I have an issue where one leg is a full inch shorter than the other one, so I've been having local shoe repair places modify my shoe with a lift for a few years now. It really helps! So there are two that I've been doing business with and I've noticed that they approach things differently.

One guy will slice off the bottom of the shoe, glue the lift on and then glue the original bottom/tread back onto that, so that the lift ends up in the middle. The other guy I go to only glues the lifts to the bottom of the shoe without slicing off the tread. Most of the time they both work fine for me. But I recently decided it would be nice to have a pair of hiking boots lifted so that I'm more comfortable on hiking trips. My second guy (who I kind of like better) got really squeamish about having to slice off the tread and putting the lift into the middle like the first guy does.

I can take the boot to the first guy but I'm curious about the difference between their approaches. Is one method better than the other so it's a matter of quality?