How many pairs of shoes does a man need?

Interesting article from The Guardian UK.

That's one question that I cannot give an exact answer when my mates asked me so many times. "How many pairs of shoes do you have, Zamri?". To simply put: a lot!!! Come on... I love shoes! Can't have enough of them. Probably next time I'll post down in here my new shoe closet which I designed myself. It's massive! (or going to be massive, that's the correct phrase...) =)

Now, my question to you: how many shoes do you have?

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Last year he made more money than anyone else in the world; he has a personal fortune of $17.5bn (£11.2bn); and he also happens to be the mayor of New York City. But according to reports earlier this week, media baron Michael Bloomberg has only two pairs of work shoes, and he's been wearing the same black loafers for more than a decade.

"You do something called resoling and reheeling," he told the New York Post yesterday. "You don't have to throw them away and get new ones, you can use the old ones." So do rich men really get by on just two pairs of shoes?

"I've got about three work pairs," says 35-year-old Darren Blake, the head of a private equity firm who is walking past the Bank of England. "I've had one about four years, one about three and these about a year. I get them re-soled regularly. Good shoes last a long time."

Others have very different ways of making shoes last. Andrew Mackie, a 60-year-old salesman, explains: "If you have lots of pairs you wear them less and therefore they last longer. I have seven or eight pairs of work shoes and I've had these for four or five years."

Design consultant Josh Chapman has a similar collection. "I've a pair to match every suit, so I've got 10 pairs and then I've got a whole range of other sneakers. I keep some for about three or four seasons if I really like them." Looking down disparagingly at his shiny patent-leather brogues, he adds: "With shoes like this, I keep them about six months."

"I've only got one at the moment," says Paul Davey, a 50-year-old marketing consultant. Clearly he means one pair. "I've had these ones three years and the previous for about eight." He's not the only one-pair-wonder I meet. "This is my only pair of work shoes," says 35-year old Scott Cunningham, who says he works in IT. "I've had these two years and I plan to keep them until they fall apart."

Sales consultant Jag Anu shares this wear-them-into-the-ground philosophy. "I have two pairs of work shoes. One that I bought very recently and these, which I've had for the last 18 months. I use them until they get to the worst possible condition and then throw them out." I tell him about Bloomberg. He looks at me shocked. "If I was a billionaire," he says, "I would at least have six or seven pairs."

[original article from The Guardian]