Where does the shielded brake heat go?

Not all of the heat shielded by our heat shields is reflected straight back into the pads, some of it is dispersed radially, away from the caliper/pad contact zone. Heat travels from hot to cold areas, so since the pad is the source of the heat most of the time, very little heat will transfer from the cooler shield into the hotter pad. That said, some folks do tend to run higher temp brake pads with our shields, but that is a normal decision that racers are making all the time, matching pad compounds to track and racing conditions.