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“It doesn’t matter how great your shoes are if you don’t accomplish anything in them.” ― Martina Boone, Compulsion

I thought women loved shoes, but I’m beginning to think men love them more.

Nobody does it to the same grandiose scale as the NBA players of today’s time.

If you have ever watched the series Uninterrupted or MTV’s Nice Kicks, heard commentary on Kneading Dough or read the Complex magazine or Coveteur online, then you know the NBA are paying salaries large enough to fund startups with paychecks that are bigger than some countries GDP.

What do some of these players do with all this money?

Invest it in shoes, of course.

WHAT IS SHOE GAME?

Shoe game is all the shoes you own, your shoe wardrobe, used when comparing the type and amount of shoes you have against another person.

I know it sounds crazy, but many top sports superstars have shoe closets that could rival any boutique or downtown footlocker.

The real shock isn’t the amount of shoes, but the sheer price tag to owning all these shoes in the first place.

Each year, analysts predict that the sneaker bubble will soon burst. However, the shoe business is a billion-dollar industry that just keeps on growing.

WHAT IT TAKES TO STEP UP YOUR SHOE GAME?

It seems the first step is to simply own a whole bunch of pairs of shoes.

Generally, in the hundreds or thousands.

Usually one corner of the master bedroom closet is never enough.

These sneakers need some room to breathe.

Therefore, many are opting to get custom made closets. People are devoting as much as 800-square-feet or more dedicated to housing 3,500 pairs of shoes. That is larger than some people’s apartments!  In some cases, people have gone on to give their shoes storage units, commercial buildings or whole wings of an entire house!

This isn’t cheap. A custom closet could go from an average closet costing up to $1,200 to $5,000. However, a custom closet fit for a sneaker connoisseur can cost upwards of $15,000 to $25,000 or more.

For that price, many closets come with climate control, lighting, and tons of racks for you to house massive amounts of sneakers.

They even have apps you can get to showcase Sneakology for any Sneakerhead that wants to do it right.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO SNEAKER IT UP?

Well, a few people out there have thrown out some numbers.

Considering that some have anywhere from 500, 3,000, or even 6,000+ pairs of shoes, you have to know that is a lot of dough being spent on shoes that you can only where one pair at a time on your one set of feet.

Rare sneakers can fetch anywhere from $500 on up to $5,000. One pair of Jordan’s is going for $25,000!

If the average pair of sneakers cost $80 a pair, we can start to do some of our own math.

A few numbers I came across include:

500 pairs at $80 each equates to $40,000.

1,000 pairs at $80 each equates to $80,000.

3,000 pairs at $80 each equates to $240,000.

6,000 pairs at $80 each equates to $480,000.

That last one means some poor soul spent a half a million dollars on shoes! Most of which they are unlikely to ever wear more than once.

I read one guy had 3,500 pairs averaging $214 each for a total value of $750,000.

One post I read on Coveteur stated one guy had 3,600 pairs at an average of $280 each which equates to $1,000,000! You could buy an apartment building for that! I say get that rent money and be a landlord instead of a shoe lord.

Shoes won’t pay you every month to stay on your property, but tenants sure will.

A tenant could help you pay off your mortgage in half the time. Say, 15 years on a 30 year mortgage.

I read that most people keep their favorite 10 pairs of shoes in regular rotation.

That would mean all these people could have saved themselves anywhere between $39,000 to $479,000. Just something to think about right there.  

MONEY SPENT ON JUST YOUR FEET

When I think of all that money spent at shoe stores across the nation, it just makes me shake my head.

I know you can spend your money on anything you choose, but when is it enough?

Just a peek inside some of these closets let you know that enough money is being housed in there that these sneakers may need to be in some kind of vault.

For that kind of money, you need these babies in a fire proof room or safe.

If you’re getting heart palpitations just from reading these numbers, then I understand. That’s a lot of money that has to be protected and put under lock and key. Security can be another added expense on top on housing and maintaining these shoes.  

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO WITH ALL THIS MONEY?

You could actually invest in startups by becoming an angel investor.

According to Brian Cohen, an experienced angel investor and the chairman of the New York Angels, a consortium that focus on start-ups in the New York City area, most startups fail.

However, Fred Wilson of VC firm Union Square Ventures says that one-third of early stage investments are hits, meaning they return five times the investment or more. Guess what happens to the other two-thirds? Most go bust.

Therefore, you must research any investment before you hand over even $1 of your money.

You could sell them.

A Guinness World Record holder at one time had 2,500 pairs of sneakers called the Shoezeum.

When asked what brands he wore he replied, “Nike. It’s sneakers or barefoot, and sneakers are always Nike.”

Want to know how Nike got its start?

See my post on Nike founder Phil Knight

He also has some frugal tendencies. He stated, “I bought 1,800 pairs of Converse Chuck Taylors for $1 each. I took them all to a swap meet and sold them for $5 a pair.”

Not bad.

However, regardless of what you do, put your money into something that it can earn interest and grow.

Make your money work even harder for you than you had to for it.

There are only so many hours you can work in 24 hours of a day. Your money can work 365/24/7 in the stock market. So, let it.