Leprosy?

Well my first instinct would suggest she's allergic to wal-mart, or perhaps china, maybe its the sweat from indonesian children, numerous options here.

I wish my fiance' was allergic to Walmart.

Could be a product the flip-flops are treated with that she's allergic too, and most other people aren't...

At this point shew has several other people saying the same thing. Next stop is lawsuit and there should be a lawyer who would take this on just for the publicity. Those flops need to be analyzed thoroughly in a lab.

Wasn't this posted a while ago and attracted some pretty mean comments to boot?

yay more chinese poison!

So I guess all the Internet doctors who were positive this was a latex allergy are going to issue retractions, right?

@ESQDORK: Yes it was, but I think the point of this post is to follow-up and show that it is definitely _not_ just her that this happened to.

Perhaps she was trying to squeeze her larger size feet into a pair of smaller size flip-flops. It is common knowledge that women tends to squeeze their feet into smaller size shoes, because they don't like to be known their feet are large.

After some walking, the flip-flops' straps are slowly cutting into her feet like using dental floss to cut a block of cheese.

[www.tian.cc]

^^^^ in denial about the poison train

^^^ in denial about the poison train

@Tian: Anything to blame it on the customer, eh Tian?

My guess is that they cut corners either in what they used as the release agent in the molding process or they cut corners and put some additive into the plastic that wasn't supposed to be there.

My guess is some sort of solvent. The rash and burns look like what I got on my foot once when I got metal etching acid splashed on it.

I am very thankful that I choose not to wear flip flops. I too, want to deny the china poison train as much as everyone else does. Whats ironic is that a couple years ago my mom purchased a pair of flip flops from target when they had one of those 75% off all dollar items at the front of the store sale, for a mere 25 cents and she as worn them (not excessively) and they have not caused any problems like this.

Women do try to shove their feet into shoes that are too small that is a known fact and I do see it a lot with flip flops (must be why many women wear their flip flops with their feet hanging an inch off the side and 2 inches off the heel) but I don't think it would cause this sort of damage even if the straps were too tight. If it was too tight it would just likely cause cuts in your feet (on the sides where the flip flops rub), what we are seeing here is clearly a bumpy sort of rash and does not look anything like a cut.

We need more pictures of the shoes in question, there are a lot of pictures of people's damaged feet on there but not enough of the shoes in question. Post a pic of the shoes with the tag on them so they can be properly identified at walmart by others looking to avoid this. From the picture that I saw on the first article that was posted here I can say that we still have bins of these flip flops at our walmart and that they are not selling at all!

@Tian- You're right, my sister does this. But she didn't get a rash of any sort, only small calluses. And you were so close to being right...

Lawsuit against Wal-Mart? WIN!

aids?

It might be an epoxy resin that's in the flip-flop straps? Epoxy resins are used sometimes in making various types of vinyl and PVC plastic products, and they can definitely cause skin reactions. My dad had a severe reaction to plastic additives when a freak accident at work threw up particulates of the stuff into the air: it took nearly a year before the skin on parts of his face and neck healed. The nasty patches he had on his skin look awfully similar to the ones Kerry has shown on her site.

My mother said she bought some shoes from Payless that did the same thing. She was told it is a gas they use when packaging, and that if it permeates the material of the shoe, can cause skin burns. That might be the cause.

I'm with Taylorich. Take the shoes to a lab and have them analyzed. Unless she wears the shoes on her hands or replicates the materials in and on the straps, wearing a pair of latex gloves doesn't prove anything.

My guess is that they cut corners either in what they used as the release agent

Yeah, that'd be my first guess too. It's possible that it's dye or plasticiser or something, but all sorts of weird oily stuff gets used as mould release agent, and it's not part of the "composition" of the moulded material, so can be hard to track down.

A friend of mine is allergic to some bizzare stuff, including antimicrobial solutions - which are used in most rubber shoes (she can't wear crocs). She's also allergic to the type of glue used to hold together many types of shoes (beneath stitching or by itself). She's fine if she wears socks, but if she wants to wear sandals she's limited to a few "natural" brands (Birks are OK).

Many years ago formaldehyde was used on fabrics used for clothing. Many people are allergic to formaldehyde too. Also, there could be a chemical reaction with whatever was used in the making of the flip-flops that caused the skin burn once the product got wet with salt water. It's difficult to stay away from products made in China. They are everywhere, even in Hawaii. GeSh. Toys made in China are being recalled. Pet foods were recalled due to contamination done in CHINA. When will the US learn?