**REVIEW** ProFoot Original Miracle Insole

This is the short version of this review for Profoot Original Miracle Insole:

Pros: 

• Very lightweight & thin. Won't cramp your toes or alter the fit of the shoe as much.
• Good for heavier-weight people (I can testify to that!)
• Affordable. Around $10 when I got them on Amazon. Might be cheaper at Walmart.
• Work to make the hardest-soled shoes comfortable & great for combat-style or workboots.
• Size variety (with trimming) are for U.S. women's size 6-10 & men's 8-13. (If men need smaller, just get the women's version.)

Cons:

• None that I know of after a week but I don't know how long they last.

Now, my long-winded rant and the review!

I needed new winter boots. I bought new winter boots. The boots are cute. They are exactly the right color and style I was looking for. And they were very affordable. These are the boots.

Everything about these boots is all that I love in a boot. Except for the insole.

The minute I tried these on, I knew I had a problem. The insoles made it feel as if I was walking barefoot on concrete. 

Like with apparel or footwear that I get from Amazon, I chose the Try Before You Buy option. I'm really awful at shopping for clothes and shoes online. Nothing ever fits the way I expect. The sellers' ideas of sizing vary so much. I've sent back more clothing than I have ever owned. I think out of the past 3 years, I've only kept two items. These boots were NOT going to be the third.

But I really really liked the boots and I could actually afford them. I decided to see if I could make this work out for me so I went hunting for a good insole option.

In the past, I've usually gone with Dr. Scholl's or one of the other brands of insoles that I could easily find. This time, I wanted to be sure to get the best without going broke. Finally, I found these:

The insoles cost around $10 and I was mad at those boots because I was out more money. Then when I took the insoles out of the package, I was even madder. They look so thin. And they have a cheap and papery feel to them. I just knew I was now going to be returning both the boots and these insoles. 

Still, I figured, it wouldn't hurt to try them out. I decided that between the built-in insoles and these, maybe, just maybe, I would be able to wear the boots without being in pain. So I gave it a try. I didn't have to do any trimming because I'd gotten the boots in the size 9 (women's U.S.) that Amazon suggested. I normally wear an 8.5 but, like I said, you can never really tell how things will really fit.

Anyway. I took a walk around the living room. Then I took a long walk down the hallway outside my door. Both those surfaces are carpeted though because I wanted to be able to return the boots if I needed to. But I wanted to see how they would feel on hard surfaces so I went down one of our halls that has hardwood flooring (it was freshly mopped and pretty clean). The verdict:

Let me tell you something! These insoles are a-ma-zing.

My boots now felt like they should have in the first place. I have a pair of more expensive and better-made boots (that I save for better occasions) and these cheap, man-made boots now felt just as good.

The thinness of the insoles that I'd been so worried about is actually a bonus. Most insoles that have worked for me in the past take up too much room in the footwear. These just cushion the foot without cramping the toes. It probably helps that I got these in a 9 but they had already fit with my winter socks (and I got these for winter so I don't ruin my better boots). 

The big test of these insoles - now that I'd decided to keep the boots - was when my SIL and I went grocery shopping and ran some other errands. We did some lightly iced-over concert parking lots, we did wet concrete, and we did those hard floors in Walmart and a couple of other grocery stores. The comfort level was great. 

So, there you go. If you need some good insoles, I can suggest these. 

As for the boots, I don't think that I would buy more from this brand unless I was totally in love with the look. For one thing, when you pull these up in the Amazon search, they show the vegan materials as "leather". That's a blatant and bald-faced lie. Vegan materials are not leather and should be described accurately as being man-made. On the other hand, you probably can know that boots in a certain price range are not authentic leather. But it's a matter of product honesty. Also, if all their boots are as uncomfortable as these were, I can't trust their "Memory Foam Insoles" claim any more than I can trust their claims of the shoe being "leather". But this pair is super cute.

Pro-tip: If you find boots online that are out of your price range, do an image search and try to find those boots on Poshmark or Mercari, or eBay. I found the leather pair that I originally wanted on both Poshmark and eBay - just not in the size I needed or the color that I wanted. 

Peace

--Free