Support with comfort. We designed for both.

The key to effective orthotics is balancing support and comfort. Many affordable insoles offer comfort but minimal support — so pain persists. Some orthotics are supportive but too rigid and uncomfortable. Interpod's four design features deliver both: enough support to reduce symptoms, enough comfort to wear all day.

Before Interpod existed, Graeme Simpson ran a custom orthotic lab out of his garage. For years he made orthotics by hand, one patient at a time, to the prescription he wrote himself. That hands-on work taught him something the orthotics industry had never quite said out loud: most of what makes a custom orthotic "custom" isn't actually custom.

Length and width are dictated by shoe size. The arch shape is not meaningfully derived from the individual patient's foot — it's a standard profile applied at a chosen height. The only genuinely patient-specific variable in an orthotic prescription is how much support the foot needs — and that's a measurable clinical value, not a moulded one.

To measure it, Graeme invented the Keystone device — a clinical instrument that quantifies how much support each patient's foot requires. Independent research at the Université du Québec (UQTR) in Canada validated the method. Today the Keystone is used in podiatry clinics worldwide to prescribe Interpod at the correct arch height and rearfoot wedge for each patient — usually the minimum effective level, which maximises comfort and shoe fit.

The Keystone requires clinical training, which made it a practitioner-only tool. To bring the same decision to consumers buying online, Graeme developed the Modular System — the same clinical process, adapted for home. The Modular includes all three arch heights as interchangeable EVA inserts. The patient trials each one at home until their discomfort resolves. Whichever height achieves that is their clinically-correct level. Their Model P then ships at that level. Practitioners use the Keystone. Patients use the Modular. Same conclusion, two methods.

The three support levels — Mild, Moderate, and High — were established by trial across years of clinical practice. Low is the lowest level at which an orthotic is clinically effective. High is the highest the average patient can tolerate comfortably. Moderate sits exactly between. Any level in between those three is clinically indistinguishable to the patient — so three covered the full range without manufacturing redundancy.

The result: a prefab orthotic that delivers the same clinical outcome as a custom-made device, without the plaster casting, the digitisation, the two-week manufacturing wait, or the $500–$1,000 price tag. La Trobe University confirmed it through independent research — no statistical difference in comfort (p=0.87) or fit (p=0.92) between Interpod and custom. Zero Interpod devices needed modifying post-fitting. 16.3% of the custom devices in the same study did.

Supination resistance is measured in newtons (N) — the force needed to supinate the foot, mirroring how hard it pronates. The higher the reading, the more support the foot needs. Here is how the scale maps to the three Interpod levels.

Foot pain isn’t about arch shape. It’s about motion. Walk or run, and each foot does the same two things in sequence — it pronates to absorb the ground, then supinates to push off. When the forces in either motion become excessive for the tissues handling them, strain builds and pain can follow. Interpod's four design features address both, each proven by university research. Flat or high-arched feet — the problem is the same. So is the solution.

How the foot raises its own arch at push-off — the system the Plantar Fascial Groove and 1st Ray Cutaway assist.

The windlass is foundational foot science. Interpod's design features are built to work with it — and our own independent research has tested that they do.

Four design features working together throughout every step to achieve one outcome: reduced tissue stress and reduced symptoms.

The hardest problem in orthotic design is giving a foot real support while keeping it comfortable enough to wear all day — the two usually pull against each other. NeuroFlex is the material we've developed and refined over 25 years to do both.

Most insoles offer arch support and cushioning. Interpod engineered four biomechanical design features — the same features found in custom orthotics costing $500–$1,000. No retail insole has them.