ShoolexShoolex, Big Shoe Filler, Unisex Shoe Inserts To Make Big Shoes Fit, Medium

I'm a rower, and our club has ~40 rowers that show up on the regular for both sculling and sweeping. We have 8+s, 4+s, 4-s, 4Xs, 2Xs, 2-s, and 1Xs... all of which are shared as they are club-owned. We don't use the "bring your own" bat-logic shoes (HATED those!), we have the normal Hudsons, Vespolis, and H2Row shoes. Because they're club boats, they have to accommodate feet of all sizes, which means by default they have to be big enough for the biggest feet. For the ladies, that means (generally speaking) that our feet move all over the place in the drive, which means loss of applied power, like a bad transmission.Enter these shoe inserts... I put these bad boys in for my last few rows, and what a difference. They're just enough to fill the space past my toes to the edge of the men's size 12 without cramming or cramping, and I had ZERO slippage, which means all the power I put into the drive actually gets translated to the boat (as long as my blades are in the water, of course). And bonus round, they float. Because they're so comfortable, they're easy to forget after the end of the row when putting the boat away, but if that's the only thing I gotta remember, all the better.

I bought a Small and a Medium pair of these inserts. I'm about to buy another Small pair. These were pretty great for me and got a good deal of use before breaking apart, but I wish the price was lower for what they are.I've used them with heels and flats and they really helped make several pairs of shoes wearable. One pair was about a size too big and the inserts plus heel grips made the shoes perfectly comfortable.There was some learning involved to figure out what worked for my feet and my shoes. I ended up typically angling the inserts so that they weren't straight in the toe, but a bit off to the outside (and this varies somewhat with different toe shapes and sizes). The inserts were soft and molded to the volume they occupied, and I couldn't even feel them.I felt like I got good use out of the inserts before they started breaking apart. That seems pretty inevitable to me considering the toes and toenails digging into them. What really seemed to do it in was getting sand in my shoes, the extra friction from the sand particles caused some little pieces to break off within hours. Would be an ideal product if the surface was tougher somehow, but without compromising the softness. Or if they cost at most half of what they do (~$15 is a bit too much for something with such a limited lifespan, IMO)

I bought these to fit into a pair of shoes with a blunt toe. While the shoes fit against my big toe comfortably, there was a lot of space between the toe of the shoes and my smaller toes, resulting in an awkward, uneven step.I expected these to be soft foam, but it feels more like a foam-coated brick. This is a great IDEA, but the execution left a lot to be desired. It was like stubbing my toes every time I took a step.

Ok, first, let me preface this review by saying that I have big feet for a woman who is only 5'5". Even as a skinny kid in 5th grade I was wearing a size 8 women's shoes.. no joke. So my entire life has been centered around finding the perfect shoes that don't look like boats on my feet. And let me tell you, that struggle was made all the harder by the time I became an adult, because when my feet finally stopped growing, they settled on 10.5. So not only do I have big feet, but I had to have it stop on a half-size, too?!!! What the hell did I do in my previous life to deserve such a hellish punishment??! Sorry... I digress. So you ladies who are in between sizes can feel my pain because it's so hard to find shoes that fit because half sizes in general are rare to find. So you are stuck trying to squeeze into the smaller size and endure excruciating pain whenever you wear them OR risk breaking your neck trying to walk in them if you go the next size up. Now, my big feet comrades out there will agree with me on this next point. If the half size wasn't bad enough, I'm now stuck with picking through the big ugly women's shoes. Like, WHY are the cute shoes only available in the smaller sizes??? Who made the rule that anything over a size 9 has to be hideous??? Unless you are ready to spend some serious money (and I do mean SERIOUS money) on shoes, we big feet women (well, those of us who like to dress nice and have cute shoes to go with our cute outfits, at least) are always constantly shoe shopping... Well, more like window shopping, because more often then not, that cute shoe you fell in love with WON'T be in your size (even when excluding the half size), and if it is in your size (again, excluding the half size), the price tag on them will force you to either leave them on the shelf, or splurge and buy them, effictively exhausting all of your spending money for the next month or two... or maybe even three. So we are always on the look out for that rare pair of cute shoes, in our size, and on sale! So when a local boutique (known for having cute, professional, work appropriate stilettos and pumps in bigger sizes, albeit expensive) announced it was having a clearance sale, up to 75% off on the entire shoe selection, I couldn't get there fast enough. I bought 7 pairs of stunning, high quality pumps, and I wasn't going to be homeless! It was the most amazing feeling in the world! Until I started trying to where them for work. Not surprisingly, the boutique didn't carry half sizes, so I'd bought all 7 pairs in a size 11 (after trying on the 10's just to confirm that my feet didn't magically shrink by half a size), thinking it would be smarter to size up, rather than down, since I was going to be in these shoes for at least 9 hours, and past experiences of wearing too small shoes for even 1 hour still haunt me (I swear I still feel phantom pain from time to time). And, clever girl that I am, I even prepared the night before work by purchasing several different shoe filler products and heal wedges, confident that at least one of them, or maybe a combination of them would solve the problem of the shoes slipping off of my feet mid-stride, saving me from a most certain death. Imagine my surprise when none of the products worked... not a one... not alone, and not even as a combination. I barely survived that day at work. If I wasn't constantly fidgeting with one product, trying to keep it in the shoe where it was supposed to be and not working itself up and out of the shoes as I walked, then I was constantly trying fish out and straighten the other product that kept bunching up, rolling itself into a ball inside the shoe, causing pain every time I took a step. So not only were the products a complete failure, but I spent the entire day desperately trying to avoid embarrassment by trying to inconspicuously adjust the products, praying no one noticed the odd shuffle walk I had to do to keep the products from moving around so much and to save me from falling on my face if the shoes slipped too much off of my feet at the exact wrong moment. Not too mention, on top of all that, I still ended up in pain, the ONE thing I wanted to avoid the most! So, needless to say, 7 pairs of beautiful shoes sat, unworn... for months. Until, by chance, I happened upon this product, while randomly searching on Amazon (yes, I do that when I get bored, lol) and finally decided to give it another shot and took a chance on this product, and let me you, I am so glad I did! This filler is amazing!!!!!!! It stays in place, doesn't move, doesn't bunch up, and the memory foam is so soft, so no pain! Now, I do want to warn you that it's not the most natural feeling in the world, because, of course, you have something stuffed in your shoe, so you are going to feel it and you are going to be constantly aware that it is there, but compared to the nightmare I experienced with the other products, this is a minor issue that I am completely willing to overlook. This product saved my shoes, my life, and my sanity! By the way, I will be ordering again, but this time I will purchase the medium size. I initially purchased this product in size small, but since all shoes are not created equal, I did experience minor slippage still with a couple pair of the shoes, which, I firmly believe, is due to the shoe brand running slightly bigger, and not indicative of an issue with the product. So if you are like me, and are on the verge of giving up on the hope of ever being able to wear those too big shoes you got that great deal on, do yourself a favor and don't. Keep trying, because as you know, my fellow in-betweeners and big feet ladies, it already takes a lot to find that perfect shoe, so don't let something like it being a little too big keep you from rocking the hell out of those shoes!!!