The only boots I ever got purely to match was the two pairs of black and white fancy boots. Which is more than enough to be complimentary to any wardrobe depending on if I use brighter or darker colors. What more could you need? Two pairs of sports shoes? Two pairs of work shoes if you wanna be extra? But even that only brings you up to 6 and I can't fathom needing more.

Like I consider myself a shoe obsessed woman. I pride myself in my silly little stompers yet I can't imagine owning more then 6 at a time. Unless you count during my lifetime because yeah boots got replaced as old ones wore out. I needed to replace the white ones as they literally fell apart, went through several rounds of work and sports shoes too.

[–] nurple@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Depending on what sorts of stuff you're into there are situations where you can go over six without it being absurd. Like:

Everyday walkaround shoes
Running shoes
Hiking boots
Black dress shoes
Other color dress shoes
Sandals of some kind

That's already six pairs without even getting into other things that one may need like rain boots, snow boots, cleats, nonslips for work, etc.

[–] QueriesQueried@sh.itjust.works 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

And without getting into the varieties of hiking/trail running/etc. You can easily encounter situations in that genre alone that necessitate 2 or more. Waterproof or not, trail running vs hiking vs thruhiking, the list goes on and on.

Editting to add: this isn't unique to hiking either, you'd find similar variations in runners too. Endurance, sprint, or agility (among others) running are all different enough you'd have genuine performance and health reasons to separate the shoes. Obviously hardly anyone will dedicate to that many unique activities, but some people really enjoy them so it's worth explaining.

[–] not_that_guy05@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I've seen men and women have boxes of shoes filling their small closet. It's a weird thing to see and then explaining is no different. Everybody has their drug, if you know what I mean.