Foot orthotics are generally typically used to deal with a variety of biomechanical problems of the feet and lower leg. These foot supports are inserts that are used in the shoe to try and modify alignment of the feet in a way that they help ailments in the feet and leg. These problems range from, for example, plantar fasciitis in the heel to shin splints that may occur in the legs of athletes. All the research evidence shows that the clinical results with foot inserts are usually beneficial and most people that have foot orthotics are happy with them. Nonetheless, foot supports can only ever be worthwhile if you in fact wear them. You do need to have proper footwear to wear them in and use them enough for the problem they were required for to resolve.
One of the problems with foot orthotics is that you need to use them in footwear. This may be a dilemma if you don't like wearing footwear or reside in a hot climate in which the wearing of footwear is problematic. In these climates people like putting on jandals (called ‘thongs’ in Australia) that you can simply not use with a foot supports. There are several options that are available. One of those is to restrict the time that you're not using the foot orthoses, so that you wear footwear with the inserts for long enough and don't wear the sandals too much so that the painful problem does not occur. Another option is by using such things as the arch support sandals or jandals such as the Archie Thongs from Australia. These have some arch support included in them and can generally be used as opposed to foot orthotics. Shoes like the Archies will often not be as effective as an adequately made foot supports, but they could be more than satisfactory to supplement them and use when the proper footwear cannot or will not be used.