Gel Insole companies are lying to you
Lately we’ve been seeing insole brands imitate the impact tests we made famous but using really fragile objects to test against or actually faking it altogether in efforts to fool consumers. So we sent some of these insoles to a third party lab to measure the literal amount of peak force that passes through the insole into your body in an internationally accepted simulation of running.
Insoles tested:
Z liner $29.99 Dr. Scholls $18 FP Insoles kingfoam elite mid $27 FP Kingfoam elite low $22
Results:
Peak Force (Damaging shock energy that enters the body):
Z liner 6599 newtons (worst)
Dr Scholls 5976 newtons (nearly as bad)
FP Insoles 2500 newtons (far superior)
FP Insoles not only absorbed nearly twice as much peak force as the other insoles, they also deformed less during the moment impact which makes them a more efficient surface for running.
Now imagine taking 10,000 steps per day, your body will absorb twice as much shock with gel insoles.
To confirm the results we tested TWO Z liners $29.99 vs one FP Elite Hi $32. The peak force of the impact passed right through the z liners and broke the cinder block.
Nike doesn't come close
ASTM f1614 test measures how much energy is absorbed by Footwear.
By adding an FP Insole to a Nike or wearing an FP Footwear shoe, the shock energy absorption is inceased to 90% and lasts the life of the shoe.
Imagine if Toyota ran an ad showing their Prius beating a Tesla in acceleration. Remind Insoles Inc did just that.
Foreward
It came to our attention that remind insoles inc had released a video
demonstrating how their new impact series insoles outperformed and absorbed more shock than FP Insoles.
In the video they compared their $55 medic elite model to
our $32 kingfoam elite hi profile model. (Why didn’t they at least compare insoles in the same price range? Well it turned out in the end that even our budget $24 insoles beat their $55 insoles.)
Upon seeing the video we knew this was a false claim, misleading at best, as we were very familiar with the material they were using so we ordered some insoles and debunked the video.
Remind insoles not only adopted the exact tagline we had been using but used this video to fool consumers, the general public and retail buyers into believing they had beat Footprint.
We immediately notified their attorney, Steven T Coopersmith, that they should remove the video immediately. He refused to cooperate and his response was that they would counter sue us for testing their insoles in the past despite the fact that true comparison testing is protected to clear confusion and protect consumers. His willingness to cover up the truth was sad to say the least. To the date of this publishing, they still have the video pinned on their social media with over 50k views on instagram alone and have ran advertising versions of the video.
THE STUDY:
We sent various insoles to Intertek, the leading Footwear testing company to measure the kN (Kilonewtons) absorbed by the insoles at levels of Joules we determined to simulate the ground reactive forces generated by action sports.
Intertek dropped an anvil representing the heel of the foot onto the heel section of each insole while a force plate below measured the amount of kN transfered into the plate.
It is of note that 2-4 kN is generated while jogging/running and up to 13kN is generated while jumping in place.
Micky Papa's 4 month old insole:
To spice things up, we called Micky Papa and asked him for the insoles out of his shoes. He told us had been using them for 4 months. We made the following video then sent his insoles along with new remind insoles to Intertek.
RESULTS:
The lower the kN the more energy absorbed
SUMMARY OF RESULTS:
Full test reports can be found here
FP INSOLES reduced the impact to a similar level as an average human
jumping in place while Remind Insoles Impact line were far inferior in absorbing the
impact energy that causes injury. We had to reduce the joules from 37.5 to 25 in
order to get the Remind Insole Medic $55 to perform like the used FP Insole did at 37.5 Joules.
It should also be worth noting that the Remind insoles will not maintain the
same level of impact energy absorption after multiple
impacts like the FP Insoles do.
As a reference, running generates 2-4 kN on average while jumping in place
can generate up to 13kN. 6kN is enough to snap a bone by falling directly on the arm, etc.
- How many consumers bought Remind insoles due to the false/misleading video and claims?
- Were consumers fooled into paying more for a product that performs less?
- If consumers knew the actual amount of energy they absorbed would they have purchased them?