Taps are tiny pieces of plastic nailed into the sole of your shoe to keep you from wearing down specific areas ahead of the rest. Generally, that's the heel, which absorbs the brunt of your step.
Those little pieces of plastic on Hollingsworth Sole shoes are taps. You can visit your cobbler to have them installed they cost $6-$8 for a pair. You can barely see them when your foot is flat.
Before you wear a pair of shoes for the first time, you should visit your cobbler.
For $6-$8, they take your shiny new pair into the back room, and, around 10 minutes later, hands them back to with one significant addition: taps.
Taps are tiny pieces of plastic nailed into the sole of your shoe to keep you from wearing down specific areas ahead of the rest. Generally, that's the heel, which absorbs the brunt of your step.
The taps wear down instead of the shoe itself, so you can replace them every few months for less than $10 and avoid shelling out $50 or more (in New York City, anyway) to have the heel completely replaced.
This is not revolutionary.
“Taps are for shoes with solid soles, not rubber shoes like sneakers. There has to be something solid for the nail to hold. If you rarely walk anywhere other than the car to the front door, your shoes wearing down is likely not an issue. But if you live in a city like New York, where a typical day includes at least a mile of walking on pavement, it does a number on your footwear. And if you've invested a significant amount of money in your work shoes to look presentable, you probably don't want to destroy them.”
-Libby Kane, Business Insider, 2016
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