Women And Shoes: When Is Enough Enough?

As a 25 year old guy, I have 6 pairs of shoes.
2 pairs of dressy work shoes, one brown, one black
1 pair of workout shoes
1 pair of dingy walking-in-the-snow-and-mud shoes (former workout shoes that were downgraded)
2 pairs of football shoes (one for grass, one for astroturf)

Well, I also have a pair of ski boots, but I don’t figure those really count.

However, The Girlfriend™ has somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 pairs of sandals. I’m guessing she has somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 total pairs of shoes. Some she hasn’t worn in years, and I have no idea why she keeps them around.

24 year old male here. I must admit I own around 20 pairs of shoes–but I have a good reason for owning each of them!

For example, I need work shoes x 2 (normal days and casual days), boat shoes, hiking boots, leather boots x 3 (tan, black and brown), leather slips-on x 2 (casual and semi-dressy), pubbing/clubbing shoes x 2 (blue and white, for variety), gym shoes, running shoes, everyday shoes x 2, sandals x 3 (dressy, casual and slothy)…

… okay, I admit I’m a little embarassed when visitors trip over my mound of footwear by the door–but I need 'em! :smiley:

As my lifestyle has changed, so have my shoe-buying tendencies. I’m a 30-<cough, cough>-year old American female, married, with one small child and another on the way, plus a full time job. The days when I could go out and buy 3 pair of shoes at a time are over, both because my money needs to go towards other things and because my mornings are such that I really don’t have the time or energy to sort through a bunch of different shoes and decide which subtle details of which pair are best suited to my outfit that day. No, it’s more like, “Black or brown? Snow-appropriate or not?” and that’s it. So, while I used to own 60-plus pair of shoes, now I have fewer than 10 that I wear with any regularity.

That said, I’m sure I am perfectly capable of finding 3 pairs of shoes I want to buy at any given time. That will likely never change for me.

Missbunny said:

> I’ve been to people’s houses where they have more than 5,000 CDs. Why?

Because they’re obsessive music collectors or jam band traders that have to have every variation of every recording in a certain genre or by a certain band. I know someone that has over 5,000 recordings of just Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic concerts … that’s it. The key word here is “obsessive;” music collecting is often seen as an extreme form of geekery by the outside world.

> Other people have plasma TVs. Why? A $200 Sony shows the same picture.

May I suggest an eye exam? There’s a huge difference between an widescreen HDTV display and a 19" 4:3 NTSC/PAL display.

> Some people hang expensive paintings on their walls. Why? A print from
> Michael’s is way cheaper and less bother.

Fine art is an investment that will at least hold its value, if not increase slightly. A print is just decoration. I own prints, BTW; I can’t afford $5,000 to $1,000,000 for an original version of a painting that appeals to me.

> Some people buy a Ferrari or a Mercedes. Why? A Honda will get you where
> they want to go.

Much different cars. I bought a fairly expensive car because I do a lot of long-distance driving. A better comparison would be owning one Honda to owning 100 Hondas.

> Some people buy DVDs or videos. Why? It’s not like they’re going to watch
> them every day and they could just rent them.

They might do a lot of entertaining. They might also really enjoy a certain film, and it’s more economical to buy the DVD and watch it several times rather than rent it several times. There are also film geeks who don’t so much care about the plot as the “craft” behind it; they watch a film to study lighting, special effects, camera work, and acting techniques.

> “Collecting” shoes is no more strange than anything else.

Like collecting Beanie Babies, unicorn figurines, Care Bears, thimbles, troll dolls, spoons, self-help books and stray cats? :smiley:

elmwood, as I said before, which you apparently did not bother to read: people spend money on all kinds of things that other people think are a waste. Some people buy CDs, expensive cars, giant TVs, whatever. Other people buy shoes. Shoes are no more weird than anything else.

Maybe YOU are the one who needs an eye exam, since you cannot read a post in plain sight right in front of you.

I’ve got like six to eight pairs of shoes (including two pair of boots), but I should really double that. I like them, but I’m verrrry picky about shoes. They have to have a 3 in. heel, they have to have the correct toe, etc. I’ve got my eye on a pair of plain black 3.5" pumps that are on sale at Victoria’s Secret. WaHOO! More shoes! But I generally carry one purse until it falls apart. Go figure.

Shoes I own:

1 pair Doc Martins with a dragon on the ankles. Only pair I ever wear.

However, I do own a few shoes that one would find on shoe fetish websites.
1 pair 5" stilleto heels.
1 pair knee high 4" stretch vinyl boots.
Only wear these shoes, er, for Holloween or for the rare (1x per year) that I get guessied up in my corset and leather skirt.

I know I need some comfy formal shoes, but I never do anything formal involving a skirt.

But come spring, I will have a pair of sandals. I hate shoes. And my step-mom’s dog ate my last pair of sandals.

Just to give another data point.

I am an American. Male.

I love shoes. I’m not sure how many I have; but there is no such thing as too many. It’s fun to have different shoes to fit your mood. The lime green hushpuppies, the black hiking boots, the brown Doc Martens, the Cowboy Boots, the tan clogs, the brown mocs …

Shoes good.

My husband owns more pairs of shoes than I do. And many pairs that to me serve the same fuction (how many ankle high lace up black boots does one guy need? Turns out - six. Four pairs of tennis shoes. Three pairs of golf shoes. etc.)…

But shoes are a little different when you wear a skirt. You can get by with dress pants and a pair of brown loafers and a pair of black loafers and that is it. Add tennis shoes and a guy can be well dressed anywhere (and with the right warddrobe, you can pick black or brown loafers, you don’t need both). Wearing skirts will entail wearing black pumps, bone pumps, black flats (for those dresses where pumps aren’t appropriate), bone flats, dress sandals for the sundress, and a pair of sexy heels for dressing up (sexy heels aren’t work appropriate, but they are dinner and dance date appropriate) - at a minimum. And you might need white shoes, brown shoes, and you may end up with a pair of stunning purple strappy heels because they do make that outfit…

(I have black pumps, black and brown loafers, bone flats and a pair of bone summer strappy heels, plus a pair of tennis shoes, golf shoes, ugg boots, sorel boots, choco sandals for the summer, and an old pair of tennis for painting - and I’m a pretty minimalist shoe person.)

45 year old woman here. I have about 35-50 pairs of shoes.

Here’s a woman with a few pairs of shoes.

If the shoe fits, buy it in every color!

Yes, it does. Everybody in the first world sees the value in art. How can I say that? Because every single person, if they found an old painting in their attic with a signature of Van Gogh on it, would have it appraised and try to sell it. Art has actual value. That is why it is different than a collecting fetish. Think of collecting art as the same as collecting stocks and bonds, only you get to show them off to your snooty friends.

I agree with you that collecting is collecting, and given any collector of anything you can dig up a hundred people who think they’re nuts.

But art is not in that category. To say that “appreciating in value has nothing to do with it” says that you don’t understand the difference, because appreciating in value has everything to do with it. Nobody would spend a million bucks on a painting if it wouldn’t hold its value. Why? Because a person with that little money-sense wouldn’t have gotten the million in the first place.

And buying a plasma tv or a car is an equally out of touch example, unless you are talking about Jay Leno’s car and motorcycle collection. Those are big ticket, singular purchases. Unless you have only 1 pair of shoes, and they cost you over 10 grand, the comparison is meaningless. (Or unless you know a lot of people who own twenty or more cars…)

Compare shoe sollecting to stamp collecting or music collecting…those comparisons make much more sense. I’m fond of the tie comparison made earlier in this thread…that one speaks to the heart of the matter. Toss in cufflink collections, tie-pin collections, and belt collections.