The replaceable protective piece on the bottom of a shoe's heel, also called a top lift or heel tip.
The heel cap is the layer of the heel that meets the ground and takes the wear. Crockett & Jones builds its heels from leather or rubber lifts with top pieces, and Paraboot describes a hard tip of rubber or metal glued or nailed into a leather heel to protect it from wear. It is not the heel counter, the stiffener around the back of the shoe.
Manolo Blahnik advises changing heel tips once they start to wear down, before the inner heel shows, because an unstable heel can cause balance problems and affect the shape of the whole shoe; a reputable cobbler can change them.
In job listings
Heel caps belong to after-sales service: in-store artisan roles list heel replacement alongside resoling, and some boutiques have their own cobblers. See current heel roles.
