Yet Another Flatulent-Shoe Lawsuit

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Goosebumps Products, Inc., a Florida manufacturer of shoe insoles, sued one of its suppliers on Wednesday for sending it a defective chemical that caused gas bubbles to form inside the finished product, so that when worn and stepped upon the insoles acted as “whoopee cushions for the feet.”

According to the suit, the defendant, Bell Chem, supplied cheap and watered-down glycerine instead of the food-grade glycerine that had been ordered. The contaminated glycerine then caused bubbles to form inside the insoles. Goosebumps claims it was unaware of the problem until it started to receive customer complaints about the embarrassing “flatulence-like noise” that resulted. The company says it had to throw away at least 35,000 pairs.

I will be watching for the “mitigation of damages” defense, since I bet you could sell whoopee cushions for the feet for at least 10 bucks a pair, so they actually could have made money from the mistake if they hadn’t been so short-sighted.

And does this remind anybody else of the “Cheers” episode where somebody was selling cheap shoes that squeaked, and everybody in the bar tried on a pair and then walked around so there was a cacophony of squeaking, until Carla got fed up and yelled at everybody to stop, and they did, and then quietly squeaked back to their seats? No? Anyway, good episode.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel