Custom tennis insoles: the best insoles for your tennis shoes

Adding insoles to your tennis shoes is an easy and affordable way to improve your game and care for your body while you play. The right insole will work with your tennis shoes to complement the central aims of their design: helping to add stability, increase the efficiency of energy transfer, and protect against fatigue and injury.

In this article we’ll discuss what to look for in an insole for your tennis shoes and how these elements improve your game and prevent injury, as well as the benefits of using a custom moldable tennis insole. We’ll speak to why SOLE footbeds are the best a tennis player can get. We’ll also take a look at two specific focuses: tennis insoles for flat feet, and for plantar fasciitis.

The best insoles for tennis shoes.

The best insoles for tennis shoes are those that support your foot and offer increased stability to maximize the efficiency of your body's kinetic chain. In order to achieve this you should be looking for a tennis insole with a number of key factors.

A great insole for tennis will have a deep heel cup. The heel cup helps to cradle your heel’s fatty tissue under the bone to make the most of your body’s natural cushioning. This helps absorb impact and stress during fast movements and sudden stops.

The best tennis insoles will also have sufficient arch support. This arch support helps your feet carry their load by supporting the arch from beneath, reducing strain in the foot to help prevent fatigue over time.

The deep heel cup and proper arch support also combine to promote neutral alignment in your body. When your body is properly aligned it helps to prevent excess strain on your joints, especially your ankles and your knees. This is particularly important when playing a sport like tennis which requires explosive speed and rapid changes of direction.

With a deep heel cup and proper arch support you help maximize your body’s natural ability to perform athletically. It’s all about helping your body move with reduced strain and increased stability and efficiency.

Most tennis players also prefer an insole with some amount of cushioning. Cushioning simply helps to absorb the repeated impact of each step as you move around the court. An open-cell foam like Softec will provide the highest durability to continue adding comfort game after game.

The best tennis insoles are custom moldable to your feet. 

Custom tennis insoles are the cream of the crop when it comes to adding supportive comfort to your tennis shoes. A custom moldable insole conforms to the contours of your unique feet. 

Once molded, the insole acts like a dynamic second skin, staying in constant even contact with the bottom of your feet. This custom support helps distribute pressure evenly across the foot, preventing excess strain in any one part of the foot as well as improving stability and balance.

SOLE footbeds can be custom molded to your unique feet in just a  couple of minutes using your oven at home. They’ll also gradually wear-mold to your feet over a few days of regular wear. This is one of the reasons we believe our footbeds are the best option for tennis insoles on the market. 

What makes SOLE footbeds the best insoles for tennis shoes?

As mentioned above, all SOLE footbeds are custom heat or wear moldable. This gives the benefit of customized support at an over-the-counter price. Our footbeds also all feature a deep heel cup and our Signature Supportive Arch, clinically proven to reduce strain in the feet by an average of 34%.

Another aspect of SOLE footbeds that sets them apart for playing tennis is their density-mapped construction. While other brands use a separate cup or shank to give their tennis insoles rigid support, our footbed base is made from one continuous piece of material. This material is more dense where you need more support, and less dense where your foot needs more flex.

The result is that SOLE footbeds support your feet without controlling your foot’s natural movement. We’re all about helping your body do what it does best, without interfering with the way your feet move.

All SOLE footbeds also feature the same Signature Supportive Shape. This means that no matter which insole you choose for your tennis shoes, you can trust that you’re getting the same industry-leading support. Simply choose your insole based on which version will fit best in your shoes. 

We suggest starting with a Medium footbed which includes a layer of our Softec open-cell foam for cushioning. If your tennis shoes fit a little looser though, and you need some extra cushioning, you could go for one of our Thick footbeds instead. 

The best part is that SOLE footbeds are backed by our 90 Day Guarantee. This means if your footbeds don’t fit quite right, you can return or exchange them any time within the first 90 days of your purchase. This applies even if you’ve trimmed your footbeds or heat molded them to your feet. The most important thing to us is that you find a SOLE product that works well for you.

The best tennis insoles for flat feet.

Like any good tennis insole, an insole for someone with flat feet should offer the right amount of arch support to help add structural support to your foot. This support is especially important for promoting good alignment through the lower limbs for people with flat feet. By promoting good alignment, you reduce the risk of injury by overloading your joints.

People with flat feet love wearing SOLE footbeds to add supportive comfort to their athletic shoes. This is largely due to the heat moldable nature of our footbeds. By heat molding the footbed you get a comfortable level of support dialed in for your feet, allowing you to wear the insoles comfortably without sacrificing their supportive quality.

The custom molded footbed will also help distribute pressure and relieve strain in the feet, helping to end the foot pain that can often occur as a result of exercising with flat feet.

Insoles for tennis with plantar fasciitis.

Plantar fasciitis occurs due to inflammation of the plantar fascia - the ligament that runs from the base of your heel to your toe bones. This painful condition can make playing tennis incredibly painful, as the load on your feet places extra strain on the plantar fascia.

To return to playing tennis pain-free it’s important to relieve the strain on the plantar fascia ligament, allowing it to heal. That’s where arch support comes in. By wearing an insole with a supportive arch, you help the foot carry its load structurally, reducing strain on the plantar fascia. 

While arch support is especially important for plantar fasciitis, everything already listed in this article remains true. The best insole for tennis with plantar fasciitis will combine that arch support with a deep heel cup, a layer of open-cell cushioning, and a density-mapped custom moldable base.