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People who bought a pair of Skechers toning shoes may not get the great legs and abdominal muscles that the advertisements promised — but now at least they can get their money back.

Federal regulators announced on Wednesday that Skechers had agreed to pay $40 million to settle complaints that the company deceived consumers with claims that some of its sneakers — from the Shape-Ups, Resistance Runner, Toners and Tone-Ups lines, endorsed by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Brooke Burke — could deliver toned legs, better buttocks and a slimmer body “without setting a foot in a gym.”

Skechers is the second maker of toning shoes that the Federal Trade Commission has forced to reimburse consumers after making implausible claims. In September, Reebok agreed to pay $25 million in consumer refunds for making false claims about its EasyTone line of sneakers.

In announcing the settlement, the Federal Trade Commission said that Skechers had particularly overreached in its advertisements by claiming that its shoes, which retailed for $60 to $100 a pair, could help people shed pounds.

“Skechers’ unfounded claims went beyond stronger and more toned muscles,” said David Vladeck, director of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The F.T.C.’s message, for Skechers and other national advertisers, is to shape up your substantiation or tone down your claims.”

A spokeswoman for the commission declined to say whether it was pursuing legal action against other makers of toning shoes, like Fila and New Balance. But the announcement spells more trouble for a once-flourishing industry that is now struggling with plummeting sales.

Toning shoes were once the fastest-growing segment of the athletic shoe market, with sales rocketing to $1.1 billion in 2010, from $50 million in 2008. Last year sales were sliced in half, dropping to $550 million, said Matt Powell, an analyst at the research firm SportsOneSource. Skechers held the largest share of the market, at 49 percent.

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Skechers said in a statement that it stood by its products. The company denied making false claims and suggested that the settlement was a business decision that would help it avoid costly battles in court. The company has been fighting class-action lawsuits about the toning claims as well as cases brought by various attorneys general.

“While we vigorously deny the allegations made in these legal proceedings and looked forward to vindicating these claims in court, Skechers could not ignore the exorbitant cost and endless distraction of several years spent defending multiple lawsuits in multiple courts across the country,” said David Weinberg, the company’s chief financial officer.

Unlike regular athletic shoes, toning shoes have a rocker-shaped sole, which according to their makers creates instability that forces muscles to work harder, making them stronger.

But a 2010 study financed by the American Council on Exercise looked at three types of toning shoes, including Shape-Ups, and found that they had no increased effect on muscle activation or calorie burn compared with regular athletic shoes. Skechers and other makers of toning shoes have also been hit with lawsuits by people who say that wearing them caused falls and various injuries, including broken bones and hip problems.

Under the terms of the settlement, Skechers is still allowed to sell its toning shoes and make fitness claims about them, albeit less dubious ones. The company plans to continue selling its toning shoes, said its president, Michael Greenberg, and can still say in advertisements that wearing its toning shoes can lead to “increased leg muscle activation, increased calorie burn, improved posture and reduced back pain.”

The trade commission, however, said that the company was permitted to make such claims only if they were true and backed by scientific evidence.

According to Skechers, the science behind toning shoes has been substantiated by at least 19 published studies and supported by researchers around the world. But the trade commission said much of the evidence was bogus or deliberately misrepresented.

One Skechers advertisement carried an endorsement from a chiropractor, Steven Gautreau, who said he had conducted an independent study that found that Shape-Ups were superior to regular athletic shoes.

“After performing a six-week clinical trial testing the benefits of Skechers Shape-Ups, I am confident in recommending them to patients to increase their low-back endurance and improve gluteal strength,” he said in the ad. “Patients also benefited from weight loss and improved body composition.”

According to the trade commission, however, Skechers failed to disclose that Dr. Gautreau was married to a Skechers marketing executive, that he was paid to carry out the research and that his study did not produce the findings that he promoted in the ad. The trade commission said in court documents that Dr. Gautreau conducted two of the four studies that Skechers claimed were independent.

Another Skechers ad said its Resistance Runner shoes could raise muscle activation by 68 percent in the calves, 71 percent in the buttocks and 85 percent in “posture-related muscles.” The trade commission said Skechers “cherry-picked results and failed to substantiate” those claims.

Ultimately for Skechers, the $40 million settlement figure is a trivial amount considering the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue the company has made from toning shoes over the years, said Kurt Carlson, a professor of marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Mr. Carlson said consumers would probably forget about the bad press in six months and that Skechers would remain popular among people who wear toning shoes and believe in them.

“Will Skechers cut promotion for this product? I highly doubt it,” he said. “Will they change the tone of their claims? I doubt that, too. I expect they will lay low for a while and hope the popular press tires of this story, and then they will get on with the campaign.”