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I touched upon this subject on Christmas Day a little bit, but it has been eating at me quite a bit more since then, mainly because I've already broken my resolution and have bought more shoes since then. I didn't really make a hard resolution, but I did say 99 pairs were enough. Now I have to say 102 pairs are enough, and I no longer have quite enough space for everything. I was full up before. Back when my collection was around 50 or even 60 pairs, I could honestly say that yeah, it seems like a lot of shoes, but I actually wear them all. And it was true! I did have summer and winter shoes, but except for maybe a couple of novelty items, I didn't really neglect anybody. Nowadays, by contrast, I just counted 10 pairs that I have not yet even worn outside the house. Part of the problem is not just sheer numbers, but style. I would say that about three quarters of my collection is definitely on the dressy side, and that includes sandals. If I could actually wear heels to work, I would not be writing this now. The fact is, I just don't have occasion to wear heels that much, and especially not super dressy heels. The fact is, we don't really go anywhere anymore, especially after the pandemic. I do and will have the farmer's market, at least the one on concrete, but the type of shoe that I would wear there is limited once again by style--it needs to be rather casual. By my seat-of-the-pants estimate, I would say that I wear about 15-20 pairs out of the entire collection 90% of the time, and if I want to be brutally self aware, of that 15-20, there are probably half a dozen pair that I wear 75% of that 90%. I definitely have my favorites. Because many of my shoe styles are quite dressy, as a practical matter I only have around 52 opportunities a year to wear half of my collection. Doing the math, even if I never repeated at any point during the year, that's one wear per year per pair of shoes. As a practical matter, this means some shoes never get worn at all. This was certainly never my intention starting out, but that is certainly what it has become.

Yep, can't agree more. Your eventual estate sale as well as mine are going to be amazing. Mike. I tried sending you a message but was blocked?? Says you're not allowed to receive.

Same here, my wife and I maybe have something like 40 pair? But some are more 'usable' than others, and there are a few styles which I prefer not to walk out with. So for me, in my '20 something pairs, I'd say I wear maybe only 6 pairs out and about.

I have about a dozen pair of boots - so nowhere near your league - but even so I find myself with a few favourites that get the overwhelming amount of wear. I would never get rid of the other boots, I like having them even if I seldom find reasons to wear them

It's OK to have a shoe fetish. I'm in the same place, used to think why. Now I embrace it. I'll admit I love my heels, sometimes I'll wear 2 or 3 different pair a day.

When I was 12 in 1973 I always wore 4 inch platform boots! I later got some 6inch ones with a 2 inch platform, I loved just the feeling of walking about at school in them and no-one ever said anything about it! Now I'm 61 and have to hide whilst I wear 6 inch size UK 8 womens shoes in my house alone to get that wonderful old feeling! What happened? It was going the right way back in 73!

I've been to a podiatrist twice, and unless something really bad happens, I doubt I will ever go to one again. Perhaps I've just had bad luck, but both times I left the appointment(s) deciding to take no action to fix my problems, or wound up finding solutions on my own. Then again, I've been relatively lucky. My feet are neither super attractive, nor are they super ugly. My arches are neither super high, nor are they flat. I can deal with everything from zero heel to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 1/2". My walk is neither pronated nor supinated. I wear out shoe soles very evenly. No need to rotate my tires every 6,000. And, as I said before, ever since I developed the golf ball exercise, et al., my feet no longer hurt at the end of a long working day.

I was visiting Minneapolis this past week. As a fan of Prince and his music, I decided to take the Paisley park tour. For those that don't know, it is basically a tour of the compound where he lived when he was not on the road. It also featured 2 or 3 recording studios where he recorded some of his biggest hits and albums. It also had a small intimate club where he would hold concerts and after parties. As a fellow musician the tour was worth every penny! And I will have memories that last a lifetime! I got to see his famous "mad cat" guitar that he used on many of his albums, and also played at the rock and roll hall of fame. I also saw pieces of paper with handwritten lyrics and scribblings on them. Then we went into his main recording studio. Just to be standing on the same floor that many artists performed and recorded was something else! I was not aware of how many artists had recorded material in his studio. The fine young cannibals recorded their entire album the raw and the cooked there. R.E.M mixed their album out of time there. And countless others did the same. As a fellow musician that was pretty cool! And now for the icing on the cake. They led us into another dark room, and as soon as they turned on the lights there they were. Over 300 pairs of prince's prized shoes in all their glory! And in every color of the rainbow to boot! If there was one thing Prince liked as much as his music it was fashion and shoes. I always knew that Prince wore heels. But usually when you see him in pictures you can't see the entire shoe, or the heel for that matter. But after seeing them, I can tell you all that his shoes genuinely qualify as actual heels. Most of his shoes were usually custom made by one designer. They all had cone heels that looked to be in the 3" or so range. He had a shoe collection that most women would envy. It's too bad we were not able to get pictures on that part of the tour. But you put music and high heels together, and that's like putting porno in front of this guy lol But he also had a body that most women would envy as well. I was told all his shoes were size 6. And his waist fell anywhere between 24 and 27". All I can say is, what a tour! If you are in the area definitely check it out. The shoe exhibit has been running all summer so I'm not sure how much longer it will be there. Here is a couple of samples.

Always been a huge Prince fan, he makes us heeled musicians feel welcome..