There are cushions under the front of the foot and under the heel.  These cushions are about 2 mm high.  They hold the foot up like a bridge over the arch, so the skin of the arch of my foot doesn't touch the arch support of the sole of the sandal, unless I let my arches fall down to touch it.  But then I might as well not be wearing an arch support sandal at all.  Unfortunately, these cushions did not show up in any of the product photos on the website. So I took a couple snapshots.  If only the entire surface had this cushion layer, these would be awesome sandals.  Hope this helps.  I think I will try to return these sandals.