Eight hiking insoles ranked on arch support, heel hold and how much room they take up in a boot, from firm carbon-stiffened shells to soft cushioned footbeds.
Pull the footbed out of almost any hiking boot and you'll find a thin slab of foam with a gentle bump where the arch should be. REI calls stock insoles in performance footwear typically inexpensive fillers, and that's fair. The boot company spent its money on the upper, the midsole and the outsole, and left the part your foot actually rests on as a placeholder.
An aftermarket insole replaces that placeholder with three things the stock one rarely has: a firm, shaped arch, a deep cup that holds the heel in place, and a volume chosen to fill the boot properly. Get those right and a boot that felt sloppy on descents, or left your arches aching by mile eight, can feel like a different boot. Get them wrong and you've made a good boot worse.
The eight below are ranked on support first, then heel hold, then how well the volume suits a hiking boot, then durability. Amazon review counts set none of it. The PowerStep Pinnacle has nearly a hundred times the ratings of the Currex HikePro and still ranks below it here, because it's a cushioned all-purpose orthotic and the HikePro is built for trail work. The top three are the insoles OutdoorGearLab and CleverHiker rate most highly between them.
On price, this category tops out lower than people expect. The serious hiking insoles cluster in a narrow band, and Tread Labs sits at the top of it, because you're paying for a guaranteed arch shell and a top cover you can replace. Past that you're into custom orthotics from a podiatrist. That's a medical fitting, and a different thing from a better insole.
My dad and I haven't worn or tested any of these eight, and I'm not going to pretend we have. The ranking comes from published specs, the makers' own fit guidance, Amazon buyer reviews, AI-assisted research, and what the expert testers above put in print.
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The insole to start with. A medium-to-high arch stiffened with Superfeet's carbon-fiber and polymer blend, a deep heel cup and medium volume make it the pick that fits the widest range of hiking boots and feet, and OutdoorGearLab gave it its Editors' Choice award as best overall. It used to be sold as the Trailblazer Comfort, so older reviews under that name are the same insole.
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CleverHiker's best overall insole, and an easy one to match to your foot. You choose a low, medium or high arch profile, and a deep heel cup with an anti-slip surface cradles the heel. Currex describes the arch as flexible, though CleverHiker lists its arch support as rigid and its heel stabilization as mild. A good one to try if you want a lighter feel.
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The insole you shape to your own foot. Its EVA base heat-molds in a home oven to your arch, low, medium or high, and the firm arch and deep heel cup sit on a zero-drop platform. OutdoorGearLab names it a top pick for plantar fasciitis. The trade is a long break-in, so start it well before a big trip.
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Quick verdict: The insole to start with. A medium-to-high arch stiffened with Superfeet's carbon-fiber and polymer blend, a deep heel cup and medium volume make it the pick that fits the widest range of hiking boots and feet, and OutdoorGearLab gave it its Editors' Choice award as best overall. It used to be sold as the Trailblazer Comfort, so older reviews under that name are the same insole.
Quick verdict: CleverHiker's best overall insole, and an easy one to match to your foot. You choose a low, medium or high arch profile, and a deep heel cup with an anti-slip surface cradles the heel. Currex describes the arch as flexible, though CleverHiker lists its arch support as rigid and its heel stabilization as mild. A good one to try if you want a lighter feel.
Quick verdict: The insole you shape to your own foot. Its EVA base heat-molds in a home oven to your arch, low, medium or high, and the firm arch and deep heel cup sit on a zero-drop platform. OutdoorGearLab names it a top pick for plantar fasciitis. The trade is a long break-in, so start it well before a big trip.
Quick verdict: CleverHiker's budget pick, and the cheapest insole here with a structured arch under it. Oboz pairs a molded medium arch with a deep heel cup and targeted foam pads at the forefoot and heel, in a low-profile build that needs almost no break-in. Next to the top three it's a little softer and won't last as long.
Quick verdict: The softer sibling of the Hike Support. It keeps a medium-to-high arch but Superfeet builds it to flex with the foot, as the softer, cushioned option in its hiking line, so it suits hikers whose boots already fit and whose soles feel pounded after hard ground. Superfeet previously sold it as the ADAPT Hike Max.
Quick verdict: The most expensive insole on this page, and the only one built to be repaired rather than replaced. The molded arch shell comes in four heights and Tread Labs backs it with its Million Mile Guarantee, while the cushioned top cover is a separate part you swap when it wears out. The original Pace was CleverHiker's pick for multiple arch heights.
The Amazon listing for this second version is new, so its review pool is tiny. That tells you the listing is young and says nothing yet about the insole.
Quick verdict: The cushioned all-rounder. A supportive arch shape aimed at moderate pronation sits under dual-layer cushioning, and it's sold by shoe size with no trimming needed. CleverHiker's tester with plantar fasciitis reported real relief in it. It's a general-purpose orthotic rather than a hiking-specific one, and the high volume suits roomy boots best.
Quick verdict: The cheapest insole here and OutdoorGearLab's best bang for the buck. It's built for cushioning, with a dense heel plug and forefoot pad over polyurethane foam, and a four-way stretch top cover that helps with friction. It has little arch structure and no firm heel cup, so treat it as padding, not support.
Arch support is the main reason to buy an insole at all, and it only works when the shape under your midfoot matches the foot standing on it. Too low and it does nothing. Too high and it presses a hard ridge into your arch that feels worse after every mile, and that's a common reason people give up on insoles in the first week.
Three picks here let you choose. The Currex HikePro comes in low, medium and high profiles, the Tread Labs Pace 2 in four arch heights, and the SOLE Active heat-molds to your own arch in an oven. The two Superfeet are fixed medium-to-high shapes. That suits most hikers, and it's the wrong shape if your feet are truly flat.
A rough test at home: stand on a wet foot on a paper bag. A full print with almost no curve on the inside points to a low arch, a thin strip between heel and ball to a high one.
Volume is how much room an insole takes up inside the shoe. REI's guidance is that high-volume insoles suit high-volume footwear like hiking boots, while low-volume ones suit snug footwear like cycling shoes. Put a thick insole in a boot that already fit snugly and your toes hit the top of the toe box and your heel rides up out of the collar.
Hiking boots are the forgiving case, which is why most of this page works in them. The SOLE Active comes in Thin, Medium and Thick versions for exactly this reason, and CleverHiker flags the Currex HikePro as a poor fit in low-volume shoes. Always take the stock footbed out first. Stacking two is the fastest way to ruin a boot's fit.
The heel cup is the raised, curved wall around the back of the insole, and it does more work than its size suggests. It centers the fat pad under your heel bone so it cushions the way it's meant to, and it stops the heel sliding side to side inside the boot on off-camber ground.
The four firm-support picks and the Oboz all have a deep, structured cup. The Currex HikePro adds a grippy anti-slip surface at the heel, and the Superfeet Hike Support and SOLE both list a deep heel cup. The Spenco is the outlier, built around a soft cushioned heel pad that absorbs impact rather than locking anything in place.
Insoles split into two families, and they solve different problems. Firm support insoles use a stiff shell under the arch to stop the foot collapsing and rolling inward, which is what eases arch fatigue and plantar pain. Cushioned insoles add foam to soften impact on rock and pavement. REI makes a point worth repeating here: a support insole feels good because it keeps the foot stable. The padding has little to do with it.
If your feet ache in the arch or your heel slips, start with a firm pick: the Superfeet Hike Support, Currex HikePro, SOLE Active or Tread Labs. If the boots fit and your soles just feel beaten up after a long day, the cushioned side of the page is the better match, led by the Superfeet Hike Cushion.
Buy the Superfeet Hike Support. It's OutdoorGearLab's top pick overall, the arch is stiffened with a carbon-fiber blend that holds its shape under a pack, and the deep heel cup steadies a heel that slides on descents. Give it a few short walks before a long day; the firm arch takes some getting used to.
Get an insole you can match to your foot. The Tread Labs Pace 2 comes in four arch heights and a guaranteed molded shell with a replaceable top cover, so it's the one built to outlast several boots. The Currex HikePro does the same job with three profiles and a lighter feel.
If the boots fit and the problem is impact, choose padding over structure. The Superfeet Hike Cushion keeps a medium-to-high arch but flexes with the foot and adds a softer feel. On a tight budget the Spenco Polysorb Cross Trainer is all cushion and very little arch, and that's the trade it makes.
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Not always, but more often than people assume. If your boots fit, your arches don't ache and your heel stays put on descents, the stock footbed is doing its job and there's nothing to fix.
Insoles earn their place when something is a little off: arch fatigue on long days, a heel that lifts in an otherwise good boot, or a bit too much room in the forefoot. They're a cheap fix for a boot that's close. They can't rescue one that's the wrong length or the wrong shape.
Yes, every time. Aftermarket insoles are designed to replace the footbed, not sit on top of it. Stacking two lifts your foot in the boot, crowds your toes and lets your heel ride up. Use the stock insole as a template when you trim the new one, then set it aside.
REI puts aftermarket insoles at about 12 months of regular use, and several years for a pair you only wear occasionally. Hiking is harder on them than walking around town, so a big season can shorten that.
Replace them when the top cover wears through, the foam flattens at the heel and ball, or the arch shell cracks or sags. Tread Labs is the exception on this page: the molded arch is guaranteed and the top cover is sold separately, so you replace only the part that wears.
A firm, well-fitted arch support is one of the measures commonly suggested for plantar heel pain, and both expert roundups cited here single out picks for it: OutdoorGearLab names the SOLE Active Medium, and CleverHiker reports real relief from the PowerStep Pinnacle.
Pain that lasts more than a few weeks is worth a visit to a doctor or podiatrist, though. An off-the-shelf insole is a reasonable first step, not a diagnosis, and a custom orthotic is sometimes the right answer.
The firm ones usually do. Wear them for an hour or two at a time for the first several days before a long hike, because a supportive arch loads muscles that a flat footbed let off easy. CleverHiker notes a break-in period for the Superfeet Hike Support, SOLE Active and Tread Labs, and very little for the Oboz Trail Insole.
You can, as long as the shoes have similar volume and the insole is trimmed to the shorter of the two. It's a reasonable way to start. Once you know an insole works, most hikers buy a second pair rather than swapping, because pulling them in and out wears the edges and it's easy to forget them at home.
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Reader-supported and free of paid placements. Every pick is ranked on published specs and Amazon buyer ratings, not on who pays us.
Each pick is compared on published specs, materials, design, and category fit across the major brands.
Rankings factor in how well each product matches common hiking, backpacking, and trail running needs, not just popularity.
Star ratings and review volume from verified Amazon buyers are factored in to reflect real-world satisfaction.
A pick earns its spot by delivering useful performance for the money, whether budget or premium.
If your toes hit the front or the boot pinches across the widest part of your foot, no insole will fix it. Find the right boot first, then come back for the footbed.
Best Hiking Boots