at room temperature, away from radiators, hot air and direct sun. Heat is what hardens and cracks the materials.
• Loosely stuffing the boot with paper helps draw out moisture and keeps its shape while it dries.
• Never leave them sitting in a closed kit bag overnight. That is how boots develop a smell that never quite leaves.

When to check the state of your insoles

Insoles wear out gradually, so nothing announces the moment. Rather than counting weeks, look at them from time to time and use these signs as your guide:

• The surface is visibly flattened or marked where the heel and the forefoot sit.
• Edges are fraying, or the insole no longer sits flat when you take it out of the boot.
• You are starting to feel the studs through the sole again during sessions that never bothered you before.
• The insole has started sliding inside the boot when it used to stay put.

Check the boot at the same time. A sole plate that has lost its stiffness, worn-down studs or an upper that has given way at the sides all change how your foot is supported, and an insole cannot make up for any of them.

Finally, the usual caveat. Cushioning is there to make playing more comfortable, not to deal with a problem that will not go away. If you have pain that keeps returning after every session, that is worse in the morning or that is building week by week, see a healthcare professional rather than adding another layer inside the boot. And if you play more than one sport, the rest of the sports insoles range is built around the particular demands of each one.