Shoes, shoes, shoes. If there are more important things in life then I haven’t discovered them. I love my family, but I love shoes more. I love my dog but I would save my shoes if there was a fire before her. I love my job but I would quit it and spend every day trying on more shoes if I could. Ok, some of that is a slight exaggeration, I would save my dog and then the shoes, but we can all agree that shoes are simply amazing. Some people have far more shoes than others though and while I am a little jealous of them I also think they are absolutely crazy. Let’s take a look.
The celebrity obsession
There are so many celebrities with incredible shoe collections. Reese Witherspoon, the legend that she is, famously wrote into her contract that she would get to keep whatever shoes were used in the movie Legally Blonde, now that is an excellent move. Yet she is not even the biggest shoe fan out there.
Lindsay Lohan says that she owns over 5,000 pairs of designer shoes with many costing over $1,200. If we say the average pair costs $500 then she has shoe assets worth an incredible $2,500,000! That would not even be counting the numerous pairs that she has likely thrown away in her lifetime. Estimates suggest that she has earned approximately $28 million from movies and has a net worth today of about $1 million. The shoe addiction is costing her.
Mariah Carey is the greatest diva of them all and says she has over 1,000 pairs of high heels. What is particularly brilliant about Mariah is that she keeps each pair in a custom made box. Fancy. Paris Hilton has her beat with over 2,000 pairs. Paris is known to often wear a pair of her favorites, Louboutin. Oh if I had a spare $10,000 the shoes I would buy!
The investor
Bernie Madoff may be famous for ripping off investors but his shoe collection could be equally famous. He has 250 pairs of leather shoes many of which are still not worn. Whether he thought these were a good investment or simply is obsesses with shoes, remains to be seen.
The record holders
Jordy Gellar holds the record for the most sports shoes. He currently owns approximately 2,400 pairs of sports sneakers. He started off buying and selling on Ebay and still makes a lot of money from trading shoes. His entire shoe collection is made up of Nike shoes with most still new and in their boxes. He recently opened a museum to show off his incredible collection.
Darlene Flynn holds the top prize though. Guinness recently awarded her the honor of having the largest shoe collection in the world at 14,684 pairs or shoe items. She owns some incredible items including replica Cinderella slippers. Her story is a sad one though as Flynn was murdered in 2013 at the young age of 58 by her boyfriend. At the time of her death, she had over 16,000 pairs of shoes and has now been named the ‘Queen of Sole’.
We have no doubt that someone will take Flynn’s record soon as the obsession with shoes is only growing worldwide. Danielle Steele is a well-known author and appears to be on her way to winning the record as at present she has 6,000 pairs of shoes – she does still have a long way to go.
I would dearly love to hold that record too, not because I care about records but because I just want that many shoes.
