HTS codes for shoes and footwear: a practical guide to chapter 64

Chapter 64 is one of the hardest chapters in the tariff schedule. A single sneaker style can have a dozen candidate lines, and the general rates swing from 6% to 48% on what looks like the same shoe. The good news is that the logic is mechanical. If you collect the right facts from your factory, the code follows.

Step 1: Is it footwear at all?

Note 1 to chapter 64 sends several items elsewhere. Disposable foot coverings of flimsy material without an applied sole, textile footwear without an outer sole glued, stitched or otherwise attached to the upper, worn footwear (heading 6309), orthopedic footwear (heading 9021), and toy footwear or skates with blades or wheels attached (chapter 95) are all out. Note 2 adds that laces, buckles, eyelets and ornaments are not footwear parts of heading 6406. They go to their own material headings.

Step 2: Measure the upper and the outer sole

Note 4 to chapter 64 sets the two tests that drive everything else.

• Upper: the material is the one with the greatest external surface area. Accessories and reinforcements such as ankle patches, edging, ornaments, buckles, tabs and eyelet stays are ignored.
• Outer sole: the material is the one with the greatest surface area in contact with the ground. Spikes, bars, nails and similar attachments are ignored.

Two details catch sellers out. First, note 3 says textile with an external layer of rubber or plastic that you can see with the naked eye counts as rubber or plastic. Most "PU leather" uppers are plastic for this test. Second, additional U.S. note 5 says textile on the bottom of a sole is ignored unless it has the strength and durability of a normal outer sole. A felt patch on a rubber sole does not make it a textile sole.

Step 3: Work through the subheading tests

Within each heading, the same questions come back in different combinations. Answer all of them before you search for the 10-digit line.

Sports footwear or athletic footwear?

These sound alike but are different legal terms. Sports footwear (subheading note 1) means only footwear designed for a sport that has or can take spikes, cleats, sprigs, stops, clips or bars, plus skating boots, ski boots, snowboard boots, wrestling boots, boxing boots and cycling shoes. A soccer cleat is sports footwear. A running shoe is not.

Athletic footwear is the "tennis shoes, basketball shoes, gym shoes, training shoes and the like" in additional U.S. note 2. It covers sneakers and trainers whether or not anyone plays sport in them. CBP's footwear guidance excludes shoes with open toes or open heels and slip-ons with no closure.

The 90% rubber or plastic test and foxing

Several low-rate lines in 6402 and 6404 apply only when more than 90% of the upper's external surface area is rubber or plastic. For this test, accessories and reinforcements are counted, which is the opposite of note 4. Those lines also exclude shoes with a foxing or foxing-like band: a strip applied or molded at the sole that overlaps the upper and substantially encircles the shoe, like the rubber band around a classic canvas sneaker.

CBP's footwear guidance gives numbers. The overlap must be at least 1/4 inch on men's sizes 11.5 and up and women's 12.5 and up, 3/16 inch on children's, and 1/8 inch on infants'. A band covering 40% or less of the perimeter is not substantial. A band covering 60% or more is. Between 41% and 59%, CBP decides shoe by shoe.

Value per pair

Many lines break at $3, $6.50 and $12 per pair. The value is the customs value per pair, not the retail price. Cheap shoes often pay a compound rate, a fixed amount per pair plus a percentage, which can make the effective rate on a $4 shoe higher than on a $40 shoe.

Work the middle line through. A pair valued at $5 at 76 cents a pair plus 32% pays $0.76 plus $1.60, so $2.36 a pair, an effective rate of 47%. Move the same shoe above $12 and the rate is a flat 9%. If your price sits near a break, document the value carefully. Packing costs, assists and commissions paid by the buyer can push it over.

Covering the ankle, waterproofing and protection

CBP treats a shoe as covering the ankle if the upper covers at least half of the outer ankle bone. Laces and straps alone do not count. Some lines also turn on protection against water or cold. Protective active footwear in additional U.S. note 6 covers outdoor shoes such as hiking, trekking and trail running shoes valued over $24 a pair whose water protection comes from a coated or laminated textile.

Open toes, slip-ons and slippers

Sandals and slip-ons have their own lines in 6404.19, and some of them depend on whether rubber or plastic makes up less than 10% of the shoe's weight. House slippers are a separate statistical category, defined by sole construction in the chapter's statistical notes.

Men's, women's or other

Gender sits at the 8 or 10-digit level. Additional U.S. note 1(b) defines footwear "for men, youths and boys" as American youths' size 11.5 and larger for males, and excludes types commonly worn by both sexes. The statistical notes define men's as American men's size 6 and larger and women's as size 4 and larger, including unisex types. A unisex sneaker in a full size run usually lands in a "for other persons" or women's line, not men's.

What CBP wants on the invoice

Under 19 CFR 141.89, footwear invoices for headings 6401 to 6405 must carry more detail than most goods. Include:

• Manufacturer and importer style numbers.
• Percent of the upper's external surface area by material (leather, composition leather, rubber or plastic, textile, other), excluding accessories.
• The same percentage breakdown for the outer sole.
• Construction answers: waterproof or not, metal toe cap, covers the ankle or knee, open toe or heel, slip-on, athletic or sports type, and worn by men, women or both.
• Foxing or foxing-like band details where the subheading depends on it.

CBP Form 5523 is the standard way to give these answers. Fill one in per style and keep it with your product file. It doubles as your reasonable care record.

Extra tariffs on footwear

The general rate is the floor. As of October 2026 most footwear from China also pays Section 301 duties, and footwear from most trading partners pays the Section 301 forced-labor tariff in effect since July 24, 2026, at 10% or 12.5% depending on origin. Shoes with a leather upper from a trade agreement partner may enter free under the agreement, but the origin rules are product-specific. Price each origin separately before you place an order.

HTSBase's classifier asks for upper and sole materials, value per pair and size range when they are missing, and shows which chapter 64 notes it used. You can also browse chapter 64 heading by heading.