Cushion heel shoe pads are generally constructed of polyvinyl chloride, silicone, leather, polyethylene foams like Plastizote, and thermoplastics. Soft heel cups cushion and contain the fat pad. They are effective for a plantar calcaneal bursitis or plantar heel spur syndrome. When you’re treating patients who have heel pain as a result of fat pad atrophy, employing hard plastic heel cups (M-F Athletic, Cranston, RI) can sometimes be effective in positioning the heel pad underneath the calcaneus,