4 ms·

This boggled my mind: The average American bought 7.4 pairs of shoes last year, up from 6.6 pairs in 2000. I probably should buy shoes more often, that's easi

by unwind 8y ago

This boggled my mind: The average American bought 7.4 pairs of shoes last year, up from 6.6 pairs in 2000. I probably should buy shoes more often, that's easily 10 times more often than I do it. Perhaps that was the "wrong" conclusion from this article, though, oops.

sevensor 8y ago
I would really like to buy fewer pairs of shoes. As I've been walking to work lately, I've worn out about two pairs a year. Seems unreasonable. I can only conclude that modern shoes were not designed to be walked in.
- loco5niner 8y ago
  Some are designed to absorb the damage that your body would normally be absorbing. Others, are designed to be cheap for manufacturers. Either way...
LandR 8y ago
Same here. I've bough two pairs of shoes this year. A pair of boots because my old boots finally fell apart and a pair of trainers / sneakers because I was going on holiday. In general I try to minimise buying clothes. I hate the entire process.
CogitoCogito 8y ago
I had your initial reaction as well since I personally use the same shoes continuously as long as possible (current every day pair is probably 14 months old and not slowing down), but then I realized that I have in fact gone through running shoes at a pace of 2-3 a year and I did also buy dress shoes this year (though I guess those will last many years to come). Anyway it's a bit of blathering, but I generally consider myself as someone that does not buy very much stuff at all, but I still somehow managed 4-5 pairs in the last 12 months. Maybe I'm not as pure as I assume... edit: Never mind upon reading the article more closely it's clear it isn't describing someone like me. I still take a long time to decide to buy things and even then I usually decide against it. Regardless of my shoe count this year, I definitely don't just buy random crap non-nonchalantly.
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  Running shoes wear out in a hundred miles or so? So 2-3 pair a year is the expected value for some.
  - CogitoCogito 8y ago
    I think 100 miles is a little low. I don't keep good stats on my running, but a quick glance at this year's running stats (according to Strava) makes me think I've lately been getting closer to 1000 km in each pair of shoes. But yeah I guess the real point you're making is that if I am actually using and wearing out my stuff, this isn't really a criticism meant for me regardless of the specific number of shoes I go through. (Though maybe I do have some life balance issues.)
    - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
      Yeah that seems more reasonable, depending on what you pay for them. Runner's Guide says 300-500 miles. And Yes! wearing out stuff is the goal! Especially athletic equipment. My niece (8yo) just wore out the back tire on her tiny bike, just wore the tread right off from use, and the cousins (all older) high-fived her and told her You Go Girl! She was very proud. Time for a new bike anyway - she's grown some. Auntie went right out with her to buy one and now she's back on the road.
JoeAltmaier 8y ago
I last bought shoes 3 years ago. About time to buy more I guess.
- JoeAltmaier 8y ago
  No wait! Had a triple-niece-wedding year last year, bought some new dress shoes to go with the new suit. For the three weddings. One on a dairy farm in Switzerland near Zurich, one in Shenandoah National Park, one in Valencia Spain. Asked the Men's Store guy to help me choose shoes suitable for a dairy farm, a forest and a Catholic high church wedding in a Cathedral.
voltooid 8y ago
I don't think anyone needs 7 pairs of shoes a year. I have had the same three pairs of shoes (each for a different kind of weather) for the past 2 or so years. One of these pairs has been with me for close to 4 years. Buying 7 pairs a year seems so wasteful.
- doombolt 8y ago
  This would depend heavily on weather. Not everybody is living in California. There are places when you need five different pairs of footwear just to survive a year. Some might last, some won't. Throw someting in to wear indoors.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
    I'm still skeptical. I have one pair of shoes for day to day usage, one nice pair for dress up, on pair of snow boots, and one pair of slippers. Each has lasted me many years, and I live in Wisconsin which isn't known for having anything like California's weather. Climbing shoes on the other hand I need to have resoled every 6 months or so.
  - wott 8y ago
    1. It is not a matter of "need", rather a matter of comfort and practicality. (I leave in mountains). 2. I do have half a dozen different types of shoes (something like 1 or 2 pairs of army boots, 1 for cycling, 1 for MB-hiking-gardening, 1 for gardening, 1 pair of tennis shoes to wander in and around the house, and probably 1 old worn spare one I forget about). It doesn't mean I buy them all every year. I haven't bought any in 2017 or 2018. The army boots are 5 to 10 years old, same for the hiking shoes I use for mountain-biking (4 years old?) and gardening (15 years old?), since I cannot really hike any more. The tennis/cycling shoes are dying but they were already dying last year and in fact they are still good enough :-) So I probably buy only 1, perhaps 2 pairs, in an average year.
    - doombolt 8y ago
      It is only a matter of comfort, and not survival, if you own a car and drive it around exclusively. If you own a car, well, impact(car) > impact(any number of pairs of shoes).
mmsimanga 8y ago
I don't have much interest in clothes or shoes but I do have too many DIY gadgets and an 18 month old Rasberry Pi still in its wrapping :-).
pjc50 8y ago
Needs gender breakdown and controlling for outliers: Imelda Marcos' 1000 pairs of shoes should not be counted, but most of the fancier ladies' formal shoes have very short lifetimes.
kilo_bravo_3 8y ago
I initially thought that an "average american" may have included parents buying shoes for children, in which case 7 would seem less unreasonable, but the link says that children are included in the average. Growing feet, play, sports, and back-to-school means that parents are buying shoes for kids every couple of months. 7.4 pairs of shoes per year seems absurd, but it may be a case of a less fortunate person not being able to afford the initial high cost of longer-lasting footwear (aka: The Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness) https://www.thebillfold.com/2015/03/to-terry-pratchett-who-gave-us-sam-vimes-boots-theory-of-socioeconomic-unfairness/ https://www.thebillfold.com/2015/03/to-terry-pratchett-who-g... Even though it comes from a fiction fantasy novel, I think there may be some truth to it. I have two pairs each (brown and black) of oxford shoes and Red Wing boots for work. I was able to afford really high quality shoes and have had the oxfords resoled three times in 11 years, with the boots being durable enough that they haven't yet needed new soles after five. I also have the time to spend a leisurely Sunday evening polishing them, to keep them in good shape. I also don't care about wearing the same four pairs of shoes, one after another in a predictable cycle, all of the time. Someone who can't afford USA-made leather boots and Italian-made Oxford dress shoes, and also lacks the time to care for them, may be stuck in a cycle where their cheaper footwear wears out quickly. Even for sneakers, I pay a premium for USA-made New Balance sneakers, and they last an entire year after which I relegate them to lawn mower duty and replace them. They are old man shoes though, so their aesthetic may not be for everyone. If I ran, I would have to replace them more often-- my wife runs and she replaces her running shoes multiple times per year. Then again, I don't have a job in the service industry where I'm standing the entire time and walking 10 miles every day so I may have unreasonable expectations about how long shoes should last. So it could be socioeconomic unfairness, or it may be rampant consumerism, or it may be a combination of the two....

by unwind 8y ago

sevensor 8y ago

I would really like to buy fewer pairs of shoes. As I've been walking to work lately, I've worn out about two pairs a year. Seems unreasonable. I can only conclude that modern shoes were not designed to be walked in.

loco5niner 8y ago
Some are designed to absorb the damage that your body would normally be absorbing. Others, are designed to be cheap for manufacturers. Either way...

LandR 8y ago

Same here. I've bough two pairs of shoes this year. A pair of boots because my old boots finally fell apart and a pair of trainers / sneakers because I was going on holiday. In general I try to minimise buying clothes. I hate the entire process.

CogitoCogito 8y ago

I had your initial reaction as well since I personally use the same shoes continuously as long as possible (current every day pair is probably 14 months old and not slowing down), but then I realized that I have in fact gone through running shoes at a pace of 2-3 a year and I did also buy dress shoes this year (though I guess those will last many years to come). Anyway it's a bit of blathering, but I generally consider myself as someone that does not buy very much stuff at all, but I still somehow managed 4-5 pairs in the last 12 months. Maybe I'm not as pure as I assume... edit: Never mind upon reading the article more closely it's clear it isn't describing someone like me. I still take a long time to decide to buy things and even then I usually decide against it. Regardless of my shoe count this year, I definitely don't just buy random crap non-nonchalantly.

JoeAltmaier 8y ago
Running shoes wear out in a hundred miles or so? So 2-3 pair a year is the expected value for some.
- CogitoCogito 8y ago
  I think 100 miles is a little low. I don't keep good stats on my running, but a quick glance at this year's running stats (according to Strava) makes me think I've lately been getting closer to 1000 km in each pair of shoes. But yeah I guess the real point you're making is that if I am actually using and wearing out my stuff, this isn't really a criticism meant for me regardless of the specific number of shoes I go through. (Though maybe I do have some life balance issues.)
  - JoeAltmaier 8y ago
    Yeah that seems more reasonable, depending on what you pay for them. Runner's Guide says 300-500 miles. And Yes! wearing out stuff is the goal! Especially athletic equipment. My niece (8yo) just wore out the back tire on her tiny bike, just wore the tread right off from use, and the cousins (all older) high-fived her and told her You Go Girl! She was very proud. Time for a new bike anyway - she's grown some. Auntie went right out with her to buy one and now she's back on the road.

JoeAltmaier 8y ago

I last bought shoes 3 years ago. About time to buy more I guess.

JoeAltmaier 8y ago
No wait! Had a triple-niece-wedding year last year, bought some new dress shoes to go with the new suit. For the three weddings. One on a dairy farm in Switzerland near Zurich, one in Shenandoah National Park, one in Valencia Spain. Asked the Men's Store guy to help me choose shoes suitable for a dairy farm, a forest and a Catholic high church wedding in a Cathedral.

voltooid 8y ago

I don't think anyone needs 7 pairs of shoes a year. I have had the same three pairs of shoes (each for a different kind of weather) for the past 2 or so years. One of these pairs has been with me for close to 4 years. Buying 7 pairs a year seems so wasteful.

doombolt 8y ago
This would depend heavily on weather. Not everybody is living in California. There are places when you need five different pairs of footwear just to survive a year. Some might last, some won't. Throw someting in to wear indoors.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
  I'm still skeptical. I have one pair of shoes for day to day usage, one nice pair for dress up, on pair of snow boots, and one pair of slippers. Each has lasted me many years, and I live in Wisconsin which isn't known for having anything like California's weather. Climbing shoes on the other hand I need to have resoled every 6 months or so.
- wott 8y ago
  1. It is not a matter of "need", rather a matter of comfort and practicality. (I leave in mountains). 2. I do have half a dozen different types of shoes (something like 1 or 2 pairs of army boots, 1 for cycling, 1 for MB-hiking-gardening, 1 for gardening, 1 pair of tennis shoes to wander in and around the house, and probably 1 old worn spare one I forget about). It doesn't mean I buy them all every year. I haven't bought any in 2017 or 2018. The army boots are 5 to 10 years old, same for the hiking shoes I use for mountain-biking (4 years old?) and gardening (15 years old?), since I cannot really hike any more. The tennis/cycling shoes are dying but they were already dying last year and in fact they are still good enough :-) So I probably buy only 1, perhaps 2 pairs, in an average year.
  - doombolt 8y ago
    It is only a matter of comfort, and not survival, if you own a car and drive it around exclusively. If you own a car, well, impact(car) > impact(any number of pairs of shoes).

mmsimanga 8y ago

I don't have much interest in clothes or shoes but I do have too many DIY gadgets and an 18 month old Rasberry Pi still in its wrapping :-).

pjc50 8y ago

Needs gender breakdown and controlling for outliers: Imelda Marcos' 1000 pairs of shoes should not be counted, but most of the fancier ladies' formal shoes have very short lifetimes.

kilo_bravo_3 8y ago

I initially thought that an "average american" may have included parents buying shoes for children, in which case 7 would seem less unreasonable, but the link says that children are included in the average. Growing feet, play, sports, and back-to-school means that parents are buying shoes for kids every couple of months. 7.4 pairs of shoes per year seems absurd, but it may be a case of a less fortunate person not being able to afford the initial high cost of longer-lasting footwear (aka: The Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness) https://www.thebillfold.com/2015/03/to-terry-pratchett-who-gave-us-sam-vimes-boots-theory-of-socioeconomic-unfairness/ https://www.thebillfold.com/2015/03/to-terry-pratchett-who-g... Even though it comes from a fiction fantasy novel, I think there may be some truth to it. I have two pairs each (brown and black) of oxford shoes and Red Wing boots for work. I was able to afford really high quality shoes and have had the oxfords resoled three times in 11 years, with the boots being durable enough that they haven't yet needed new soles after five. I also have the time to spend a leisurely Sunday evening polishing them, to keep them in good shape. I also don't care about wearing the same four pairs of shoes, one after another in a predictable cycle, all of the time. Someone who can't afford USA-made leather boots and Italian-made Oxford dress shoes, and also lacks the time to care for them, may be stuck in a cycle where their cheaper footwear wears out quickly. Even for sneakers, I pay a premium for USA-made New Balance sneakers, and they last an entire year after which I relegate them to lawn mower duty and replace them. They are old man shoes though, so their aesthetic may not be for everyone. If I ran, I would have to replace them more often-- my wife runs and she replaces her running shoes multiple times per year. Then again, I don't have a job in the service industry where I'm standing the entire time and walking 10 miles every day so I may have unreasonable expectations about how long shoes should last. So it could be socioeconomic unfairness, or it may be rampant consumerism, or it may be a combination of the two....