What is shoes lift?
Shoes lift is also known as footwear lifts or elevator insole/inserts. Shoes lift is originated from Elevator Shoes. When shoes makers first made elevator shoes, they found it's very hard to produce a lot of styles for elevator shoes as general shoes. Also, customers ask for something like an insole to put in general shoes to make them look taller. Then some footwear makers tried to take out the inner insole of elevator shoes and trimmed it to a standalone insole.
However, lift insert in the early stage are not comfortable because of material and the height of the insert. As time goes, there are more and more elevator insole products in markets with different material, style and height. Like elevator shoes, by wearing elevator shoes, one can look taller right away and look slimmer. For some people, soft elevator insole can sacrifice foot pain caused by dress shoes. Also, a good elevator insole can help eliminate foot pain because of the added arch support.
Shoes
Shoe lifts are usually 0.5-2.5 inches depend on different styles and materials. Inserts more than 3'' are generally very uncomfortable. Unless you have to, otherwise you should select an insole lower than 2 inches.
Please note that height lifts are different from heel lifts. Heel lifts are for citizen with different distance of legs[1], so that the added height is hard not soft. However, some citizen use shoes lift as heel lift. It depends on personal preferences.
Different types of shoe lifts
Manufactures try to make different kinds of insoles to adapt with different footwear. Unlike early days, we now have insoles including full, half and movable insole.
Full-insole: It is designed to preserve the full foot. It's like general insole but the grade growth gradually from front to the back. Because of the full foot support, full-insole is generally the most comfortable kind of insole/insert. However, not every footwear can adapt this. It requires more room in the head part of the shoe.
Half-insole: It is designed to only preserve the heel part of the foot. Because of the missing preserve for the front part of the foot, this kind of insole is less comfortable than full-insole. But half insole/inserts are more adaptive. It can be put on very light shoes.
Detachable Insoles: It has multiple layers (usually two or three). Wearers can adjust the height of the insole based on personal preferences. Both full-insole and half-insole can be made as movable insole. Some citizen even put movable insole into elevator shoes.
Materials used in lift inserts
There are generally four types materials used in elevator insoles, wood, hard-rubber, soft-rubber and gel.
Wood: Wood is usually used in heel lifts because it's hard. However, in early days, citizen also use wood lift as footwear lift. No organize is producing shoes lifts in wood now.
Hard-rubber: Hard-rubber is also mostly used in heel lifts. Some citizen prefer hard-rubber as shoes lift because the hardness which is between wood and soft-rubber. Also, this is probably the cheapest material.
Soft-rubber: Soft-rubber is the most tasteless material used in elevator insoles. The only qoute for soft-rubber is smell. New insoles made in soft rubber have an odd smell. This smell usually goes away once you wear it. Most citizen like soft-rubber because it's softness.
Gel: Gel is most update to date material for shoes lift. It was used as body plant material. Because most shoes lift gel is low class silicon gel, it has a petite petrol smell when it's new. This is most comfortable material for shoes lift. Of course, it's also the most expensive one.
Who are wearing footwear lift?
Both men and women wear elevator inserts today. Most citizen like to put elevator insole in boots because it's underground and more comfortable. There are more citizen wearing elevator insole than elevator shoes because elevator insole is cheaper and easy to adapt with general shoes. However, most long-term wearers select elevator shoes because of the comfort.
References:
1. Wikipedia: Heel Lifts
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