The best custom insoles for basketball shoes 2024

The best insoles for basketball shoes.

Basketball is one of the most dynamic and explosive sports, with sprinting, jumping, rapid stops and changes of direction. The best basketball insoles will help protect your feet and your body, as well as help you maximize your performance on the court. 

In this article we’ll discuss how to get the best inserts for basketball shoes: what to look for, how they help, and even how to put insoles in basketball shoes.

We’ll also discuss what makes SOLE custom moldable footbeds the very best a basketball athlete can get.

Why do basketball players take their insoles out?

You might have noticed NBA players taking out their insoles before gifting their shoes to an adoring fan. While the shoes get a cult following, it’s the insoles inside that many players rely on for comfort and performance at the highest level of their game. 

Many players wear custom insoles that fit their feet just right and feel great in their basketball shoes. Players hang on to these insoles, to enjoy the same level of comfort and performance in every pair of shoes.

Anyone can enjoy this same level of comfort and performance with the right pair of basketball insoles in their shoes.

The best basketball insoles protect your feet through every practice and game.

To protect your feet and help maximize performance, basketball insoles should offer sufficient arch support, to reduce strain as you move around the court. This reduction in strain protects your feet from fatigue and overuse injuries.

A great basketball insole will also have a deep heel cup. The deep heel cup cradles your heel’s natural fatty tissue beneath the bone. This helps optimize your body’s natural capacity for absorbing impact as you run, jump and stop.

The deep heel cup and the supportive arch also work together to promote neutral alignment as you play. Neutral alignment is crucial in protecting your joints. Being aligned will prevent excess strain on your ankles and knees especially, but also your hips and back.

All SOLE footbeds feature a supportive arch that's proven to reduce strain by an average of 34%, as well as a deep heel cup (try our footbeds for 15% off!).

Finally, having a pair of insoles that custom molds to your feet can have a huge impact on your comfort. SOLE footbeds are custom heat moldable in a couple of minutes using your oven at home. 

Once molded, our insoles act like a dynamic second skin, maintaining constant even contact with the bottom of your feet. This helps distribute pressure evenly to prevent pressure points or hot spots on your feet. 

Insoles to improve basketball performance.

The right pair of insoles can help you perform at a higher standard on the basketball court, more consistently. The first key to increased performance is feeling less fatigue while you play. 

Performance insoles for basketball will reduce strain in your feet, helping you save energy through every movement. This will keep you playing at a higher standard for longer. 

SOLE footbeds provide dynamic arch support through our trademark density-mapped design. This support flexes with your foot’s natural movement, to reduce strain by a third without interfering with the way your foot moves. 

When it comes to performance on the basketball court, nothing is more important than energy transfer. 

Efficient energy transfer assists in all important movements in basketball, but especially bursts of speed and jumping. The arch of the foot is responsible for a large amount of energy transfer, and supporting the arch helps it transfer energy efficiently and consistently over a longer period of time.

Another crucial factor for efficient energy transfer is neutral alignment throughout your body.

Basketball orthotics that promote neutral alignment will help you transfer energy efficiently through the whole chain of movement, from fingertips to feet. Poor alignment results in a loss of energy in your joints. 

This loss of energy occurs in the form of strain placed on your joints, not only wasting energy and slowing you down, but putting you at risk of injury. SOLE footbeds promote neutral alignment to prevent that risk of injury and help you perform consistently at the top of your abilities.

Basketball insoles to help you jump higher.

Jumping is a fantastic example of a motion that requires efficient energy transfer through your body’s chain of motion. Most jumps will initiate in an athletic position, with your feet aligned beneath your shoulders, and your toes facing straight forward.

From this stable base, you transfer energy through your whole body, to propel yourself into the air. Having an athletic insole in your basketball shoes will help promote neutral alignment to assist in efficient energy transfer as you push off from the ground.

Insoles won’t be a magic fix to help you jump higher, but they will help you set yourself up for success as you work on that aspect of your game. They will also help protect your feet and joints as you land, and speed up the transfer of energy from the up/down motion of jumping, to the forward/back or side-to-side motions of a breakaway, backpedaling on defense or getting yourself into space.

Basketball insoles for flat feet.

People with flat feet or fallen arches struggle with efficient energy transfer through their feet. Having a supportive structure in your arch will assist your feet in transferring energy, helping you with more explosive movements on the court.

The key here is adding structural support to your basketball shoes. The sensation of adding support might be strange or slightly uncomfortable at first. That’s where SOLE’s custom moldable footbeds have a real advantage. 

By heat molding your footbeds, you can get comfort dialed in for your unique feet in a matter of minutes. This will allow you to enjoy the supportive comfort and performance benefits of SOLE in your basketball shoes, without needing an extended adjustment period.

How to put insoles in basketball shoes.

The first step in adding new insoles to your basketball shoes is making sure they’re trimmed to size. You’ll need a pair of regular kitchen scissors to do this. 

Take the factory insole out from your basketball shoes and use it to trim your new basketball insoles to size. Watch the best way to do that here.

Next, leave the factory insole out of your basketball shoes. These will be replaced by the new insole you’ve bought.

Finally, simply slip the new, trimmed insole into your basketball shoes, put them on and lace up!

Which SOLE footbed is best for basketball shoes?

All SOLE footbeds will offer the same supportive structure to basketball shoes. They’re all heat moldable, and all have the same signature shape. That being said, we generally recommend a Medium thickness insole for basketball.

The SOLE Active Medium includes a medium layer of open-cell foam cushioning that helps absorb impact in your shoes. This insole is also a great thickness for adding to basketball shoes. 

The Performance Medium has the same shape and cushioning as the Active medium, but it's made with a base of recycled wine corks. This ultra-sustainable base makes these footbeds carbon negative, meaning they remove more carbon from the atmosphere than they add!