A pair of safety shoes (also known as safety boots) is personal protective equipment (PPE) for foot protection at workplaces. It prevents from getting foot injuries due to slippery surface, heavy falling or rolling objects, sharp piercing edges, pinch points, rotary machinery, hot objects, loops of ropes under tension, splinters, electricity, chemicals or even bad weather etc. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires the employers to ensure that the employees use protective footwear while working in the areas where there are dangers of foot injuries.

Safety shoes come in many styles both formal or informal. However, workers require reliable and durable work shoes for their safety. Traditional safety shoes are steel toed, but it can also be made of composite materials such as thermoplastics and aluminum. Following considerations are to be made for selecting right type of safety shoes for the workers:

• Work environment and associated hazards

• Material used in safety shoes and their effectiveness to resistant hazards

• Water, heat and cold resistance

• Electric resistance

• Puncture and cut resistance

Following are the examples of work environments where the safety shoes are mandatory:

• Handling heavy objects or tools that might be dropped (impact resistant)

• Handling pipes, tree trunks, stones, rolls, wheels or round shaped items that might roll over on feet

• Handling hazardous material (HAZMAT)

• Works involving sharp tools such as knife, axes, nails, scrap metals and glasses etc.

• Working with live or dead electric cables

• Working on a floor which might produce static electricity

The International Organization for Standardization provides the European standard for Safety footwear. The current one is ISO 20345:2011[7] - previously ISO 20345:2004.[8]

The codes applicable to European safety footwear are: