Alpargatas Children’s flip flops

What went wrong

The notice saysDecorative paint on the sole of the flip flops can contain levels of lead in excess of the federal standard.

Federal law limits lead in children’s products to 100 parts per million in the material and 90 parts per million in paint and coatings. A recall like this one means testing found more than that. Lead is not visible, so you cannot sort affected pairs by look; match the style and color to the notice.

How to tell if your pair is affected

Product description in the noticeFlip flops of the Havaianas brand containing decorative paint were sold under the following model names: Baby Estampas, Baby Pets, Kid’s Apple, Kid’s Fairy, Kid’s Flores, Kid’s Lighthouse, Kid’s Monsters, Kid’s Surf, Baby Letrinhas, Kid’s Sports, Kid’s Candies, Kid’s Fun, Kid’s Love, Kid’s Sereias, Kid’s Speed, Kid’s Lucky Bug, Kid’s Pets, Kid’s Rock, Kid’s Slim, Kid’s Wonder Woman, Kid’s Small Flowers and Kid’s Tropical w/Kit. A photo of a representative flip flop is provided. Havaianas flip flops without decorative paint are not being recalled.

The notice gives no style numbers or barcodes, so you match on what it does give: the brand and style (Children’s flip flops), the sale period (November 2006 to February 2009), where it was sold (see “Sold at” above) and the “made in” label (Brazil). If a detail does not line up, the recall contact below can confirm.

What the notice tells you to do

RemedyConsumers should immediately take the recalled flip flops away from children and return them to Alpargatas USA, Inc. to receive a replacement.

Recall contact, as printed in the notice: For additional information, please contact Alpargatas USA at (888) 289-5306 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the company’s Web site at www.havaianasus.com

The recall is 17 years old, and the last pairs were sold about 17 years ago. Most original owners have moved on to bigger sizes; the pairs still around tend to sit in donation bags, consignment shops and online resale listings. The notice gives a phone number and a website for the firm; details that old may have changed, and the CPSC notice stays online as the record.

How this recall compares

• With about 210,000 units, this is the 9th largest of the 95 footwear recalls in our archive that give a U.S. unit count. The median recall in the archive covers about 7,200 units, so this one is well above typical size.
• 8 other footwear recalls in the archive cite the same kind of hazard (chemicals and lead), 5 of them in children’s footwear. The earliest in this group dates from 1999.
• The notice puts the sales window at about 28 months (November 2006 to February 2009), against a median of 7 months across recalls that state one. The recall came 1 month after the last sale date.
• The notice gives a price of $15 to $24. For sandals, clogs and flip-flops in the archive the typical stated price is about $24, so this pair sat near the middle of its group.
• No incidents were reported before this recall. That is true of 36 of the 95 detailed notices in the archive: firms often recall after their own testing or a supplier finding, not after injuries.

Year, part, store and origin

• 2009 brought 9 footwear recalls in our archive, covering about 1,926,500 units in all. This was the 1st of the year by date and the 2nd largest by units.
• The notice names the lead as the part that fails. 5 other footwear recalls in the archive name the same part in their hazard statement; the most recent is Otter MOMO Children’s Sandals (2022).
• Made in Brazil. 3 of the 91 notices in the archive that name a country list Brazil (3%).
• At the stated price, the 210,000 units come to roughly $4.1 million of retail sales, one of the ten largest recalls in the archive.

Comparisons use the 103 footwear recalls in our archive, read from the CPSC recall database on October 20, 2026. See data and methods.