Red Wing Shoes Steel toe work boots

What went wrong

The notice saysThe steel toe cap in the boots could fail to protect the wearer’s feet in an impact.

Safety-toe and metatarsal-guard boots are sold to meet impact and compression ratings. When a recall says the protection may fail, it means the boot may not hold up to the force the label promises. Employers who require protective footwear generally expect it to meet the rating printed in the boot, so check with your safety officer about a replacement.

How to tell if your pair is affected

Product description in the noticeThis recall involves 45 styles of Red Wing men’s steel toe work boots in sizes 11 to 18 and widths ranging from B to H depending on the size and style. The boots have 6, 8, 10 or 11 inch ankle height and were sold in brown, black and maroon-colored leather. The following style numbers are included in the recall: 2206, 2211, 2223, 2226, 2230, 2238, 2249, 2254, 2270, 2404, 2405, 2406, 2408, 2412, 2414, 2426, 2491, 3505, 3507, 3508, 3526, 3528, 3568, 4208, 4210, 4273, 4406, 4414, 4425, 4433, 4435, 4436, 4437, 4438, 4445, 4481, 4483, 4484, 4494, 22406, 22408, 52406, 52408, 82406 and 82408. Date codes between 12/12 and 11/13 are included in the recall. The style number, date code and Red Wing Shoes are printed on a label inside the boot’s tongue. For the complete list, see the firm’s website.

The notice gives no style numbers or barcodes, so you match on what it does give: the brand and style (Steel toe work boots), the sizes (sizes 11 to 18), the sale period (December 2012 to November 2013), where it was sold (see “Sold at” above) and the “made in” label (United States). If a detail does not line up, the recall contact below can confirm.

What the notice tells you to do

RemedyConsumers should stop wearing the recalled boots immediately and return them to a Red Wing store/dealer or contact Red Wing Shoes for a free replacement pair of boots.

Recall contact, as printed in the notice: Red Wing Shoes at (800) 733-9464 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. CT Saturday, by email at [email protected] or online at www.redwingshoes.com and click on Safety Notice for more information.

The recall is 12 years old, and the last pairs were sold about 12 years ago. The notice gives a phone number, an email address and a website for the firm; contact details that old may no longer work, while the CPSC notice stays online as the record of the recall.

How this recall compares

• With about 105,000 units, this is the 18th 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.
• 11 other footwear recalls in the archive cite the same kind of hazard (impact and crush), 6 of them in men’s footwear. The earliest in this group dates from 2004.
• The notice puts the sales window at about 12 months (December 2012 to November 2013), 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 $185 to $340. For work and safety boots in the archive the typical stated price is about $110, so this pair sat at the pricier end 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

• 2013 brought 8 footwear recalls in our archive, covering about 138,390 units in all. This was the 8th of the year by date and the 1st largest by units.
• The notice names the steel toe cap as the part that fails. 2 other footwear recalls in the archive name the same part in their hazard statement; the most recent is Georgia Boot steel-toed work shoes (2014).
• Made in United States. 2 of the 91 notices in the archive that name a country list United States (2%).
• At the stated price, the 105,000 units come to roughly $28 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.