Toe puffs are strips of material built into shoe uppers to act as stiffener, reinforcing the vamps above the toe boxes against creasing and crushing.
Toe puffs often resemble toe caps in shape.
Materials
Toe puffs are traditionally made of leather. They are skived to feather edges, rasped down to shape, and cut with lasting allowances, and inseamed or turned out and stitched down with the upper and any lining. Makers often use a paste with a long working time, rather than a fast-bonding contact cement, both to stiffen the leather of the toe puff and to allow the vamp to slide over it during lasting.
Modern shoes frequently use solvent-activated celastic, thermoplastic, or other synthetic-material toe puffs.