It’s been about a year since Kelly Stiles’ feet were (somehow) injured by a $3 pair of Walmart flip flops. In that time, Kelly says her feet haven’t fully healed and she still can’t wear sandals or flip flops. She says she still has pain where she was injured.
Walmart is saying nothing at all, although Stiles says that of the 200-350 people who contacted her after she posted photos of her “burns” on the internet, a few have “settled with Walmart for undisclosed amounts.” The retailer has pulled the flip flops in question from store shelves, but they do still sell shoes from “chemical flip flop” manufacturer.
Kelly told WCSC, “So far I have been contacted by no less than 200 hundred and I think no more than 350 people who have said you know I had the same thing happen.”
“We’re scared. We don’t know what we have been exposed to.”
If you’re new to this story and you have a strong stomach, you can check out this gallery of Kelly’s injured feet , or read about others who’ve shared her fate. Above is the most recent picture of Kelly’s feet that she has up on her site. It was taken 2-27-08. She bought the flip flops last April. Ouch! Get better, Kelly.
LaMana Photography
Burned By Flip Flops From Walmart [WCSC](Thanks, Alex!)
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The reason little kids in China are making stuff for US is not to keep prices low. It is to keep the bottom line UP. Really. Do you think that the CEO, making millions of dollars per year, decided to do the public a favor? No. He spends all day, everyday, trying to make more money.
The prices could be the same if those things are made in America. The problem is, the CEO and other executives won’t get as much.
I was stationed in Hawaii many moons ago, and I have six words for Kelly/Kerry.
Scott Hawaii sandals. Soft. Durable. Comfy.
They cost a lot more, but BOY, are they good. I have a pair I bought almost 20 years ago, and they’re still serviceable. Even with daily use, a pair should still last at least five or six years. With occasional use, ten years or more.
[www.scotthawaii.com]
My old pair is most similar to the Kainalu model.
@mgy: Thank goodness we didn’t let that kind of reasoning stop us from enacting our own child labor laws.
I hope someday you people put something on your feet for a couple hours and scar your feet causing pain for a year or more. Then when you say anything about it people bitch and chastise you for wearing the sandals.
You were at the beach and you wore sandals for 3 hours. What were you thinking!? You deserve your painful feet injuries! You idiot!
Sheesh.
Its a shame, cause it looks like she has pretty nice feet otherwise. This, along with the fact that I cant keep flip flops on my feet, are why I dont wear them.
Stop buying cheap plastic shit from Wal-Mart and they’ll stop selling it.
@tekdemon: this anti-China slander is getting out of hand
Mr. Wong? Is that you?
@parnote: IMHO, ALL SUV’s should be banned from the road.
Go away, you worthless communist. You and your global warming friends are idiots. Ice levels in the Southern Hemisphere are at 25-year highs and we’ve been hitting record low temperatures across the world. Last month in my city was colder than it’s been since the fifties.
@parnote:
I agree completely, Parnote. Ban the gas guzzling beasts. Global warming(which I don’t even believe in) has nothing to do with my personal SUV-hate, it stems from the fact that I actually drove an SUV for about 7 months & have never hated a vehicle more. I bought it b/c I had a baby & thought it would be easier to get a carseat in & out of. It wasn’t any more comfortable or convenient than the small car I traded in for it, and it was slow and cumbersome, terrifying to drive in windy conditions, and got a whopping 15 city/23 highway. Sucky as hell. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would CHOOSE to drive an SUV unless they lived on a farm or whatever. I drive a 99 Dodge Neon now that gets about 40mpg average & I’ve never been happier.
On Kelly’s feet- SUE THEIR ASSES. I would’ve called my lawyer the minute my feet started turning pink. Get on the ball girl.
I saw these flip flops at the dollar store the other day, I think.
It looks more like a latex allergy than a “chemical burn”. I’m amazed that she hasn’t gotten checked out by a doctor. Latex allergies can be life-threatening!
@tekdemon: Ummm… don’t know what press you’ve been reading, but as recently as last week Chinese factories were caught using child labor.
[www.abs-cbnnews.com]
@Channing: You get what you pay for.
@MikeGrenade & @Channin: My point is not that you deserve to have $3 flip-flops mess up your feet, it is that for $3, I would expect them to be laden with lead-based paint.
My mom would buy the $5 shoes from K-Mart and I would always tell her that they will mess up her feet… and they did – the surgery costs much more than buying good shoes.
Buy all the cheap clothes you want (Old Navy stuff IS designed to be cheap and wear out quickly – it is the false part of the deal), but NEVER buy cheap shoes for your feet.
@C2D: ok sorry, imagine i had said burns instead.
@jimconsumer: @jimconsumer: wow. a troll. look at it beat its chest and quote things it doesn’t understand.
@BugMeNot2: It is nothing short of tragic when you let subductive phrases speak for you. Learn to think for yourself. Just to be perfectly clear, I highly doubt that she “paid” for disfiguring scars on her feet.
@wildness:
Your “argument” is completely and totally bogus. Where do you draw the line? At $3, you EXPECT a product to poison you and cause what appears to be permanent damage. Evidently you also expect $5 shoes to do the same. Do you then have, I don’t know, some kind of spreadsheet? Some magic value? Shoes that cost more than X, well they’ll get the job done, maybe they’ll fray a little. B+. Shoes that cost less than X? Oh, well, DUH, they’re totally going to poison your feet. I mean, come on, EVERYONE knows that. Would not buy again.
Bogus.
And why stop with shoes? I can’t wait until someone buys a cheap shirt from WhereverMart and develops some horrible allergic or whatever reaction to the dyes being used. And there you’ll be, telling them “Oh, DUDE, come on! Duh! Anyone could tell you that when you only pay $6.50 for a shirt, you should just EXPECT it to be dyed in hydrochloric acid. It’s totally your fault.”
The magic line that you draw between cheap shoes and cheap clothes is mystifying.
Attitudes like yours are probably the biggest stumbling block to consumer advocacy. I’ll just file you away under “blame the victim”.
I’m sorry, but anyone that buys flip-flops simply gets what’s coming to them if they are ‘injured’ by them.
Flip-flops: Tell society you’ve given up, moved into a trailer park and only have $3.99 left from your welfare check after buying booze.
@Jaguarxjs
That was an insightful and useful comment. Thank you for taking the time to sign up and leave that comment here; we’re all enriched because of it. You’ve done the world a service.
Jackass.
I still have a pair of these in my closet. I bought them for shower shoes on a backpacking trip. Not saying it didn’t happen, but I have a tenancy toward contact dermatitis, and I didn’t have any problems.
On a side note, I haven’t shopped at Walmart since I bought those shoes a year ago. Good for me.