I like to skate my shoes until the soles are blown out. So I epoxied a pair of eS STI insoles on top of Dr. Scholl’s thin gel insoles. When vulcs start to get worn down/mushy and hurt my feet, I pop in the aforementioned insoles and everything feels good again.
Yep that is definitely a good way of doing things.
When travelling and visiting various stores over the years and so many people complained about the new Vans insoles, I would always tell them to put the mushed out insoles from your old shoes into the new Vans shoes, which for most people stop their feet getting bad blisters, as well as having a better board feel experience from day one.
Then (similarly to what you do) once the shoes are wearing thin, put the new insoles back in and the shoes will feel like they have a second life. Totally blew some minds, but it worked well, not just in Vans shoes, but many others too.
I am still running insoles from TNT2 and similar era (2005 - 2011) Vans pro shoes, which just last so well and feel way more comfortable than the newer ones, but that is just me.
It frustrates me the number of times people have gone to throw out shoes (insoles included) that are still ok, when they should have kept the insoles, even put them through the wash or just left out in the sun or spray with disinfectant and are good to go again - obviously not all insoles, but many will last well enough in quite a few pairs of shoes.