To find out whether a pair was recalled, you match three things printed on the shoe (the brand and style name, an identifying number, and sometimes a size or date code) against the official notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). A name alone is rarely enough. Brands reuse style names across seasons, and many notices cover only certain colors, numbers or production months.
This guide is built from what the notices themselves say. We read the identification paragraphs of the 95 recalls in our archive of 103 footwear recalls that carry full product details, and counted where they tell you to look.
Step 1. Find the label inside the shoe
More than half of the detailed notices, 52 of 95, give some kind of identifying number: a style number, model number, stock number, article number, product number, SKU or UPC. Where that number sits varies, but the tongue comes up more than any other spot.
| What the notice points you to | Notices in our archive |
|---|---|
| Any identifying number | 52 of 95 |
| A number on the tongue label | 16 |
| A date, batch or lot code | 14 |
| A number on the box, receipt, hangtag or price tag | 9 |
| A specific size range | 56 |
Some real wording from the notices shows how precise this gets:
- The North Face Shellista V Mid boots (April 17, 2025). Four colors, four style numbers, such as NF0A8ADBKT0 for black. The notice says, “The style number is located on the label on the tongue of the boot.”
- Red Wing steel toe work boots (December 19, 2013). “The style number, date code and Red Wing Shoes are printed on a label inside the boot’s tongue.” Only date codes from 12/12 through 11/13 were included.
- Naturalizer “Dare” dress shoes (2011). Stock numbers such as A3279S2001 (black) are printed inside the shoe, below the size number.
- Lilly of New York children’s winter boots (2020). “Lilly and the style number appear on the inside of the shoe’s tongue.”
- Georgia Boot metatarsal work shoes (2014). A white label inside the tongue carries product number G9075 on the left and a date code in MM-YY format on the right. Only codes between 01-12 and 10-13 were recalled.
- Madewell Sightseer sandals (2015). The style number was on a sticker on the outsole, the bottom of the sole that touches the ground. A sticker like that may be worn off after a few weeks of walking.
Pull the tongue forward and look at its underside, then check the inner side wall of the shoe and the footbed. On boots, the notices also mention the inside of the shaft and the zipper lining. The Target Merona boots recalled in 2005 had their style numbers on the interior zipper liner.
When the label is gone
A few notices point to things you may have thrown away. The Khaite sandal notice (2023) lists model numbers printed on the shoeboxes. The White House | Black Market notice (2013) says the model number is printed on the shoe box. The Charles David sample shoe notice (2009) says the item number “can be located on the original receipt.” If you still have the box or an order email, keep it with the shoes until you have checked.
Step 2. Check the size and the date code
A matching style name does not settle it. Of the detailed notices, 56 name a size range, and 14 limit the recall to certain date or batch codes. The Livie & Luca children’s shoe recall (2014) included only shoes with date codes 06 2013 through 12 2013, printed on the insole. On Timberland PRO Direct Attach steel toe boots (2007), the four-digit date code sits on a green loop tag inside the boot, just below the model number. A pair with the same name but a code outside the listed range is not part of that recall. If your label is hard to read, the firm’s recall line, listed in every notice, can tell you whether your pair is included.
Step 3. Search cpsc.gov with brand names, not shoe words
The CPSC recalls page has a search box labeled “Search Recalls & Product Safety Warnings,” plus Hazard and Category menus and a date range. The search matches words, not meanings, and that causes trouble with shoe terms.
On October 20, 2026, we sent a title search for “heel” to the CPSC’s recall data service. It returned 71 recalls. Three were footwear: the Khaite sandals, the Primark kitten heels and the JP Boden Kensington Court heels. The other 68 matched “wheel” inside longer words, from bicycle wheels and scooters to Power Wheels toys and pizza wheels. A search for “pump” returned 61 recalls and not one shoe. They were heat pumps, pool and well pumps, balloon pumps and pumpkin decorations.
So search the way the notices are written:
- Start with the brand or retailer as it appears on the label, such as “Naturalizer” or “Madewell.”
- Add the style name if the brand has many recalls, such as “Shellista.”
- If you only know the type, use “shoe,” “boot,” “sandal” or “slipper,” and set the date range to the years you owned the pair.
Our full recall list is limited to footwear, so the heat pumps and wheel recalls are already filtered out. The women’s recalls page shows only notices that involve women’s sizes, and each record links to the official notice. How we filter the CPSC data is described on our data and methods page.
Step 4. Know what SaferProducts.gov adds
SaferProducts.gov is the CPSC’s public database. It has two main uses for you: “Search for unsafe products,” which shows reports filed by consumers, and “Report Now,” which lets you tell the CPSC about a product you think is dangerous. A report there is one person’s account of a problem. It is not a recall and it is not a CPSC finding. Check it after the recall search, especially for a pair you bought recently.
Step 5. Read a “Recall Alert” label correctly
Some notices end with “(Recall Alert)” in the title. A CPSC compliance sheet for firms, last updated in January 2015, explains the difference from a press release: “If a Recall Alert, you must provide end‐user list and be able to directly contact all (95 %+) end users and verify that you were able to make contact.”
In other words, the firm already knows almost every buyer. Our archive has five footwear Recall Alerts, and each remedy says the firm is reaching purchasers directly. Two examples are the Kolan children’s sandals sold on Amazon (2022) and the Lilly of New York children’s winter boots sold on Zulily (2020). If you received a pair as a gift, bought it secondhand or used a different email, you are probably not on that list, so the public notice is your only signal.
Step 6. Sign up for CPSC recall emails
The CPSC recalls page carries an “Email Signup” link in its top menu and a line that reads “Never miss a recall – subscribe for recall emails,” with a link to choose which recall emails you want. The same page offers a recall RSS feed. These alerts cover every product type, so expect many notices that have nothing to do with shoes.
Timing matters here. In our archive, the median gap between the last month a recalled shoe was sold and the recall date is two months, and 67 of the 86 notices with clear dates came within three months. New notices mostly concern shoes sold in the past season. At the same time, 78 of our 103 recalls are dated 2016 or earlier, so a pair that has sat in a closet for years is worth one search too.
Step 7. If your pair matches
Stop wearing it and follow the remedy in the notice. Most footwear notices offer a refund, some a replacement and a few a repair. What each one means in practice is in our guide to refund, repair or replace remedies. Hold on to the pair until the firm explains the return steps. Some firms want the shoes mailed back, and others first want a picture to confirm the pair is included.