If you have feet, chances are you own a pair or two of shoes.
We’ve all taken a peek inside a woman’s closet and it can be a bit overwhelming seeing how many items are jammed packed into that closet, including their shoes!
According to a poll of 1,057 women by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, found that on average women in the U.S. own about 19 pairs of shoes. Of those 19 pairs, women admitted to only wearing about four of those pairs regularly. In my opinion, 19 pairs really aren’t that many considering I own 27 pairs.
This brings us to the meat of the post. How many shoes should a guy own?
There really isn’t a straightforward answer for this, you just need to take a look at yourself, and your wardrobe and see if you have the proper shoes required for your attire.
Keep in mind that the goal is to dress stylishly and not lazily while maintaining some level of practicality. For example, you might want to avoid purchasing several different pairs of black dress shoes if they are all just slightly different.
Must-Have Shoes for Your Closet
Boots
Every guy needs a pair of boots. I’m not talking about the cowboy kind, but the kind that you can wear with everything but shorts…unless you’re into the Goth, metalhead kind of look, then chances are you can pull it off.
There are lots of styles and colors and it doesn’t hurt to have a few different kinds in your closet. You can’t wear your dress boots to go hiking and you can’t wear your hiking boots to the office unless of course, your office is in the woods.
Black Dress Shoes
Every guy needs at least one pair of black dress shoes. Even if your job doesn’t require you to dress up, you never know when someone is going to die, get married, or if you ever have to appear in court.
Tennis Shoes (athletic/workout shoes)
You need to know and understand the difference between tennis shoes and sneakers. If you don’t you could jack up the entire look that you were going for.
Tennis shoes should ONLY be worn to the gym, on bike rides, while running/walking, when chasing your kids, playing basketball, and of course, while playing tennis.
No matter how comfortable your tennis shoes are, don’t be that guy who wears his running shoes with jeans and thinks he looks great. Because he doesn’t, he just looks lazy.
Sneakers
These are similar to tennis shoes, but are much more fashionable and don’t look like you don’t know what you’re doing.
These are the go-to comfy shoes that you CAN wear with jeans, shorts, on or off the court, and they come in more styles and brands you can imagine and you can wear them with or without socks!
Flip Flops
These are awesome pieces of rubber for taking the dog out and wearing with jeans on an early fall day. Of course, they are a must-have if you are going to the beach or pool.
Nobody wants to see the guy taking off his high tops and socks at the pool and picking out the sock fuzz from between his toes. Do that shit in the privacy of your home and save the rest of us from the horror.
Optional Shoes For Your Closet
Now that we have the basics covered, we can discuss the additional shoes that you should consider buying.
Brown Dress Shoes
Green Suede Shoes
Slippers
Let me make this one very clear. Do not wear your slippers outside of your home. Slippers are designed to keep your feet warm in the winter or to put something on your feet to go out to pick up the mail or put the grill cover back on the grill. Unless you have a nice pair of Uggs that have some traction, I recommend that you keep the slippers in the house where they belong.
Slides
Everyone loves their slides, which are basically prison shower shoes. I get that they are comfortable, but really they should only be worn after your softball game and you need a comfy place for your feet after having cleats on for a few hours. You can also wear these around the house, but no one who has style wears slides on the regular.
Cleats
If you play soccer, baseball, softball, football, or any field sport then you need to be wearing cleats. If you don’t have a pair you are not playing to your fullest potential and you might as well sit on the bench because you aren’t contributing to your team by sliding around in wet grass wearing your tennis shoes.
Crocs
I’m only including Crocs in this list because my dad loves them. I can tease my dad all day long about his Crocs and he won’t care, because they are that comfortable. However, as my sister says, sometimes you have to sacrifice comfort for fashion. In 20 years I’ll write a post about how much my sister likes her hammertoes. Love you Fiesta!
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, it doesn’t matter how many pairs of shoes you have in your closet. As long as you take care of them, they look nice with what you’re wearing, and you love them, that’s all that matters.