The CPSC told owners to throw out heated insoles whose batteries can catch fire even when off.

Battery-heated footwear built its appeal on a simple promise: warm feet during long shifts outdoors, cold commutes, or winter hikes, powered by a small lithium-ion cell tucked inside the sole. That same cell is now the reason federal regulators are telling owners of one popular brand of heated insoles to stop wearing them and get rid of them immediately, regardless of whether the insoles are switched on.

The warning centers on a defect that safety officials say makes the product dangerous even in its “off” state, a detail that separates this case from a routine overheating complaint and pushes it toward outright disposal rather than a simple repair or refund-and-continue-using approach.

A Fire Hazard That Doesn’t Require Being Worn

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a warning telling consumers to immediately stop using COOWALK and COOWALI branded heated insoles because the internal lithium-ion battery can explode and ignite even when the insoles are turned off. That detail matters because it means storing the insoles in a closet, a gym bag, or a car does not remove the danger the way unplugging a faulty appliance normally would.

The agency said it is aware of 26 reports of fires, explosions, and other thermal incidents tied to the insoles, resulting in at least 23 reported burn injuries, including serious second- and third-degree burns that required skin grafts. The insoles were sold through Amazon.com and GearTrade.com from August 2022 through May 2026, a window spanning nearly four years in which an unknown but potentially large number of units reached consumers before the hazard came to light.

Because the injuries described include skin grafts, the CPSC’s language moved beyond its usual “stop use and contact the firm” phrasing into a more urgent directive: destroy the batteries or dispose of the entire product following local hazardous-waste rules for lithium-ion cells, rather than simply setting them aside.

A Wider Pattern Across the Heated Insole Category

The COOWALK/COOWALI notice did not arrive in isolation. Regulators have issued a string of similar warnings this year covering other heated-insole brands sold through major online marketplaces, each involving lithium-ion cells that overheated, smoked, or ignited during normal use. The recurring thread across these cases is a low-cost battery pack embedded in a soft, flexible sole that flexes and compresses with every step, a mechanical stress that standard rigid battery housings were not designed to absorb.

Fire investigators who study consumer lithium-ion incidents generally point to the same handful of failure modes: manufacturing defects that create microscopic short circuits inside a battery cell, damage from repeated bending, and charging circuitry that fails to cut power once a cell reaches full charge. Any of those failures can trigger thermal runaway, a chain reaction in which a battery cell heats uncontrollably, often venting gas and flame within seconds. Because insoles sit against skin and are frequently worn inside enclosed footwear, the window to react before a burn injury occurs is far shorter than with a device sitting on a countertop.

The frequency of these warnings this year suggests the low-cost heated-footwear category, much of it sold directly by third-party sellers through online marketplaces rather than through traditional retail channels with more rigorous safety testing, has become a recurring source of thermal-hazard complaints reaching federal regulators.

How to Spot a Battery at Risk Before It Fails

Consumer safety advocates who track lithium-ion incidents generally recommend a handful of visual checks before every use of any battery-powered wearable, checks that apply just as much to heated insoles as they do to phone batteries or laptop packs. A case that has swollen, bulged, or become warm to the touch even before use has begun is treated as a sign the internal cell chemistry has already started to break down. A faint chemical smell, discoloration around seams, or a battery pack that no longer sits flush inside its compartment are also considered early warning signs worth taking seriously rather than dismissing as normal wear.

None of those signs guarantee that a fire is imminent, and the CPSC’s warning about the COOWALK and COOWALI insoles makes clear that some units ignited without any visible precursor at all, which is precisely why the agency’s guidance skips straight to disposal rather than a wait-and-watch approach. For a product designed to be worn directly against skin inside a shoe, the margin between a warning sign and a burn injury is considerably narrower than it is for a battery sitting on a desk or charging on a nightstand, since there is little time to remove a smoking insole from inside a laced boot compared with setting down a smoking phone.

What the CPSC Wants Owners To Do Now

For owners of the affected insoles, the agency’s guidance is unusually direct: stop using the product immediately, do not simply store it, and dispose of it through a battery or e-waste recycling program rather than a household trash bin, since damaged lithium-ion cells can ignite inside garbage trucks and waste facilities. Consumers who purchased the insoles through Amazon or GearTrade are advised to check their order history for the affected model numbers and to watch the CPSC’s public warnings and recalls index for retailer-specific refund or return instructions as the case develops.

More broadly, the incident is a reminder that battery-powered wearables marketed as seasonal comfort items carry the same fire risks as any other lithium-ion device, and that a low price point on a marketplace listing is not a proxy for the safety testing that established consumer-electronics brands typically undergo. Shoppers considering heated apparel for the coming winter season are being encouraged to check for independent safety certifications, avoid leaving battery packs charging unattended overnight, and register products with manufacturers so they can be reached directly if a hazard notice is issued later.

The CPSC continues to update its public recalls and warnings index as new reports come in, and the agency has said it will pursue corrective action with sellers if a formal recall becomes necessary beyond the current stop-use warning.

Morning Overview produced this article with AI assistance and reviewed it against the cited sources.

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