Custom Orthotics in Toronto: Pain, Prevention & Performance

Oct 23, 2026

By Brandon Nethercott, R. Kin, C. Ped (C)

IG: @Biomech.Brandon

Most people think of custom orthotics as simple arch supports. That’s only a small part of what they can be used for. At Foundation Physiotherapy & Performance in Toronto, we use custom orthotics for three different goals: easing pain, helping prevent injury and improving your performance in everyday life, hobbies and athletics.

What Custom Orthotics Actually Do

Every step you take involves a chain reaction to ‘ground-reaction force’. Your foot, ankle, knee and hip each have a job, and each has a moment to do it. When everything moves on time, the load of each step is shared evenly.

When one joint moves too early, too late or too far, the joints above it have to make up the difference. That’s called compensation. One compensation is no big deal, but repeated over thousands of steps a day, it can turn into pain, stiffness or injury.

Custom orthotics place your skeleton in a better position and control the timing of how your joints move. Think of your joints like a relay team: each one has to hand off the load at the right moment. An orthotic helps keep that timing on track, so your muscles and joints can do the job they’re built for. With repetition, your brain learns the new movement pattern guided by the orthotics until it becomes automatic.

That’s why prescribing a custom orthotic starts with a gait analysis. Your skeleton is unique, and so are your compensations. Slow-motion video shows exactly how you move, so your Pedorthist can design your orthotics specific to how your body compensates rather than for an average foot.

Custom Orthotics for Foot, Knee and Back Pain

Does your pain increase the longer you stand or walk, then ease when you rest? That pattern usually points to a load and movement problem that repeats with every step. Custom orthotics can help in two main ways.

Taking pressure off painful spots

Some foot shapes concentrate pressure in small areas. Bunions, hammertoes, high arches and prominent bones are common examples. Every step presses on the same spot, which is why it gets sore by the end of the day. A custom orthotic spreads that pressure over a wider area, so no single spot takes the full load.

Giving overworked joints a break

When a joint in your leg or back sits out of position, it does extra work on every step. You might feel it in your knees, hips or lower back rather than your feet. Realigning the leg reduces that repeated overuse and gives the joint a chance to settle down.

Well-made orthotics should be comfortable within days, not weeks. Some people feel relief right away, while others notice adaptation gradually over months, depending on their condition.

Custom Orthotics for Injury Prevention

You don’t need to be in pain to benefit from orthotics. Many people come in because something just doesn’t feel right. Watch for these signs:

• Your walk often feels “off,” or a joint or muscle feels weak and out of place
• You regularly favour one leg, or one leg feels unstable
• Your balance isn’t what it used to be
• One arm swings differently from the other
• Your shoes wear down unevenly
• Your feet ache earlier in the day than they used to

Lowering your risk of overuse injuries

Small imbalances repeat thousands of times a day. Over time, one muscle, tendon or joint ends up doing more than it can tolerate, and that’s where overuse injuries start. By correcting how your joints are positioned and timed, custom orthotics help spread the work evenly, so no single area is overloaded.

Protecting your joints for the long run

A joint that moves out of position repeatedly wears unevenly, much like a car tire that’s out of alignment wears down on one edge. Keeping your joints aligned reduces that uneven wear and helps support healthy, active joints as you age.

Custom Orthotics for Runners and Athletes

For athletes, custom orthotics are part of your equipment: an extension of your performance shoe.

Running more efficiently

When your joints move at the right time, less energy is lost to correcting instability. More of each stride goes into moving you forward, so holding the same pace takes less effort.

Moving through your full range of motion

Good alignment lets your joints use their full range instead of getting blocked partway. That full range is where power, stability and mobility come from, whether you run, play court sports, ski, cycle, golf, hike, or lift. If you wear shoes for your activity, orthotics can play a role in enhancing the shoes’s performance.

What about super shoes?

Today’s super shoes are very good at changing how you move forward and back. They do much less to control side-to-side and twisting motion, which is where many runners struggle. And every shoe is built for an average foot. A custom orthotic makes the shoe fit your foot shape and the load demands of your sport.

What a gait analysis can uncover

A runner recently came to us with shin splints that kept recurring in one leg only. Her gait analysis showed that one leg was 5 mm shorter than the other. As a result, one leg was overstriding while the other foot rolled inward too early as it landed to compensate. Her orthotics included a 5 mm lift designed to level her pelvis, which provided stability to the shorter hip. After 4 weeks of use she reported that her shin splints had completely resolved, she could feel more power from her shorter leg (thanks to the lift). We completed another video analysis and after only 4 weeks her stride had evened out and she had better control of her ankles rolling in excess. This is an example of how subtle adjustments to biomechanics using custom orthotics can improve performance and manage overuse injuries.

Book a Custom Orthotics Assessment in Toronto

Brandon has completed more than 25,000 gait analyses over 13 years treating all ages and working with athletes from every activity and sport you can imagine. Our clinic features an on-site orthotics lab, which means Brandon makes your orthotics incredibly precise and fits them perfectly to your shoes himself. No need for tedious adjustment appointments due to his experience and expertise.

Follow him on Instagram @Biomech.Brandon for more clinical insights.