truth! but it does take up some of the shoe volume, raises the foot slightly, and that could improve the fit. Maybe not the solution for everyone, but if you have hard to fit feet, you have to be creative.

In my case, I have a wide foot and narrow heels, I have found I need to play around with inserts, orthotics, etc. to get a good fit in most shoes. As an example - when I was fitted for ski boots - the fitter created a custom footbed to align my foot, leg and knee. The footbed lifted the arch and actually made the foot impression narrower. could this work for the OP and make normal shoes more acceptable? Don't know... but IMHO worth a try..