This is really amazing, man. It's honestly the first 3D printing application I've seen that I can see quickly improving thousands of lives. Just to think of all the people who right now can't afford this procedure, that soon will be able to... it's just really wonderful.
I was having foot pain a few years ago and decided to give those a try before shelling out to see a podiatrist/get custom orthotics. My foot pain was gone within a week and only came back on one occasion; when I bought new shoes and forgot to put them in the new pair.
Still, I've wondered if I'm missing out by not getting custom inserts. It sounds like (at least in your case) there was no major difference?
Wiiv[0] was recently crowdfunded. They make custom 3D-printed orthotic inserts created from photographic information via your smartphone. Sadly it won't be generally available for quite some time yet, but I have my hopes up.
There's also Superfeet[1]. They're not custom, but there's many options.
