How to Report a Shoe Injury on SaferProducts.gov

If a shoe hurt you or your child, or came close to it, you can tell the federal government through SaferProducts.gov, the public database run by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Anyone who used the shoe, saw it fail, or is a parent of the person hurt can file. CPSC sends the report to the shoe company, and if it meets the publication rules it appears online, without your name, no later than the tenth business day after the company gets it. The rules for all of this are in 16 CFR part 1102. This guide walks through them in the order you will meet them.

Why a report matters, in numbers from our archive

Recall notices usually say how many problems were known before the recall. We read that text in the 95 structured notices in our archive of 103 footwear recalls. Fifty-six describe reports or complaints received before the recall. The other 39 say none were reported. That group includes both lead recalls since 2020 and the 2026 light-up sneaker recalled over coin batteries, which were recalled for breaking a federal limit or standard, not after a pair failed on someone’s foot.

Most recalls start small. Of the 53 notices that say the firm “received” reports, the median count is 2, and 38 of the 53 cite five or fewer. A few pairs breaking the same way can be enough. Some cases ran much higher:

• 605 reports of cracking shells on SCARPA Maestrale ski boots, recalled in 2019 (recall page).
• 115 reports of handles and rivets coming off Western Chief toddler rain boots, 2020.
• 28 reports, including 15 minor injuries, of a top hook on The North Face women’s Shellista V Mid boots catching the other boot’s lace, 2025.
• 19 complaints of heels breaking off Merona women’s side-zip boots at Target, including one sprained ankle, 2005 (recall page).

One detail is easy to miss. Only one of the 95 notices, a 2000 recall of Tweety jelly sandals, says CPSC itself received reports alongside the company. The rest describe reports the company received. So a complaint to the brand or the store counts too, and the company has its own duty to pass serious information on to CPSC, covered below.

Who can file

16 CFR 1102.10(a) lists five groups. The first, consumers, is broad: “users of consumer products, family members, relatives, parents, guardians, friends, attorneys, investigators, professional engineers, agents of a user of a consumer product, and observers of the consumer products being used.” The others are government agencies, health care professionals, child service providers such as child care centers, and public safety entities.

Two limits apply. CPSC will not accept a report from anyone under 18 without a parent’s or guardian’s consent (1102.10(g)). And anonymous reports are accepted, but the FAQ says “by law, anonymously submitted Reports cannot be published on SaferProducts.gov.”

You can file on the website’s online form, by phone through a CPSC call center, by email or fax with the downloadable form, or by mail to the Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814-4408 (1102.10(b)).

What the form needs

A report is published only if it has all eight items in 1102.10(d):

1. A description of the product. At minimum, a word that identifies it as a consumer product. The rule lists what else helps: brand name, model, serial number, date code, date of purchase, price paid and retailer.
2. The manufacturer or private labeler, meaning the company whose name is on the shoe, such as a store brand.
3. A description of the harm. Injury, illness or death, or the risk of one. Your shoe does not have to have hurt anyone; a near miss counts. A report about price or quality alone, with no harm or risk of harm, does not.
4. The incident date, or an approximate one.
5. Your category, such as consumer or health care professional.
6. Your first and last name and full mailing address. Required, never published.
7. Verification that you reviewed the report and that it is true and accurate as far as you know.
8. Consent to publication.

Item 1 is where the shoe and its paperwork pay off. Keep the pair, the box and the receipt or order confirmation, and photograph the sewn-in tag and the broken part. The form’s product fields include model number, serial number and date code, which recall notices often place on an inside tag or under the tongue, and the receipt gives you the purchase date, price and store. Where to look for those codes is covered in checking a shoe recall.

What stays private

1102.10(f) lists what CPSC leaves out of the public database, including:

• your name and contact information;
• the victim’s name and contact information, unless legal consent was given;
• photographs that could identify a person or invade privacy;
• medical records, without consent;
• information the agency finds “materially inaccurate,” meaning false or misleading in a way that would affect a reasonable consumer’s decision.

The company sees more than the public, but not everything. Under 1102.20(a), CPSC sends the firm the report, but not your name and contact information unless you give express written consent, “for example, by checking a box on the report of harm.” If you do share it, the firm may use it only to verify the report, and 1102.20(b) says that “must not include activities such as sales, promotion, marketing, warranty, or any other commercial purpose.”

What happens next, on the calendar

• Within five business days, to the extent practicable, CPSC sends the report to the company (1102.20(c)). If CPSC cannot identify the company, the report is not posted and is kept for internal use.
• Before the tenth business day after that, the company can ask that parts be treated as confidential business information (1102.24(d)) or claim that the report is materially inaccurate (1102.26). It can also send a comment and ask CPSC to publish it with your report (1102.12).
• By the tenth business day after transmission, CPSC publishes the report (1102.28(a)). A pending inaccuracy claim does not hold it back: absent a decision, “the Commission will publish reports of harm on the tenth business day after transmitting a report of harm.” The FAQ puts the whole process at “approximately 15-business days after they are submitted to the CPSC.”
• After publication, if CPSC finds information materially inaccurate, it has seven business days from that finding to remove, correct or add to it (1102.26(h)).

The database carries a disclaimer that CPSC does not guarantee the accuracy of what outside submitters provide (1102.42). And per the FAQ, only you and the named company can add to a report later.

The company’s own duty to report

Your report is voluntary. The company’s is not. Section 15(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act, explained in 16 CFR part 1115, requires every manufacturer, importer, distributor and retailer that “obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion” that a product has a defect that could create a substantial product hazard to inform CPSC (1115.4). The duty also covers failing a safety rule and creating an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death.

In plain terms:

• Complaints can trigger it. Information that creates the duty “may include, but is not limited to, complaints, injury reports, quality control and engineering data” (1115.14(c)).
• The clock is short. Firms should report “immediately, that is, within 24 hours” of having that information (1115.14(e)). A firm may investigate first, but that “should not exceed 10 days unless a firm can demonstrate that a longer period is reasonable” (1115.14(d)).
• Certainty is not required. Firms “should not delay reporting in order to determine to a certainty” that a defect exists, and they may deny it in the report (1115.12(a)).
• Shoes are a textbook example. The rule’s own list of defects includes shoes “labeled and marketed for long-distance running” that could cause muscle or tendon injury if used that way, which it calls “defective due to the labeling and marketing” (1115.4(b)).

A firm’s full report must include copies or summaries of the safety complaints and injury reports it has received (1115.13(d)). Part 1102 also says its database rules do not change how CPSC treats those company reports (1102.44(b)).

If your shoe is already recalled

Then you do not need a report to get a remedy. Follow the notice: most offer a refund, a repair or a replacement, and our guide to recall remedies explains the difference. A report is still useful if the shoe hurt someone or failed in a way the notice does not mention. To see whether a style has already been recalled, search the full footwear recall list or browse by hazard type. How we count reports and read notices is on our data and methods page.