Budget Safety Shoes Sold on TikTok Recalled 

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16 July 2025

Safety shoes sold on TikTok have been recalled following enforcement action by the Office for Product Safety and Standards.

The shoes were listed under multiple descriptors, including “Men’s Anti-smash and Anti-puncture Shoes, Breathable Non-slip Work Shoes and Comfortable Safety Shoes for Men."

The alarm was raised by Lewis Collantine, a product safety consultant specialising in trading standards. The shoes have now been removed from TikTok following enforcement action by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). At the time of publication, similarly listed products remain for sale on other platforms such as Temu. 

Images of the shoes show that they are easily punctured and compressed despite being advertised as both anti-puncture and anti-smash.

Picture: a photograph showing the toe protection part of the shoe, which Lewis says was compressed when a 20kg weight was dropped from a metre high, despite being advertised as “anti-smash”. Image Credit: Lewis Collantine, Director of Product Safety Collective Limited

The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) has warned that many of these unsafe products are purchased by unsuspecting individuals who have been given budgets to procure their own PPE.

Alan Murray, BSIF Chief Executive Officer, said: "No surprises here. The BSIF has been aware of a burgeoning volume of substandard footwear available on platforms such as TikTok for some time, but we are pleased to see Trading Standards take action and we must applaud the work of Lewis Collantine, who has been instrumental in bringing this example to light. 

“We suspect that many of these products are being bought directly by workers – including limb (b) workers who are not direct employees but for whom employers still have a legal duty to provide PPE under recent updates to the PPE Regulations. These individuals are often given a budget to buy their own PPE but may not fully understand the regulations or certification requirements surrounding safety products. The reality is that substandard PPE advertised as protective simply does not protect workers, and it can put lives at risk.”

Roy Wilders, BSIF Registered Safety Supplier Scheme Manager, added: “Year in, year out, the BSIF’s market surveillance shows there is an alarming volume of substandard PPE available to buy and in use in the UK. Our latest statistics show a shocking 90 per cent failure rate for products we bought and tested from non-registered suppliers. This is in stark contrast to products from BSIF Registered Safety Suppliers, where almost 90 per cent of products passed all the test criteria – and in the very few instances where discrepancies arose, they were immediately addressed and rectified.”

Picture: a photograph showing the soles of the shoes, showing several puncture holes, indicated by red squares. Image Credit: Lewis Collantine, Director of Product Safety Collective Limited

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 16 July 2025

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