Foot orthoses – have been found to help with preventing shin pain and lower limb stress fractures such as the Tibia and metatarsals However they have been found not to have any effect on musculoskeletal injuries such as Achilles pain, knee pain or lower back pain.
Shock absorbing insoles were not shown to be able to prevent injuries full stop and in one study were actually found to be
slightly harmful.
1 in 10 need insole to prevent a lower limb or back injury, while 1 in 20 need insoles to prevent stress fracture.
The authers of the analysis do state a lot of the studies were poorly designed so to take the above with a pinch of salt e.g. different insoles being used, different controls
and also that most participants had a military back ground and therefore don;t cover the general public
Therefore you may want to think twice about using the insoles you were potentially sold to help prevent achilles pain or Plantar Fasciitis. If you would like to have a more indepth the journal is below.
Bonanno, D. R., Landorf, K. B., Munteanu, S. E., Murley, G. S., & Menz, H. B. (2017). Effectiveness of foot orthoses and shock-absorbing insoles for the prevention of injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British journal of sports medicine, 51(2), 86-96.