Bama Foam Footbed Insole 35 36 – Cushioning for a Long Standing Shift

Description

Bama Foam Footbed Insole 35 36 – Cushioning for a Long Standing Shift – a blue faced open cell foam bed for trainers and everyday shoes, carded in a Continental 35 or 36

There is one sort of working day that a shoe never really recovers from, and it is not the day you walk twenty miles across a city. It is the day you stand. Behind a bar, behind a till, behind a chair in a salon or at a bench, on tiles or on poured concrete, six or seven hours with both feet more or less in the same place the entire time.

Standing loads the same square inch of the foot again and again, without the roll of a step to shift that pressure anywhere else. The thin liner that came in the shoe was pressed out of a sheet and it goes flat inside a fortnight, so by mid afternoon you are standing on the outsole and very little besides.

Continental 35 and 36 on the card here, which is a UK 2.5 to 3.5, priced £10.99.

Why choose this bama foam footbed insole 35 36?

• Open cell foam, not a pressed sheet. The body here is a foam full of open cells rather than a die cut slab of rubber. It gives under the heel and the ball where you load it hardest, then rises again when you shift your weight, which a flat liner stops doing by week two.
• A face your sock can sit against. The top is a fine microfibre rather than bare foam, so it stays smooth under a sock and does not shred along the edges once the shoe has been pulled on and off a few hundred times. That is a bed that lasts a season rather than a fortnight.
• Cut it down to the shoe you own. The bed comes a shade generous so you can take it back with household scissors. Lift out the old liner, lay it on top, follow it round with a pen and cut, and you have a bed shaped to that shoe rather than a chart.
• Air, in a shoe that is shut all day. Open cells mean the foam moves air rather than sealing warm damp under the foot. In a closed shoe worn straight through a shift that matters far more than people expect, and it is why this bed is foam rather than gel.
• Made at the small end of the range. This is the 35 and 36 card, covering a UK 2.5 up to a 3.5. Small sizes are the ones a shop runs out of first, and a bed made at the size instead of hacked down from a 40 still resembles the shape of a foot.
• Bama Essentials, £10.99 the pair. Presentation is plain enough: a grey hanging card, a black printed panel at the head of it, a paper band holding the pair steady. Less than the price of retiring good shoes because they had gone hard underfoot.

How to use the bama foam footbed insole 35 36

Fitting takes a minute and a pair of scissors, and the trimming is the part worth slowing down for, because foam comes off easily and cannot be put back.

1. Lift the existing liner out of the shoe if it moves.
2. Lay that old liner over the new bed, heels squarely aligned.
3. Draw round the toe end of it with a ballpoint pen.
4. Cut just outside your line, then try it in the shoe.
5. Press the bed down flat, working from the heel forwards.
6. Wear the pair for a full day before judging the fit.

My tip as a shoe specialist

Take them out at the end of the shift and stand them on their heels overnight, leaning against a skirting board. Open cell foam absorbs a surprising amount of moisture across seven hours of standing, and a bed left lying flat inside a warm shoe stays both squashed and damp until the morning. Stood upright, both faces get air and the cells recover their thickness, so you begin the next day on the bed you actually paid for. It costs about ten seconds at the end of a shift and it roughly doubles how long a pair of these stays springy underfoot.

Specifications

What is on the card

• Size: Continental 35 and 36
• UK equivalent: Roughly 2.5 to 3.5
• Form: Runs heel to toe
• Top face: Fine microfibre, smooth
• Core: Open cell breathable foam
• Trimming: Household scissors, no glue
• Made for: Trainers and everyday shoes
• Brand: Bama, the Essentials line
• Price: £10.99

Frequently asked questions

Will these make my shoes feel tight?

Only if you leave the original liner underneath, which is the usual mistake. Lift the original out before this one goes in and the shoe keeps its depth, because the bed is close in thickness to the liner it quietly replaces.

Do I have to cut them?

Not always. In a 35 or a 36 the bed frequently drops straight in and needs nothing at all. Check the fit first, and only reach for the scissors if the toe end rides up the front.

How long should a pair last?

In daily wear I would think in terms of six months or so, less if you stand for a living. When your thumb leaves a dent that stays put overnight, the foam is finished.

Where can I buy the bama foam footbed insole 35 36 in the UK?

Stock of these sits with me at Shoespecialist.co.uk. The daily deadline is 5pm, Monday to Friday, and orders beating it travel that day. Nothing to pay on postage above £50, returns within 60 days.