During our move last year, I was once again confronted with the enormous collection of shoes that I have. Of course they all had to go to the new house, while there are quite a few copies that I will never wear again. Turns out I'm not the only one with this fetish. Do you know how many shoes the Dutch woman has in her closet on average? And how many shoes do men have on average? I am now, and so will you after reading this blog!
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Research* has shown that no less than 41% of women in the Netherlands have more than 15 pairs in their shoe closet. This ranges from Veja sneakers to cowboy boots and from sturdy walkers to lovely sandals for the summer of course, everything counts. At least I'm sure I'll jack up that average, but more about that below. 58% of women have more than 10 pairs of shoes in their closet. The answer to the question of how many shoes we have on average is now clear, but there are also other questions.
One of the immediately following questions is, of course, how many of these shoes are actually worn? You can have 15 pairs in your closet, but do you wear them all? That's an entirely different question, of course. The same research shows that many women do not actually wear all their shoes. A considerable part, about 30% of this amount of shoes turns out to be unworn in the closet. These dust-heavy ones are in the closet because they don't seem very comfortable after all or because they are very difficult to combine under an outfit.
Oh how confronting this research is! I feel a 'been there done that' moment coming on. Before I explain below exactly how many shoes I have, I can at least inform you in advance that I certainly don't wear them all anymore. How many there are exactly, I will also count that for you. Just for fun. But the fact is that despite the list below I have already seen very nice nice python ankle boots from DL sport and I actually still have a pair of Dad sneakers on my list. Preferably comfortable black.
Total:45 pieces…
I am a bit shocked by the amount of shoes I have. Just bizarre. But just this:this collection of steppers are 'the result' of years of collecting. After all, you don't grow out of it as an adult, do you? So if you are a little careful with it, you can really use it for years. In fact, I have copies that have been in my possession for more than 10 years.
There are also quite a few of the above copies that are not part of my daily collection. There are even those that may have only been worn twice in those 10 years. Still, I can't get rid of them. I really have a lot of cool shoes that I've only worn a few times because, for example, there are mega heels that I no longer walk well in. Or because they are completely full of glitter (my real Christmas/New Years shoes).
How many shoes do I actually no longer wear? I'm guessing 25-30 pieces of it. Of course I could all get rid of these, but I'm afraid that at some point I'd like to wear a separate shoe under a specific outfit and that I suddenly can't find it anymore. Wouldn't it be a shame?
I'll just save them for when my girl will also have size 39. Then she already has a whole collection of heels and trendy shoes to go out with 😉 .
Now the key question:how many shoes do you have? Be honest!
Now you know how it is with women with the numbers, but how many shoes men have in their shoe closet is of course also nice to counter this. Among men, the percentage with a large shoe collection is much smaller. Only 16% of men own more than 15 pairs. Personally, I think Frank will come here as well. However, it appears that the proportion of shoes used is much greater among men than among women. This is because (56% of the men) only leave 2 pairs of shoes unused in the closet.
Fun fact:when the research results are calculated for the entire population, this means that the Netherlands has at least 4 million unused shoes (!). It's actually nice to take it to the thrift store, for example, so that the second-hand items can get a nice new life.
ps. The research* was done by Dresscode.nl, which surveyed more than 5,400 Dutch people about their buying behavior in the field of shoes.
