Could your Walmart flip-flops give you chemical burns?

They may look innocent enough, but these $2.44 Walmart flip-flops have ended up costing hundreds of dollars after leaving their wearer (ironically a former Walmart employee) with some fairly severe burns when she wore them for more than a few minutes. I’ve put the picture of her feet under a cut to spare the squeamish, but needless to say this is a far cry from the usual blisters or sore patches we often get when we’re wearing in cheap shoes. Two distinct strap-shaped burns appeared on her feet, which then scabbed, cracked and blistered, leaving her in agony, forced to fork out for emergency medical care…

After posting online about the problem, it became clear this wasn’t a one-off incident when another shopper reported similar problems with identical flip-slops purchased at the same time (April 2007). Walmart have passed to buck to the Chinese manufacturer of the shoes, but are still stocking the style in stores. This may have just been a small problem with a specific batch of the shoes, but we’re helping spread the word in case more of you have suffered at the fate of these ‘cheap’ shoes.