About the brand
Step2 was founded by Thomas G. Murdough Jr., previously founder of Little Tikes, and is based in Streetsboro, Ohio. Its toys are rotationally molded plastic — the company's core process for playhouses, sandboxes, ride-ons, and outdoor toys. No brand-wide resin, BPA/phthalate, or recycled-content statement was found. Do not read Step2 as made in the USA brand-wide: a TINA.org investigation found only about 10% of Step2's listed products at the time met the FTC “all or virtually all” standard, with about 90% partially or wholly made outside the US. Source: TINA.org Step2 investigation.
What the brand publishes
Step2's blog states it designs all its kids toys and products to meet or exceed US safety standards, including ASTM and CPSIA certifications, conducting in-house safety tests and regularly submitting samples to independent, accredited labs — a described program (in-house plus independent lab testing), which is why the listed water table sits at Program-backed. Separately, in January 2020 the CPSC voted to accredit The Step 2 Company LLC itself as a firewalled third-party laboratory for specified ASTM F963-17 sections — that is Step2's own lab under firewall rules, NOT outside-lab testing, and the two should not be conflated; whether that accreditation is still current was not verified. Sources: Step2 blog, CPSC accreditation document.
The honest caveats
Snowman recall 25-308
Step2 My First Snowman, CPSC recall 25-308 (2025): the top-hat brim can break, choking hazard, 47 reports of brim breakage.
Shopping Cart recall 20-081
Step2 Little Helper's Shopping Cart, CPSC recall 20-081 (2019): baskets breaking, laceration hazard.
Neither is the listed Rain Showers Splash Pond Water Table, and no water-table recall was found in this pass.
Sources: CPSC recall 25-308, CPSC recall 20-081.
