Field Report

Field Report

Shock Doctor UltraCustom Footbeds

February 15th, 2005

Manufacturer: Shock Doctor
URL: http://www.shockdoc.com/
MSRP: $49.95 US
Year Model: 2004
Listed Weight: n/a
Measured Weight (women's size 6.5-7.5): 6.1 ounces for the pair (3.2 ounces for the left, and 2.9 ounces for the right)
Tester: Colleen Porter
Tester Shoe Size: women's 8
Tester Background: I have never used any kind of insoles or inserts before, other than cheapo $2 foam cushions from the corner drugstore. But at the tender age of twenty-nine my feet have begun to show me less and less mercy, so I'm ready to see how much of a difference a good pair of insoles can make. I think my feet are very normal, but I do have high arches. I have broken both of my pinky toes in my lifetime - not recently, but they do occasionally ache and sometimes react strangely to some shoes. For a more complete biography of me & my backpacking style, see the end of the report.

Product Description: The UltraCustoms are insoles with at least eight different features. These features include: SR Foam, I-Shock pads in heel and forefoot, Control Bar to stabilize the heel and control pronation, Adaptive arch for all arch heights, metatarsal support, multi-layer composite foams, an anti-microbial Air/FX top cover to reduce friction & control odor, and Shockdome Technology to absorb impact. For a more detailed description, see my Initial Report, and for some really nice photographs of the UltraCustoms, don't miss Jason Boyle's Initial Report.

Field Conditions: The UltraCustoms have been exclusively used in southern California, mostly in low-lying coastal areas and with one excursion into the upper Mojave Desert. They didn't get a whole lot of trail use in the last two months, but they have seen a lot of around-town use on dirt, cement and asphalt. I have plodded around Disneyland (a local hazard - we live 20 minutes from it and inevitably end up getting annual passes) in them several times. Temperatures have ranged from just above freezing into the mid 90's (around 35º C). Weather has ranged from torrential rains and high humidity to dry, windy and uncomfortably warm.

Results So Far: This is an extremely difficult report to write, as for the first time in my history with BGT I am not sure what I think of the product. Due to an annoyingly long illness (basically, two months of "morning sickness"), I didn't get in a lot of trail time in the last two months, so I'm not sure that at this point I can offer an honest review of them in a backpacking or hiking context. All I can tell you is my experiences with and opinions of the Ultra Customs so far.

The Ultra Customs do not fit in most of my casual shoes, and in my athletic shoes which do not have removeable insoles (like my beloved Teva Wraptors), they simply fill the shoes too much to allow for comfortable use. However, they do fit in all of my athletic/hiking shoes with removeable insoles (all of my Merrells, my New Balance 804's, and other department-store-brand running shoes). The glitch I immediately noticed is that they have more volume than the standard insoles, which requires that the shoes be laced more loosely or that I wear thin socks.

There were times when I only wore an Ultra Custom on one foot and the factory insole on the other, in order to see if I could detect a difference. When I pay attention to my feet, I can feel a difference between the two, but so far I have not noticed any significant difference between the two when I reflect back on the day. I have not yet had an experience where at the end of a day testing like this, one foot felt more beat up than the other.

I can say that during the test period so far, I have had days when I did not wear the Ultra Customs and my feet felt like tenderized meat that night. But on days when I did wear the Ultra Customs, I have never had sore feet at the end of the day.

During a warm period, I left the Ultra Customs in the car. When I removed them, still very warm from the car interior, the Metatarsal Dome pieces on the bottom of the Ultra Customs were peeling off and had migrated slightly from their proper places (on both halves of the pair). I was able to remove them completely, but re-attached them in place. Once the Ultra Customs had cooled, the Metatarsal Dome piece seemed just as securely attached as ever. But this served as a caution to not leave them in a hot car, especially in warmer times of the year.

Conclusions: So far, so good, but I'm not completely sold on them yet. But now that the unfortunate effects of first-trimester pregnancy have worn off, I'm hoping that the next four months will see me back on the trails and living it up before I get a little too big-bellied for my own good. And even then, late-term pregnancy puts some heavy demands on feet! I hope to have more definitive results for BGT readers in my Long-Term Report.

Tester Name: Colleen Porter
Gender: female
Age: 30
Height: 5'8"/1.73 m
Weight: 150 lb./68 kg

Backpacking Experience: I have been hiking for fifteen years, backpacking for eight. I've only been serious about it in the last two and a half years. I mostly hike on established trails – bushwhacking is rarely planned. I like gear to be simple and light, and I do make some of my own equipment. On my own I pack pretty light (about thirteen lbs/6 kilograms base weight) and am always trying to get lighter, but I am often on family trips with my two-year-old son and the weight usually doubles. My 3-season backpacking haunts are the San Gabriels, the Sierra Nevada, and the Grand Canyon, and winters find me in the Mojave and Colorado deserts.

Read more reviews of Shock Doctor gear
Read more gear reviews by Colleen Porter

Reviews > Footwear > Footbeds and Insoles > Shock Doctor Ultra Custom Insoles > Colleen Porter > Field Report

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