Image copyright Imgur

A California shoe company has recalled a boot after a customer discovered the sole left tiny swastika prints behind.

The boot went viral after a Reddit user posted a picture showing the shoe's tread and its swastika imprints.

Conal International Trading Co, the City of Industry company that manufactures the boot, has since issued a public apology and pulled the shoe.

The company said it was "no way intentional" and an "obvious mistake" made by manufacturers in China.

"We will not be selling any of our boots with the misprint to anyone," the company said in a statement.

Image copyright Amazon

"We would never create a design to promote hate. We don't promote hate at our company."

The Reddit user's post has been viewed more than two million times, sending social media into a flurry.

"There was an angle I didn't get to see when ordering my new work boots," the Reddit user wrote.

"The soles don't look that much like swastikas, but the prints are unmistakable," a Reddit user wrote. "And whoever made the soles would have understood that."

Amazon, where the Polar Fox military combat boots were sold before the company pulled the listing, was inundated with reviews cracking Nazi jokes, calling the boot "heily recommended" and rating the pair a "nein out of 10".

Another Amazon user quipped: "Good for marching into Poland, but not so good for much else".

The listing was removed from Amazon on Thursday.

The boots also gained the attention of the popular neo-Nazi website, Daily Stormer, where they were called a "must have", the Washington Post reported.

German weekly magazine Stern also pointed out the boot's name, Polar Fox, shares a name with a World War Two military operation.

Polarfuchs, or Polar Fox, was an operation in which German and Finnish soldiers captured Salla, Finland from the Soviet Union.