Beware! The sandals you wear may be "toxic"!

At present, there are many brands of high-heeled sandals on the market, with huge price differences and uneven quality.

In order to help consumers buy comfortable, durable and safe high-heeled sandals, the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Committee recently organized a high-heeled sandal comparison test and found that the hooks and straps of some high-heeled sandals were broken during the test, which could easily cause consumers to sprain their ankles or fall during wearing. Some shoes also contain high levels of harmful substances such as heavy metals and plasticizers, which pose potential risks such as skin allergies and cancer.

The reporter learned in the interview that a total of 40 high-heeled sandals were purchased for this comparative test, including mass brands, "Internet celebrity" brands and light luxury brands; 30 of them were from offline shopping malls and brand discount stores, and 10 were from e-commerce platforms; the prices ranged from 125.1 yuan to 4,620 yuan. The comparative test referred to GB/T22756-2017 "Leather Sandals", QB/T1002-2015 "Leather Shoes" and "General Safety Requirements for Footwear" (Draft for Approval) and other standards, and tested a total of 11 indicators including folding resistance, peeling strength, snag, hexavalent chromium, phthalates, decomposable aromatic amine dyes, etc. for the 40 high-heeled sandals.

During the interview, the reporter found that in this comparative test, a total of 4 pairs of high-heeled sandals did not meet the standards in terms of the slingback items, which was one of the items with the most problematic samples detected.

After testing, a total of 4 types of high-heeled sandals did not meet the standard requirements. These 4 products are honeyGIRL brand high-heeled sandals of Shenzhen Xitian Clothing Co., Ltd., SCHUTZ brand sandals of Hangzhou Shuzi Trading Co., Ltd., PT'SON brand sandals of Shenzhen Baisen Footwear Co., Ltd. and GIORGIO ARMANI brand high-heeled sandals of Giorgio Armani (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd.

The reporter noticed that this pair of shoes labeled as GIORGIO ARMANI was priced at 4,620 yuan, making it the most expensive sample in this comparative test. However, obvious cracks appeared at the center of the shoes during the bending performance test, which did not meet the standard requirements.

The reporter learned that the outsourcing cost of a pair of shoe shanks is not actually high, but as an indispensable component of high-heeled sandals, substandard shanks may cause personal injury accidents. The testing engineer told the reporter that some companies do not pay attention to the intrinsic quality of their products and use inferior shanks to produce high-heeled sandals, which is one of the reasons why many shank items did not meet the standards in this comparative test.

When consumers buy high-heeled sandals, they pay more attention to the appearance and comfort of the shoes. It is almost impossible to find quality problems of the products by just trying them on once. Currently, a pair of high-heeled sandals on the market can easily cost hundreds or thousands of yuan, or even more. This comparative test found that some expensive high-heeled sandals do not meet the quality standards in terms of basic lacing and folding resistance, which not only seriously affects the performance of the shoes, but also directly reduces the service life of the shoes, damaging the rights and interests of consumers.

This pair of SKAP women's shoes, which is sold by Shenzhen Longhao Tiandi Co., Ltd. and costs 1,184 yuan, was found to have a peeling strength that does not meet the standard requirements. If the peeling strength of the upper and sole does not meet the standard, the shoes are prone to debonding or even the soles falling off during wearing, which affects the use and may cause certain personal injuries.

This pair of high-heeled sandals, labeled as produced by Zhejiang Zoshini Shoes Co., Ltd., was tested for 40,000 folding resistance cycles and the cracks on the soles were as large as 63 mm, more than twice the standard limit.

The weather is hot in summer and autumn, and many consumers have the habit of wearing shoes barefoot. Shoes are in direct contact with the skin for a long time, and the limit of harmful substances cannot be ignored. However, the current adult footwear standards have not yet made requirements for the limit of harmful substances. In order to fully understand the potential risks that may exist in high-heeled sandals, this comparative test refers to the "General Safety Requirements for Footwear" (draft for approval) which was established in 2019 and is currently in the approval stage. The results show that the content of phthalates in four high-heeled sandals exceeds the limit requirements recommended by the relevant standards.

The four products are 73 hours brand samples from Shanghai Yueze Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., KISSCAT brand samples from Tianchuang Fashion Co., Ltd., exull Q brand samples from Yisi Co., Ltd. and honeyGIRL Tianshen brand samples from Shenzhen Xitian Clothing Co., Ltd. Among them, Tianshen brand sandals have the highest phthalate content, which is 6 times the standard limit.

The testing engineer told the reporter that phthalates are a common type of "plasticizers" that are added to shoe materials to make the soles, linings and other parts soft and elastic, enhancing the comfort of wearing. However, known studies have shown that phthalates can be absorbed into the human body through the respiratory system and skin, causing harm to the endocrine system, reproductive development system, etc.

In addition to phthalates, the General Safety Requirements for Footwear (Draft for Approval) stipulates that the hexavalent chromium content of heavy metals in adult shoes should not exceed 10 mg/kg. This comparative test also found that the hexavalent chromium content of this pair of hotwind sandals, which is marked as Ningbo Hotwind Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., is 25 mg/kg, 2.5 times the standard limit.

Hexavalent chromium is highly toxic. Contact with human skin can cause allergies. Inhalation through the respiratory tract can cause liver and kidney damage, and in severe cases can also cause cancer and lead to genetic defects.

After testing, it was found that the pull-out strength of the upper straps or the peeling strength of the upper soles of 3 out of 40 high-heeled sandal samples in this comparative test did not meet the explicit standard requirements; the shanks of 4 did not meet the standard requirements; in addition, the phthalates of 4 high-heeled sandals did not meet the recommended limits of the "General Safety Requirements for Footwear", and the hexavalent chromium of 1 high-heeled sandal did not meet the recommended limits of the "General Safety Requirements for Footwear".

So what should consumers pay attention to when buying high-heeled sandals to avoid buying shoes that do not fit their feet? Testing experts told reporters that when buying high-heeled sandals, the first thing to do is to check whether the shoes are stable.

Experts also remind consumers that the common high-heeled sandals on the market can be roughly divided into oblique-toe shoes, pointed-toe shoes, almond-toe shoes, round-toe shoes and square-toe shoes. Consumers should choose suitable products according to their own foot shapes, so as to avoid problems such as squeezing and rubbing the feet when wearing them.

Source: CCTV News Client, Xinhuanet

Editor: Wang Yuanfang

Editor: Sun Xiaoting, Zhu Xiaofan, Chang Ying