Someone, I think it might have been Pierre Allaire, came out against them in an article in "Dance Beat" a few years ago. He called them "heel condoms" and said he hated the way they look.
Personally, I don't care what anyone thinks because I simply cannot dance Standard without them.
There are at least three different kinds of heel protectors, though, and some are nicer looking than others.
The first kind I ever saw was the soft plastic kind. They're clear and slip over the end of the shoe. I can't use them because they pull off when I dance Foxtrot, and also I wear through a pair in about an hour. Your mileage may vary
The second kind are the hard plastic kind. These are opaque and sort of ivory color and also slip over the end of the shoe. They last a good long time but they are ugly -- they make the heel look stumpy and heavy. They're great for putting on shoes when you practice, though.
The third kind are my favorite. They are small cross-shaped pieces of suede that you fold over the end of the heel. Some people hold them in place with rubber bands, which looks bad in the same way that the hard plastic heel protectors look bad. But another way of holding them in place is using old-school cellophane tape. NOT the "magic transparent" tape or "satin" tape, but the real old-fashioned stuff. Why? Because the real cellophane tape is shiny and it also stretches a bit, so when you wind a bit of tape around the heel protector it molds to the shape of the shoe and is a bit shiny to coordinate with the satin fabric on the shoe. If you really want to get fancy, you can do like I do and dye the suede heel protectors to match your shoes, thereby making them even less noticable.
