External vs Internal heel lift

A shoe lift is an external shoe elevation on footwear which lifts the heel and the ball of the foot. A shoe lift can be an internal heel lift or external custom shoe lift depending on the height of the lift. External elevations and heel lifts involves splitting the existing sole on the shoe, adding the lift, the result being the original sole on the bottom.

Heel lift only involves splitting the footwear from the forefoot (ball of the foot) to the heel. A heel lift would not raise the ball of the foot. It is common for heel lift and elevation to be combined. Many have 1 1/4” on the heel, and 1” on the ball. For those who use internal heel lifts, and it is working well, then don’t change anything! For those who have been using internal heel lifts for many years and have recently started experiencing problems then changing to a full foot shoe lift might be for you.