There are two inescapable facts about female shoe ownership. First, we buy a lot more shoes than we actually use. Second, and possibly as a result of the first point, we own a lot more shoes than we think we do.

I'm making these bold statements after analyzing the results of the YoLG shoe usage survey. Respondents were asked first to rank their girlishness on the standard scale of 1 to 10. They were asked to estimate the number of shoes they currently own, how many of those shoes they wear on a “routine” basis (defined as more than twice a week) and how many they have never worn. A lot of the answers contained suspicious or evasive wording along the lines of, “not counting flip-flops...” and my personal favorite, “do boots count?” [For the record, I would count boots and flip-flops as part of the sum total of shoes owned. I'd also count gym shoes and hiking boots, but would draw the line with skates, ski boots and bedroom slippers. Socks with shoe-like qualities are negotiable. Any respondents who wish to e-mail me back with a revised count should feel free to do so.]One woman was brave enough to admit later that she had grossly underestimated her shoe haul. Even with the exclusions, the average number of shoes was still more than 26 pairs per respondent.

Of these 26 pairs of shoes, an average of 4.5 made it into the regular rotation and 2.7 had never been worn at all. A number of women were also kind enough to note that several had been worn just once. One quarter of respondents reported they keep at least one pair of shoes under their desk at work. Even those who ranked themselves as least girlish used less than half of their shoes regularly.
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