Measured: A heel is classified by the shape and area of its base where it meets the ground. The base is judged at the tip rather than where the heel joins the sole.
The basics
What to know about heel type
Heel type is the shape of the heel and the size of its footprint, and it predicts stability better than height does. What keeps you upright is the area touching the ground and where that area sits relative to your heel bone. A wide base directly under the heel bone barely asks your ankle to work. Meanwhile a narrow base set forward keeps it correcting with every step.
The shapes run from the widest bases to the narrowest. Block and stacked spread load across a broad column, and a wedge spreads it along the whole foot. Kitten and cone taper partway. A stiletto concentrates everything into a tip smaller than a fingertip. Sculpted stands apart, because its stability depends entirely on the individual design.
Use type to reprice height. A 3" block wears like a 2" stiletto, and a wedge makes 3 inches feel nearly flat underfoot. On grass or gravel a stiletto stops being a shoe and becomes a stake. Match the shape to the surfaces of your actual day before admiring the profile. The ground you stand on decides how the heel behaves far more than the shoe wall does.
