Cookie and Aquamarine, love my shoes, too and try to only keep comfortable ones.

Angie, bags are so much more difficult for me. I make too many mistakes and bags are well, costly.

Cat2, I’m all about authenticity
Bonny, maybe it’s good to enjoy shoes before aging piles up more problems with feet among other things!
karen23, don’t know good or bad but I have to talked myself out of buying more shoes. Often unsuccessfully as my shoe number shoes.

What a fun discussion!

I have 29 pairs of shoes. Spring/summer footwear, apart from
sneakers, is always harder to fit for me, so my selection is always a bit thin, and I am not 100% happy with the ones I own.

Boots (9 pairs):

1 pair of tall snow boots (only come out when there is snow
accumulation on the ground, approximately 2-3 weeks of the year at the most)

2 tall boots (previously huge favorites, but probably worn only
a handful of times every year since, say the pandemic)

(I have another pair of tall boots, but when I started
writing down the list, I realized that I am ready to give them away and put them
in the donation pile)

1 heavy-duty work boots (for extreme weather and light snow)

3 ankle boots

1 midcalf boots (most worn winter shoes)

1 cowboy boots light (a new purchase this winter and a favorite,
but unfortunately turned out to be low quality and probably will not last)

Sneakers (9 pairs):

1 pair of gym shoes

2 high tops

4 fashion sneakers

2 sneakers that I share with my kiddo (will probably pass
these along once he’s bored or outgrows them)

Spring/summer (11 pairs)

1 business casual heels (newly purchased! Haven’t put them
through their paces yet)

3 flats

2 sandals

2 birkenstocks

1 leather flip-flops

1 beach flip-flops

1 pair of silver heels (strictly occasion wear with matching
bag – but I haven’t worn them in a long time and this reminds me that I need to
make sure they still fit and I am still relatively comfortable in that height)

Irina I truly did not mean to suggest that you (or anyone) were shaming others. I think I was responding to a perceived sense of self shame I saw running gently through the thread. Of course having a large collection of shoes, or anything, is not appealing to lots of people for the reasons you mention or many others. I just guess I am bit sensitive about gendered shame of whatever it is we want to do/collect/etc. I will get off my soapbox now so we can all enjoy our shoes .

I haven't counted but guessing something between 18 and 24 pairs ( recent move, edit and difficult feet ). I would love to have more in many different styles and colors - maybe in a future I will .
Requirements for work shoes/dress code shoes are thankfully less rigid now than a few years ago - meaning I can wear sporty sneakers at work as long as they are modern, new-ish and "go with outfit". I'm grateful for changes ( some because of Covid ) and hope for more comfortable styles available since general wish for comfort established now.
Glad everyone having such diverse collections that suit their needs.

You saw most of them-but 19 total RN.
2 tall boots- brown snowboots, black heeled
5 booties- black short snowboots, low heeled black, dk brown, burgundy, cognac
4 transitional- sandal booties in black and brown, black gumsole sneakers, black outdoor type slippers
8 sandals- black low heel, 2 cognac low heel, black thongs for SUP, 3 Madrid Birkenstocks cognac, black, burgundy, gold Gizeh Birkenstocks
It feels like a lot due to my limited space, but many of them got over 30 wears last year.

Irina, you have made my day. I can now quote other Fabber's numbers and maybe get my husband to stop calling me Imelda.

Even though I do have a substantial set myself. Don't get me wrong.

I have 24 pair in actual rotation, including rarely worn tall boots and a few dressy shoes. Plus two pair of booties that I really don't wear any more but keep until I can find a good replacement/ upgrade (silver and snakeprint -- I like them both but the styles feel a bit dated to me right now.)

But that doesn't include a hiking boot, a garden boot, and a trail runner (gear) or a pair of clogs I use exclusively as slippers.

Oh -- and I am not in the least ashamed of this number. I wear almost all of them regularly (and those I don't wear regularly, I wear when occasion requires/ permits) and I feel as if I could even use a few more. So there it is! I feel grateful to have them because I really love shoes. I am not so much a bag woman -- shoes are the fun thing for me.

Irina, I’m in more or less the place that you were in 10 years ago. My goal is to have a minimum of 2-4 pairs in rotation for any given season (more in summer, less in winter). My actual numbers are perpetually falling short because I regularly wear out shoes and have a hard time finding ones to buy that tick all the boxes.

I have 17 including everything. Even though the # is small, I really love my shoes!

11 pairs of shoes for regular life (sandals, sneakers, shoes, ankle boots, tall boots, slightly dressy-enough options).

Plus 6 gear-ish pairs:
hiking boots
trail running shoes
snow boots
birkenstocks (worn only as winter house slippers)
flip flops (worn mostly for rare beach/pool trips or as summer house slippers)
old sneakers worn for pottery-making (ie, extremely messy with clay)

I also have ~3 on my shopping list, so maybe 20 is the ideal number for me.

Jaime, thank you. The thought of counting my shoes definitely caused a self shame reaction. I will only say that I enjoy my collection. Bags are not my thing. I'm not motivated to switch out my stuff and have not been able to make a bag caddy work for me. However, I enjoy seeing others rock great bags. Shoes are my thing. I like buying unique pairs when I travel. They are great conversation pieces. I cull them occasionally, and have stopped trying to rehabilitate shoes that are not comfortable or don't fit well. I appreciate that fashion provides a creative outlet, whatever our "thing" might be.

Good point Rock! Fashion and how I put my outfits together is really my only creative outlet now the house is long since finished and decorated. I have never been an artist and have done some floral wreaths maybe twice in my life.
I get what Jaime is saying. My reason for reducing my number down from 50 was a storage issue and feeling overwhelmed with that number. I don’t feel overwhelmed with the current number.
My staff used to call me Imelda as well but when asked which one of them had said that no-one would admit to it!

Admittedly, I love footwear and have far too many pairs. Probably around 50 -55 pairs of shoes. Some of them are for specifc activities (hiking or tennis). I jettisoned many pairs of dressy heels, but replaced them with fashion sneakers. I'm very good about auditing my wardrobe every 6 months, but I always manage to overlook the shoes.

Before you give up on footwear as uncomfortable, try these babies in Finds. When I bought them in 2018 (per Amazon), they came in only one size. Now they seem to come in the old size plus another that is longer and thicker. They pad the toe overlap from my bunions and have held up over the years.

Bella, nice collection!
Jaime! I know you didn’t! I’m saying that I don’t mean to shame anyone - it is preemptive on my part
I don’t see shoes as collectible, though. I think that shoes have a special place for a lot of us because they are forgiving. Tall or short, curvy or straight, a woman of any shape can wear shoes she chooses. And make herself feel good.

Yes, they can be easier to buy (for many) than some clothing items -- and, conversely, when our feet become fussier due to age or injury, we might have need of more pairs, since a change really *is* as good as a rest a lot of the time with footwear.

Donna, I have some of those little toe socks, too -- I don't wear them all the time but when I start to develop corns between the toes they are useful indeed and they definitely do not wear out easily!

Suntiger, what a nicely balanced collection!
Suz, Imelda with 24 pairs of shoes? Please, tell your DH you need to add at list 24 more to be considered deserving such title!

Rock, agree with you 100%!

I’m really happy with my current collection of footwear, but I hope to be growing it too! I’m looking for some very specific and special shoes/sandals. More, and more, I feel like shoes can make or break an outfit. What keeps me from a true ‘collection’ is ‘fussy feet’ - like others have posted. The ones I currently own (see below) are for the most part ‘all day confortable’. Some have been augmented with Superfeet inserts or alpaca foot liners.

Interesting to read how everyone approaches shoes... I was curious...and just went to my closet to count. 17 including boots. This does not include one new and one old pair of hiking boots. I think there's at least 1 or 2 in that group that I never or hardly ever wear. Generally I think of shoes as more utilitarian rather than a fashion statement. Only a couple are used as key elements of an outfit. I would definitely have to rethink the storage in my closet if I had many more. This summer I need to replace both pairs of sandals. I've thought at times I should consider shoes in other than neutral colors to be more a component of an outfit. Need to ponder that.

If I had a bit more room I would quite like more pairs of shoes.....every now and then I make compromises on shoes. My most common situation is that when we go out with friends (for dinner, cocktails etc) we usually walk because it is only 1-1.5km to the locations. And we love to do so. But I have several pairs of dinner/cocktail shoes that are comfortable but not for a 3km walk.

The more I think this I realise I should remove my heels to different storage and add a couple of pairs of shoes that could cope with that distance of walk but be a bit dressier.

Irina, how funny that we both ditched the cream Day Glove flats!

I did because they looked so blah on my feet, and very close to my pale skin tone. Contrast is much better!

Thanks to Jaime and Rock for those validating comments! I’m never going to be a wardrobe minimalist. But shoes are definitely my thing, more than bags at least.

I’ve added the shoes below to my wardrobe just over the past six months. But I’ve also gotten rid of about a dozen pairs that I no longer wore due to comfort issues or styles that no longer appeal to me. The sandals are so new that they have not yet been worn out of the house, but the others except for the slingbacks are already workhorses. The slingbacks are for dressier occasions and have been worn three times since I bought them, which works for me (I only have one other pair of dressy closed toe shoes, so I keep that capsule very tight).

When I analyze my additions, with what I have, I find them to be smart choices. They provide an update and a bit of refined edge to my outfits, particularly when it comes to warm-weather dressing, in which I often feel like my shoes need to bring a little something extra.

I do have a large collection of booties, sneakers, and sandals. I’ve been slowly editing some older and less comfortable of all those options out of my closet. I do switch some out seasonally, especially bulky tall boots (which I barely wore last winter but hang onto because they are classic and I might feel them again) for sandals. I probably have something around 70 pairs altogether. That does not count hiking boots or running shoes. I could stand to do a further edit — there are some in my closet that make me cringe a little because they were pricey and are now uncomfortable but I justify keeping them as what I call “valet shoes,” LOL, as in, I don’t need to walk far in them. But the truth is, I don’t like worrying about the comfort of my feet even attending a party or event, so I avoid wearing them.

For the size of my footwear collection, I''d be in trouble if I were invited to a dressy occasion . I own exactly zero pair of dressy sandals or shoes now, but maybe that also means what I'd wear to a dressy occasion has also changed and dressy no longer means high heels and fussy thin straps on sandals. Regardless, I bet it would necessitate a shopping trip , ugh. But are shoes like that really worth buying ahead and/or hanging on to if they are so rarely worn?

Irina, I remember from your posts that you have some beautiful unique shoes!
To give my contribution to your poll: a total of 18 shoes, subdivided into:
- 12 shoes for everyday life - 2 booties, 6 closed shoes, 4 sandals
- 6 shoes for sport, vacation, leisure time - 2 sneakers, 3 flip-flops, 1 rain boots.

Well, I have 59 pairs. They are the one thing that you wear every day! The oldest are a pair of red leather tall Boden boots (20 years!) that I rarely wear now, but to which I am still very attached. The thing is, I don't get rid of shoes. Unless they truly have just not worked out over a couple of years, and that's only happened once or twice. This year I gave a pair of Doc Martens to my niece as I found them difficult to put on and take off. Very occasionally I will wear a pair of sandals out- a strap breaks or something like that, but that is rare. Shoes are definitely the most expensive thing that I buy, so I hang on to them. We've discussed shoe storage elsewhere, and I am happy with my solutions. I make space for my pets.

2017 or so, I had over 100 shoes and boots, though I don't know the exact count. I had a good portion of them stacked in clear shoe boxes at the top of my closet, with some boxes even holding multiple pairs, if they were "small" shoes, like ballet flats or strappy flats. A year or two later I did a huge purge. At that point, I did a count, and had 62 pair, and at the time thought that amount was completely manageable. I've been slowly winnowing, as a lot of the shoes weren't remotely comfy, or practical. At the moment, I've got only 16 shoes total, including gear and dress. All extremely comfortable and practical.
3 pair Birkenstocks
1 pair dress mary-janes by Madewell, 1.5-inch heel
5 sneakers (fashion and gear)
1 pair vintage 2-inch heeled boots (absolutely highest I can tolerate--and I used to have several 4-inch heels! Don't know what I was thinking, except they were for my imaginary life! )
2 work-only shoes (I work in a warehouse--most fun job I've ever had!)
1 pair vintage Allen Edmonds women's oxfords
2 pair kinda funky mary-janes by Cydwoq
1 pair Chaco water sandals

LJP - that's a good question. I hang on to a couple of pairs of shoes for dressy occasions and neither have been worn in 12 months and I have no plans to wear them with upcoming occasions on the horizon.

When I think of potential occasions (outside work) where I would need heels I think I would have notice eg wedding, fancy dinner, charity ball etc... and realistically I have not attended a charity ball in 10 years haha!

15 pairs or so. I use them all, even if once a year. Even if I had a bunch of money and space for shoes, I'm not sure I would have a lot. It makes me feel overwhelmed!