aftermarket rock plates

[ben .]

hey all

has anyone successfully added a rock plate (an example) to a shoe that doesn’t have one?

is this a dumb idea?

(besides the fact that the above example is $50 per foot!)

[Pedestrian]

What problem are you trying to solve?

Also, a 1mm thick footbed could significantly alter the fit of the shoe.

[ben .]

i have a pair of shoes that i love (nike terra kiger).

but on a long and extremely rocky recent hike, i ended up with some pain in the balls of my feet.

adding a rock plate — they have a decent amount of cushion, but no plate — seems like a hail mary that likely won’t work very well, but i’m curious if anyone has had any experience trying :)

[Jim C]

There was a discussion of a MYOG rock plate made from plastic milk jugs. This is not something I’ve tried myself.

[Roger Caffin]

Adding anything to the inside of a shoe when you are getting a sore foot will most likely squeeze your foot even more tightly and make your foot even more sore.

Cheers

[Edward John M]

Isn’t the main cause of pain in the balls of the feet simply wearing shoes a size too small?

[Pedestrian]

^^
Having experienced the issue the OP seems to be having, I don’t think the cause is “a size too small”. It is likely lack of a rock plate and more importantly his feet not being adapted to running/hiking long hours in minimal shoes.

Two solutions that might work:

– ramp up miles gradually (the “too much too soon problem”), but first allow feet to recover from the existing insult to the soles

– wear shoes with a rock plate and more cushioning (but don’t ignore above)

A lot of ultra runners I know have switched to the heavily cushioned Hoka like shoes for the latter miles in 100 mile races and now swear by them. YMMV, n = 1, etc etc of course.

[ben .]

i don’t know if i’d call the terra kiger minimal. running warehouse measures the stack height as 24 (heel) to 20 (forefoot) — pretty middle of the trail running road in that regard.

i am wearing a full size larger than my non-hiking life and the toebox is wide-ish, certainly wide enough for my average width, low volume feet. there is no squeezing or tightness. additionally, i think there’s enough height above my toes to handle another millimeter of height.

all that said, chances are i’ll switch to the leadville or something similar for rockier stuff for a week long trip later this month.

as stated originally, i was simply curious if anyone has actually tried adding adding one of the aftermarket plates to a plate-less shoe. i’d love it if it worked, but it sounds iffy. sticking a plate under the insole is not the same as having it built into the shoe itself, so i was curious if it does the trick.

[Serge Giachetti]

Its not a dumb idea at all. I’ve done that with a couple of shoes, and it works quite well. I used one of those thin flexible cutting boards, cut it to my insole and then wrapped it in duct tape. I bet the arizona ice tea gallon jugs would work even better, esp with a layer of gorilla tape.

Mine developed cracks eventually, but did a good job of dulling whatever sharp things pushed through the sole. Putting this under the insole didn’t do anything noticeable to the fit of the shoe.

I used them with the original montrail fluidflex and the la sportiva helios, fluid and fun shoes without quite enough protection. It does take away from the sensitivity of the shoe, but I’ll take less sensitive over stress fractures. I could be wrong, but I don’t think you can condition your bones to resist damage from rocks.

I love the Terra Kiger too! Easily the best feeling shoe I’ve worn.

[ben .]

serge, thank you so much for this!

[Tom V]

I wonder if a paper thin piece of kydex would work. The great thing about kydex is that it is heat moldable, so you would cut them to the size of the your insole, heat them up in the oven or with a blow dryer, and place them in the shoe with the insole on top.

[Author]

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