Chemical hazards are a small share of shoe recalls. Our archive of 103 footwear recalls holds nine. Six are children’s shoes recalled over lead. The other three are adult shoes: a Clarks women’s canvas shoe and a Dr. Martens boot recalled over benzidine in the shoe material, and a Primark kitten heel recalled over chromium VI in its leather lining. In each of the three, the problem sat in a part of the shoe that touches your skin for hours, and none of the three notices reports an injury.
This guide covers what each CPSC notice said (CPSC is the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission), how to tell whether you own one of the pairs, and the European limit for chromium VI that comes up whenever leather chemistry is discussed.
The three adult recalls
| Recall date | Shoe | Chemical named | Units (U.S.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 24, 2017 | Dr. Martens Vegan 1460 boots, cherry red | Benzidine | About 30,000 |
| May 27, 2020 | Primark Wide Fit Kitten Heel Court Pumps | Chromium VI | About 1,700 |
| November 3, 2022 | Clarks Breeze Ave, Breeze Shore and Breeze Step, navy | Benzidine and/or dimethoxybenzidine | About 113,000 |
Clarks Breeze shoes (2022)
This is the largest of the three adult chemical recalls and the only chemical recall in our archive that involves women’s sizes. The shoes were canvas styles with blue uppers and white soles, sold in women’s sizes 5 to 12 during the Spring/Summer 2022 season. They were sold at Clarks outlets, Macy’s, JC Penney, Kohl’s, QVC, Shoe Carnival, DSW, Zappos, Clarksusa.com and Amazon.com from February to October 2022 for about $65. Another 10,000 or so were sold in Canada.
The hazard paragraph reads, “Prolonged and direct contact with the shoes’ upper material can expose the wearer to the chemicals benzidine and/or dimethoxybenzidine, which are toxic and can cause adverse health effects.” The upper is the fabric part of the shoe above the sole. Only navy colorways were recalled. The notice does not say how the chemicals got into the material.
To check a pair, find the label on the inside of the upper. It lists the size, the month and year of manufacture, and an article number. The five recalled article numbers are 26165269 (Breeze Ave, dark navy), 26164910 (Breeze Shore, navy), 26166718 (Breeze Step, dark navy), 26166904 (Breeze Step, navy) and 26165290 (Breeze Step, navy/white). For the refund, Clarks first wanted a picture of the pair to confirm it was covered, then sent free shipping materials and a prepaid label. The Clarks recall page has the full record.
Dr. Martens Vegan boots (2017)
The Dr. Martens notice uses almost the same sentence, but points to a smaller area: “Prolonged and direct contact with the boot tongue lining can expose the wearer to the chemical benzidine.” The boots were the unisex Vegan 1460 eight-eye style in cherry red with black laces, all sizes, sold from January 2015 through July 2017 for about $125 at Dr. Martens, Journeys, independent stores and online at Amazon.com, DrMartens.com, Shoebuy.com and other websites.
That 31-month sale window is long for our archive, where the median is seven months. The identifying details are on the tongue label: “Made in Vietnam,” product code 14585, and a batch code that starts with “GV” and ends in Q, R or S. A cherry red Vegan 1460 with a different batch code is outside this recall. The firm offered a full refund or a free replacement. See the Dr. Martens recall page.
Primark kitten heel court shoes (2020)
The Primark notice is the only footwear recall in our archive that names chromium. Its title says “High Levels of Chromium; Risk of Skin Irritation,” and the hazard line says the leather insock in the shoes had high levels of Chromium VI, “posing a risk of skin irritation.” The insock is the lining that covers the footbed, the surface your sole rests on. The outside of the shoe was black or nude microfiber fabric, so the leather was a part most buyers would never think about.
These were wide-fit court shoes, the British term for a plain pump, with a heel of about 1.5 inches. About 1,700 sold in Primark U.S. stores from January 2019 through November 2019 for about $16. Product number 06689 and the RN code 145478 are printed inside the shoe. The remedy was a full refund at a Primark store. The Primark recall page shows the dates and price.
What the EU limit on chromium VI says
Chromium VI is one form of chromium. The European Union restricts it in leather through Commission Regulation (EU) No 301/2014, which added three paragraphs to entry 47 of Annex XVII of REACH, the EU chemicals law. We read the text on EUR-Lex on October 20, 2026.
- Leather articles. “Leather articles coming into contact with the skin shall not be placed on the market” if they contain chromium VI at 3 mg/kg (0.0003 percent by weight) or more, measured against the total dry weight of the leather.
- Products with leather parts. The same 3 mg/kg limit applies to each leather part that touches the skin, such as a leather insock inside a fabric shoe.
- Secondhand goods. The limits do not apply to secondhand articles that were already in end use in the EU before May 1, 2015.
- Start date. The rule has applied since May 1, 2015.
The regulation’s recitals explain the reason in general terms. Chromium VI compounds “can induce new cases of sensitisation and elicit allergic response,” and in people who are already sensitized, contact can trigger a reaction at lower concentrations than those needed to cause sensitization in the first place. The EU expected the limit to reduce new cases of chromium VI-related allergic dermatitis.
For a U.S. shopper, two points follow. First, the EU limit governs what may be sold on the EU market. It is not a U.S. rule. Second, none of the three U.S. notices above cites a U.S. numeric limit for chromium VI or for benzidine dyes. They describe a hazard and a remedy. If you have had a skin reaction to a pair of shoes, a doctor is the right person to ask about the cause, and the firm named in the notice is the right one to ask about the shoe.
The children’s lead recalls, briefly
The other six chemical recalls in our archive involve lead in children’s footwear, from decorative paint on flip-flop soles (Alpargatas, 2009) and outer-sole paint on Nordstrom girls’ shoes (2009) to a logo stamped on Timberland boot insoles (2009), the soles of Lilly of New York winter boots (2020) and the inner layer of Kolan sandals sold on Amazon (2022). Unlike chromium VI, lead in children’s products has a U.S. limit. The CPSC’s Resellers Guide gives it as 100 parts per million of lead content in any accessible part and 90 parts per million in paint or other surface coatings, and it lists footwear among the items that may count as children’s products. Our separate guide on lead limits for children’s shoes covers those rules in detail.
What you can do with a pair you own
None of these notices asks owners to judge a pair by smell or color, and none offers a home test. What the notices do give is a way to check identity: the article number on the Clarks label, the product and batch codes on the Dr. Martens tongue, the product and RN numbers inside the Primark shoe. Match those first. Our chemical hazards page lists all nine recalls with links to the official notices.