Part of Plantar fasciitis
Taping and insoles for plantar fasciitis: what each one does
Warning signs, and when to get help
Does taping help plantar fasciitis?
Yes, briefly, and that is not a criticism of it. Taping for plantar fasciitis is a short-term measure that is recommended on strong evidence as part of treatment and not as the treatment: the US physical therapy guideline tells clinicians to use foot taping, rigid or elastic, alongside other physical therapy, for short-term pain and function (Koc and colleagues, 2023). In Australia and New Zealand you will hear the same thing called strapping, and the rigid technique most often used on an arch is called a low-Dye.
The cleanest measurement of it is a trial of 92 adults with plantar heel pain, average age 50, whose symptoms had typically lasted about ten months. One group had low-Dye taping and a sham ultrasound, the other had the sham ultrasound alone, and both were reviewed after one week. The taped group's first-step pain was better by an adjusted average of 12.3 mm on a 100 mm scale, which was statistically significant, and nothing else measured separated the groups (Radford and colleagues, 2006).
It is not the only trial, and the wider picture is consistent with it. A systematic review of mechanical treatments for plantar fasciitis found 12 taping studies, 8 of them using low-Dye tape. Of the trials that compared taping with no taping or with sham taping and measured pain, every one reported a significant drop in pain in the taped group, and the review's own summary of taping is that it is an effective short-term treatment (Schuitema and colleagues, 2020). Short term is doing real work in that sentence: the follow-ups are days and weeks. And keep the size of the effect in proportion, because four of those trials recorded a significant drop in the untaped or sham group as well, so some of what tape looks like it is doing is what a sore heel does anyway over a week.
The best practice guide for plantar heel pain reaches a similar verdict from the other direction. It puts taping among the three things at the core of first-line care, and then reports that of the two physical treatments it could compare for first-step pain, stretching had the larger effect and taping the smaller one (Morrissey and colleagues, 2021). So the morning stretches are the bigger lever, and tape is a good way to make a particular few days bearable.
What taping actually does, and how long it lasts
Days, not weeks. Rigid strapping loses its hold as it loosens and as the skin moves under it, which is why the trial above measured at one week and not at three months.
The usual accounts of why it works are about reducing the strain the band under your foot has to take while you walk. Take that as the working explanation and not as an established mechanism, because what has actually been measured in these trials is the pain, not the mechanics.
What tape is actually good for is specific and limited, and worth knowing before you spend anything on it. A wedding, a long day at work, a flight, the first fortnight of a program when every step hurts, or a trial run to find out whether supporting the arch helps you at all before you pay a podiatrist for an insole. That last one is how clinicians most often use it.
This page deliberately does not teach you a taping technique. A strip that is too tight does real harm, the skin under it is yours, and one session with a physio, physical therapist or podiatrist who shows you the layout and watches you do it is worth more than any diagram. If nobody has shown you, ask at your next appointment.
Rigid tape, low-Dye strapping or kinesiology tape?
The guideline does not pick a side. Its recommendation covers foot taping that is rigid or elastic, used alongside other physical therapy, on strong evidence (Koc and colleagues, 2023). That is unusual and it is useful, because it means you are not choosing wrongly if you use what you have.
The differences that matter day to day are about how they behave. Rigid low-Dye strapping holds the arch firmly, is the version the trial above tested, and gives out after a few days. Elastic kinesiology tape stretches with the foot, survives a shower better, and tends to stay on longer. Whether kinesiology tape works looks at that kind of tape and the claims made for it in more detail.
One thing applies whichever you use. Never put tape back onto skin that is already sore, broken or raw from the last application. Give it days off, and if your skin cannot tolerate tape at all, an insole and a change of shoe do a similar job without anything stuck to you.
Do insoles help plantar fasciitis?
They help some people a little, alongside everything else, and the guideline's wording is worth reading closely because it is precise. Clinicians should not use orthoses, prefabricated or custom, as an isolated treatment for short-term pain relief in people with plantar fasciitis, on moderate evidence, and clinicians may use them when combined with other treatments to reduce pain and improve function (Koc and colleagues, 2023).
The trial behind that caution is the clearest one on the subject. Landorf and colleagues randomized 135 people with plantar fasciitis to a sham insole of thin soft foam, a firm prefabricated orthosis, or a semirigid customized one. At 3 months both real orthoses were about 8 points better than sham on function out of 100, which was statistically significant, and about 7 to 9 points better on pain, which was not clearly so. By 12 months there were no significant differences on the primary outcomes at all (Landorf and colleagues, 2006).
If you are wondering which of the two to pick, the head to head trials lean toward the insole. Three have compared low-Dye taping with insoles directly. Pain fell in both groups in all three, two of the three found a significant difference between the treatments, and in both of those it was the insole that reduced pain more, with insoles coming out better on function as well. The one measure the tape won was mean pressure under the heel, which is a measurement, not a symptom (Schuitema and colleagues, 2020). That does not make tape pointless, because the two are doing different jobs instead of competing for the same one.
Read the insole result as a modest early effect that is still worth having, and not as a reason either to skip insoles or to pin your hopes on them. The NHS self-care advice includes using insoles or heel pads, and it sits in a list alongside supportive shoes, not standing for long periods and gentle stretching. That is the right company for it.
Custom or off the shelf?
The evidence does not support paying more. In the trial above the prefabricated and the customized orthoses performed about the same as each other at both time points, and the guideline's recommendation makes no distinction between the two (Koc and colleagues, 2023).
Where custom devices do appear with a timescale attached is further along the path. The best practice guide adds custom foot orthoses at around 12 weeks for people whose improvement is still not good enough, after the core of taping, stretching and individualized education, and puts shockwave therapy at around 4 weeks in the same ladder (Morrissey and colleagues, 2021). Shockwave therapy for plantar fasciitis covers that option.
A sensible order for most people: something off the shelf now, properly loaded exercise alongside it, and a conversation about a custom device only if you are three months in and stuck. If your foot shape is unusual, if one leg behaves differently from the other, or if you have had surgery on the foot, that conversation is worth having earlier. Flat feet and arch pain deal with the foot shapes people most often ask about here.
What to look for in an insole
No brand or model is going to appear here, because nothing in the evidence would justify naming one. Features and fit are what you can actually judge.
Length matters first. A full-length insole replaces the liner of your shoe, which means you have to be able to lift that liner out, so check before you buy. A three-quarter length or a heel-only pad sits on top and takes up less room, which suits a tighter shoe.
Then the two things the trial tested are the two to feel for: some contour under the arch, and material firm enough to hold its shape under your weight. Both of the devices that worked in the trial were firm, one firm foam and one semirigid plastic, while the sham was thin soft foam. That does not mean harder is better for you personally. A firm device that you cannot stand being in for more than an hour is worth less than a softer one you wear all day.
Wear them in like new shoes: an hour or two at first, then half a day, then the full day. Judge them on how your first steps feel the next morning, not on how they feel in the shop, and change one thing at a time so you know what did what. Shoes for plantar fasciitis covers the other half of that question, since an insole and the shoe it goes in are one system.
How long you keep using one is the question nothing published answers. Tape comes off in days, as above. For an insole, the trial that followed people for a year found the early gain in function had gone by 12 months (Landorf and colleagues, 2006), and no source sets a point at which you stop wearing one. So treat it as something that lowers the daily load while the loading work builds the heel back up, and put the question to the physio or podiatrist who set you up with it rather than assuming the insole is yours for life.
Skin, circulation and the feet that should not be taped at all
Two things the skin can do need keeping apart. Irritation from a strip pulling or rubbing settles once the tape is off. A reaction to the adhesive itself behaves differently: within hours or days the skin under the strip becomes itchy, blistered, dry or cracked, and turns red on lighter skin or dark brown, purple or gray on darker skin (NHS, contact dermatitis). Take the tape off, do not put another strip on that patch of skin, and ask a pharmacist what to put on it, then see a doctor if it is severe, keeps coming back or does not settle. A serious allergic reaction to an adhesive is rare, and the warning list below gives its signs and the one instruction that matters, which is to call emergency services rather than wait and see.
Circulation is the other check, and it is simple. If your toes tingle, go numb or turn cold, pale or blue while you have it on, take it off at once. If feeling and color do not come back quickly, call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
One thing about how tape is applied belongs with that check. Strips that pass right round the foot are part of the standard arch strapping and are not the problem in themselves; a strip pulled tight enough to squeeze is. Tape stretches, the foot underneath it can swell, and a band that circles the foot can tighten on it hours later, which is why a strapping is laid on rather than hauled on, and why the toes are the part to keep an eye on. If you can feel the tape gripping, or a strip has left a ridge in the skin, take it off and have the layout shown to you again before you redo it. Take it off before you go to bed as well, because you cannot see or feel a strip tightening while you are asleep.
There is one group for whom this is not a judgment call, and it is the most important paragraph on the page. If you have diabetes, peripheral neuropathy or reduced feeling in your feet for any reason, taping a foot that has reduced feeling is not advisable at all, because you will not feel a rub or a pressure mark forming underneath it. An insole is a different proposition and is often part of foot care in diabetes, but it is one to set up with your podiatrist or foot team rather than off a shelf, and the skin of both feet gets checked daily either way.
What neither taping nor an insole fixes
Both of them change the load reaching the heel. Neither makes the heel able to take more, and that distinction is the whole reason the guideline keeps using the phrase "alongside other treatment".
The part that builds tolerance is the loading work: the plantar fascia stretch first, then heel raises, including the heel raise with a towel under the toes and, later, work like the arch control calf raise on a step. The staged program sets out the order and the stages. Many programs run strength work at 2 to 3 sets, every second day rather than daily, and your physio will adjust that to your heel.
The other thing neither of them changes is the clock. How long plantar fasciitis lasts sets out what the follow-up studies found, and the short version is that tape and insoles move the early weeks rather than the destination.
When to see a physio or podiatrist
Get someone to show you the taping once, if taping is going to be part of your plan, and get an opinion on insoles before you buy a third pair. The NHS asks you to see a GP if the pain is severe or stopping you doing normal activities, if it is getting worse or keeps coming back, or if 2 weeks of self-care has not helped.
Go sooner if any of the warning signs below apply, and they each carry their own timing. The ones most relevant to this page are the skin and circulation lines, and the diabetes lines, because this is a page about putting something between your foot and the world and then not looking at it for three days. Look at it.
This page is education rather than advice about your own foot, and it names no product deliberately. A physio, physical therapist or podiatrist who can examine your heel is the person to tell you whether either of these is worth your money.
Related exercise programs
Warning signs
Get emergency help now
- Emergency: after putting tape on, your lips, mouth, throat or tongue suddenly swell, you are breathing very fast or struggling to breathe, your throat feels tight or you are struggling to swallow, your skin, tongue or lips turn blue, gray or pale (on brown or black skin this can be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet), you suddenly become very confused, drowsy or dizzy, or someone faints and cannot be woken. A raised, swollen or itchy rash may come with it. Call emergency services straight away, as this can be a serious allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), which needs treatment in hospital. Use an adrenaline auto-injector if you have been prescribed one, and lie down rather than standing or walking, even if you start to feel better.
- Part of your foot or a toe turns cold, pale, blue or black. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself, as the blood supply to the foot may be blocked.
Get help today
- Same day: the skin where the tape was is painful, hot or swollen, or has turned red or darker than usual, with or without blisters. Get medical advice the same day, as this can be a skin infection (cellulitis) and early treatment can stop it becoming more serious. Do the same for a high temperature, or if you feel hot, cold or shivery, or feel unwell with aching and swollen, painful glands. Tape can tear the skin as it comes off, and the break that bacteria get in through is often too small to see. If the skin changes come with a very high temperature or feeling hot, cold or shivery, a fast heartbeat or fast breathing, purple patches on the skin, feeling dizzy or faint, confusion, or cold, clammy or pale skin, or you feel very unwell, call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself.
- Same day: you have diabetes or numb feet and find a new blister, cut or sore on your foot, especially one you did not feel, a wound that smells or is leaking, or new pain in your foot that you cannot explain. Get it seen by your doctor or foot team the same day. If you also have a fever or feel very unwell, redness is spreading up your foot or leg, or part of your foot or a toe turns black, go to an emergency department.
- Same day: you have diabetes or numb feet, and one foot becomes hot, swollen or red, or changes color or shape, with or without pain. Take your weight off that foot straight away and get advice the same day from your doctor or your diabetes foot team. This can be Charcot foot, where the bones and joints of the foot are damaged and the foot can collapse. Do not exercise that foot until it has been checked. If you also have a fever or feel very unwell, or redness is spreading up your foot or leg, go to an emergency department.
- You felt a sudden pop or tearing under the foot, followed by bruising and difficulty walking. Stop the exercises, keep your weight off that foot as much as you can, and get it checked the same day.
- Same day: a calf or thigh that is newly swollen or getting more swollen, warm, tender, red or darker than usual, has swollen veins that are sore to touch, or has a throbbing or cramping pain that does not fit your injury or condition, or that feels different from normal muscle soreness after exercise. Do not tape it. This can be a sign of a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis), especially after surgery, an injury, time in a cast or boot, a long trip or a spell of being much less mobile than usual. Get medical advice the same day. If you are also short of breath or have chest pain, call emergency services.
Book an appointment
- You have numbness, tingling, burning or loss of feeling in the foot. Book an assessment with a doctor or physio in the next week or two. If it came on over hours or days, started after an injury, is spreading, or comes with weakness in the foot, get medical advice the same day.
Common questions
Does taping work for plantar fasciitis?
For a few days at a time, yes, and that is the honest limit of it. The US physical therapy guideline recommends foot taping, rigid or elastic, alongside other physical therapy, on strong evidence, for short-term pain and function (Koc and colleagues, 2023). The trial that measured it most cleanly gave 92 adults either low-Dye strapping or a sham treatment and reviewed them a week later: first-step pain was about 12 mm better on a 100 mm scale in the taped group, which is a real but modest gain, and none of the other measures separated (Radford and colleagues, 2006). Thirteen people in the taped group had a side effect, most of them mild to moderate and short-lived. It is a useful way to get a few better days, not a treatment to build a plan around.
Is kinesiology tape as good as rigid tape for plantar fasciitis?
The guideline treats them as interchangeable, and that is the most defensible answer available. Its recommendation covers foot taping that is rigid or elastic, alongside other physical therapy, without preferring one (Koc and colleagues, 2023). The practical differences are about wear, not effect: rigid strapping, the low-Dye type, holds the arch firmly and comes off within a few days, while elastic tape stretches, stays on longer and tolerates showering better. Our page on whether kinesiology tape works goes into what that kind of tape has and has not been shown to do.
Do insoles help plantar fasciitis?
Alongside other treatment, sometimes, and used as the only treatment, the guideline advises against it. It says on moderate evidence that clinicians should not use orthoses, prefabricated or custom, as an isolated treatment for short-term pain relief, and may use them when combined with other treatments to reduce pain and improve function (Koc and colleagues, 2023). The trial numbers match that caution: in 135 people, prefabricated and customized orthoses gave small improvements in function over a sham insole at 3 months, around 8 points on a 100 point scale, with pain differences of a similar size that did not reach statistical significance, and by 12 months there was nothing left (Landorf and colleagues, 2006). Worth trying as part of a program. Not worth waiting for instead of one.
Are custom orthotics better than off-the-shelf insoles?
On the trial evidence, no. Landorf and colleagues (2006) randomized people with plantar fasciitis to a sham insole, a firm prefabricated orthosis or a semirigid customized one, and the two real orthoses performed about the same as each other at both 3 and 12 months. The guideline's recommendation also makes no distinction between prefabricated and custom (Koc and colleagues, 2023). The best practice guide for plantar heel pain does put custom foot orthoses in the plan, but later, at around 12 weeks, for people whose improvement is still not good enough (Morrissey and colleagues, 2021). So the usual sensible order is to start with something off the shelf, and let a podiatrist or physio make the case for custom if the heel stalls.
Can I tape my foot at night?
This page does not recommend sleeping in tape, and there is no trial of taping overnight for this condition to point you at. The practical objections are the ones that matter: you cannot see or feel a strip tightening while you are asleep, and the skin gets a longer continuous session than it would in the day. If the first steps out of bed are your main problem, the two things with evidence behind them are the morning stretches and, for some people, a night splint, both of which have their own pages here.
Will insoles weaken my foot?
No trial has shown that happening in people with plantar fasciitis, and the trials that have followed insole use for a year did not report it. What is fair to say is that an insole does not make a foot stronger either, and that is the argument for pairing it with loading work instead of relying on it. The guideline recommends exercise including resistance training for the muscles of the foot and ankle on moderate evidence (Koc and colleagues, 2023), and that is the part of the plan that changes what your foot can do.
References
- Koc TA Jr, Bise CG, Neville C, et al. Heel Pain - Plantar Fasciitis: Revision 2023. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2023;53(12):CPG1-CPG39. https://doi.org/10.2519/jospt.2023.0303
- Radford JA, Landorf KB, Buchbinder R, Cook C. Effectiveness of low-Dye taping for the short-term treatment of plantar heel pain: a randomised trial. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2006;7:64. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-7-64
- Landorf KB, Keenan AM, Herbert RD. Effectiveness of foot orthoses to treat plantar fasciitis: a randomized trial. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2006;166(12):1305-1310. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.12.1305
- Morrissey D, Cotchett M, Said J'Bari A, et al. Management of plantar heel pain: a best practice guide informed by a systematic review, expert clinical reasoning and patient values. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2021;55(19):1106-1118. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2019-101970
- Schuitema D, Greve C, Postema K, Dekker R, Hijmans JM. Effectiveness of Mechanical Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis: A Systematic Review. Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. 2020;29(5):657-674. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsr.2019-0036
- NHS. Plantar fasciitis. Page last reviewed 14 February 2025. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/plantar-fasciitis/
- NHS. Contact dermatitis. Page last reviewed 3 May 2023. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contact-dermatitis/
- NHS. Cellulitis. Page last reviewed 18 April 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cellulitis/
- NHS. Anaphylaxis. Page last reviewed 21 June 2023. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/anaphylaxis/
Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-24.
This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.