BS EN ISO 20344:2021

What is ISO 20344 about?  

ISO 20344 specifies methods for testing footwear designed as personal protective equipment. 

ISO 20344 provides test methods necessary to ensure the essential safety requirements, test pieces shall be taken from the whole footwear. 

Who is ISO 20344 for? 

ISO 20344  on test methods for PPE footwear is useful for: 

• PPE footwear manufacturers 
• Quality control personnel 
• PPE footwear testing laboratories 

Why should you use ISO 20344?  

Safety shoes are one of the necessities in the workplace that decrease the risk of workplace injury and accidents. Protective, safety footwear is essential to ensure safe and healthy feet. Steel toe boots and shoes protect your feet, help prevent injuries to them, and reduce the severity of injuries that may occur in the workplace. 

ISO 20344 specifies test methods for safety shoes, these test methods recreate field conditions that shoes might endure in their lifecycle. With the test methods given in ISO 20344 you can identify performance and physical aspects of the safety shoes like shock absorption capacity, seam strength, and ankle protection etc. 

In conclusion, with the guidance of ISO 20344 you can enhance the quality of safety shoes and create a more reliable product that can prevent injuries more effectively.  

What’s changed since the last update? 

BS EN ISO 20344:2021 supersedes ISO 20344:2011. BS EN ISO 20344:2021 includes some technical changes with respect to ISO 20344:2011. These include: 

• Systematic inclusion of a clause test report in all the test methods, changes in Table 1, a minimum number of samples and test pieces 
• References are made to specific standards, all reference standards are dated in Clause 2. All new standards are taken into account 
• Clarification in the position and the dimension of the ankle protection 
• Non-metallic perforation resistant insert, new drawing for impact test, new detection of water resistance, new tests for scuff caps, seam strength, new measurement of cleats height in the waist area 
• Determination of the area for non-water vapour-permeable material, clarification in the position and the dimension of the ankle protection, new annexers with new drawings of footwear degradations and the new system of sizing added