Orthotics by Active Imprints

I went in to Active Imprints today for an appointment to get some custom running orthotics made. Owner Danny Abshire is one of the two co-founders of the Newton running shoe company. I have a set of orthotics already, but they give me very painful arch blisters when I run without socks, they are heavy, and they provide no forefoot correction. This is a problem because the goal with these spiffy new Newton running shoes is to get the runner to land on their forefoot, which would potentially negate any need for heel correction and increase need for forefoot correction.

I went in and was the only customer in the shop. After taking my foot imprint, the guy working in the shop that day, R.L., invited me in the back to watch him make the orthotics. Normally you have to wait a week or so for cutsom orthotics to come full circle, but at Active Imprints the whole thing took a whopping 30 minutes from start to finish! The new orthotics feel great and they weigh about half as much as my old ones. On top of this, the surface of the insole is made of a very smooth leather-like material that I'm guessing will cure my blister problems. I have a brick track workout tomorrow which should be a good test for the new orthotics.


Imprints of my feet were used as molds.


The molded material being glued up.


RL shaping the bottom and edges of the orthotics.


The finished product!


Damn, sucka! Look at that correction.