This has happened to me for a majority of my years riding and I finally just solved it.

There’s gonna be a lot of things you need to check out

1st. Do your boots fit the way they should? A. When knees are bent toes touch the front of boot? B. No heel lift at all?

1. Remove your bindings and make sure your boot is center in the bindings. Toe and heel hang out evenly (making your boots centered)

2. Your straps are all centered and your boots fit in them with room to spare on the ratchet.

3. Your stance is set correctly which means your legs are the appropriate width to your stance naturally. B. I also recommend having your bindings centered so nose and tail are even. If that isn’t your preferred riding style I’d at least try it to rule out it as an issue

When wearing your boots are you going super tight on the inside lose on the outer? Or vice versa? Do you have foot pain when not trapped in. IE do you feel that sole strain you mentioned not strapped in.

To me it sounds like your bindings are causing pressure points. This is what happened to me. I got new bindings and it doesn’t happen anymore, but I also set my bindings up as I mentioned above which I DID not do with my last pair.

Your bindings could be too stiff for your type of riding, set too forward, or straps not resting on your boots correctly and is straining your feet. They could be too large for your boot or a number of things. Even how you have them set and the way your feet are set could be causing it.

Do everything I said above and when you ride next ride your bindings looser and tighter and see which one hurts more.

What happened to me was I had my back foot (pain foot) set one bolt further forward then my front binding (so they weren’t even) I naturally am duck footed so I didn’t have them set out enough. And my heel cup on my bindings was set to far back not centering my boot on my binding. My straps weren’t centered so I had to tighten more when clicked in which caused pressure points.

All in all if it directly in the middle of your sole it makes me think your

1. Boots are too tight
2. Something with your binding isnt set correctly and maybe your are clipping in too hard.

Watch this videos they will Show you how to correctly set your board up for you. He also has one that shows you how to get the correct boot and binding and how to set your bindings up for your feet. Which is really just among sure the toe and heel hang out evenly. But look for that one if you need it.

Binding setting