Safety assessment of children's shoes: status and problems

The subject of the study is the legal requirements and safety indicators of children's shoes. The paper analyzes the technical legal standard that regulates the quality of children's shoes in terms of safety. The provisions of the normative documentation that require correction are indicated. The importance of assessing the frictional properties is noted. A method for studying frictional properties adapted to assessing the quality of soles is proposed. The research has been carried out on soles for children's shoes made of polymeric materials with different structures and with different characteristics in the nature of the running surface on floor coverings (laminate, linoleum, ceramic floor tiles). The indicators of the friction coefficients of the given samples are determined. The recommendations on the applicability of soles are given. The necessity of using method of testing the friction properties of shoes and gradations of friction coefficients for the purpose of evaluating the quality of children's shoes are shown. Research data are of practical significance for footwear industry enterprises providing the quality of manufactured shoes at the pre - production stage.