Collective Brands KEDS® "Know It All" Girls' Shoes

What went wrong

The notice saysOrnamental stars on the heel of the shoe can loosen, posing a laceration hazard.

Cut hazards in footwear almost always come from metal parts: thread, wire, studs, rivets or trim. They tend to show up after some wear, when linings thin out or edges lift. A quick run of your fingers along the inside of the shoe will often reveal the problem the notice describes.

How to tell if your pair is affected

Product description in the noticeThis recall involves KEDS® girls' rubber soled shoes. The shoes are black and pink with white trim and a pink loop on the heel. "KEDS" appears on the tongue and heel of the shoe. The style number KY40098A is printed on the underside of the tongue. The shoes were sold in girls' sizes 12 to 5.

Numbers named in the notice that you can match against the label, box or receipt:

• KY40098A

What the notice tells you to do

RemedyConsumers should take these shoes away from children immediately and contact Collective Brands to receive a gift card for $30 redeemable at Stride Rite stores or striderite.com.

Recall contact, as printed in the notice: For additional information, contact Collective Brands at (800) 365-4933 between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. ET Monday through Friday and between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday, Email [email protected], or visit the firm’s website www.collectivebrands.com

The recall is 14 years old. Children outgrow shoes fast, so pairs like these now turn up mainly as hand-me-downs or in resale, where the recall still applies. The notice gives a phone number, an email address 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 45,000 units, this is the 27th 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.
• 9 other footwear recalls in the archive cite the same kind of hazard (cuts and scrapes), 5 of them in children’s footwear. The earliest in this group dates from 1997.
• The notice gives a price of $23. For shoes in the archive the typical stated price is about $38, so this pair sat at the cheaper end of its group.
• The notice cites 27 reports before the recall. 36 of the 95 detailed notices in the archive cite no incidents at all.

Year, part, store and origin

• 2011 brought 7 footwear recalls in our archive, covering about 192,400 units in all. This was the 6th of the year by date and the 3rd largest by units.
• The notice names the decoration as the part that fails. 4 other footwear recalls in the archive name the same part in their hazard statement; the most recent is Koala children’s sandals with butterfly wings (2014).
• Made in China. 61 of the 91 notices in the archive that name a country list China (67%).
• 27 reports on about 45,000 units works out to roughly 60 reports per 100,000 units. The median across the 55 recalls that give both figures is 16, so this recall drew more reports per pair than most.
• At the stated price, the 45,000 units come to roughly $1.0 million of retail sales.

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