YOUR SHOE COLLECTION

Hello Welcome back Beautiful People!!! Hope All are fine?

So your fashion blogger Ruqaiya Tousif. M is back with the new topic. To discuss my views and ideas on your shoe collection. So let’s started!!!!

So what is shoe collection?

Sneaker collecting is the acquisition and trading of sneakers as a hobby. It is often manifested by the use and collection of shoes made for particular sports, particularly basketball and skateboarding. A person involved in sneaker collecting is sometimes called a sneakerhead.

10 TIPS FOR STARTING A SNEAKER COLLECTION:

- Make sure your feet are done growing. You do not outgrow the kicks in your collection

- Find some source of income. Get a job. Find some work. Use some of the leftover money to buy sneakers. - Buy to resell. If there is a huge sneaker release do everything you can to give yourself a chance to buy them. Enter as many raffles you can or even camp out if you have to. Resell the sneakers and use the profit to buy a sneaker to add to the collection

- Buy a pair of sneakers and do not wear them for a couple years. Dead stock Jordan, Nike, and Adidas sneakers are almost always worth more than retail after a few years. The hard part is making sure you do not wear them even once. Once the value of the sneakers has gone up, sell it, and use the profits to add another sneaker to the collection

- Know what you want to collect. Do you want a wide variety or a very specific collection? Sometimes the best collections are the ones that are only 1 type of sneaker. For example, collecting only Air Max or Ultra Boost or Jordan 11's. Know what your favourite sneaker is and try to collect all your favourite colorways

- Make sure you keep the sneakers in your collection clean. Beaters do not belong in your collection. - Find steals and deals to help build your collection. Pick up a couple of those sneakers that you like that is on sale or go to the outlets. The more sneakers that you can add to the collection the better

- Find a good connection so you can get your hands on the exclusive sneakers or best deals

- Get 2 pairs of hype release. Sell 1 and keep 1 for yourself

- Go to some sneaker events like Sneakercon. Just make sure the sneakers are legit before you purchase.

The world’s 17 most expensive sneakers:

Buying sneakers is a thing most of us enjoy. However, as soon as you buy one pair, you can’t help but immediately start looking for the next one that would compliment your shoe rack. The only bad thing about buying sneakers is usually the price, which sometimes makes us take extreme measures in order to save up the money. There is one rare species of sneaker – the inhumanly expensive one. When you bump into this type of sneaker, you immediately put it back onto the store shelf and pretend you’ve never seen it in your life. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the 17 most expensive sneakers in the world.

To recap, these are the world’s 17 most expensive shoes:

17) Nike x MSCHF Air Max 97 ‚Jesus Shoes – Walk On Water $4000

16) Nike Yeezy 2 Red October – $7,500

15) Chanel x Pharrell x adidas NMD Hu — $10000

14) Air Jordan V ‚Trophy Room‘(Friends & Family) – $10,000

13) Nike Dunk SB Low Staple NYC Pigeon – $16,000

12) DJ Khaled x Air Jordan 3 ‘Grateful’ – $25,000

11) Macklemore x Air Jordan 6: $25,000

10) Eminem x Carhartt Air Jordan 4 – $30,000

9) Air Jordan 4 Eminem – $32,000

8) Nike Air Mag Back to the Future 2016 – $35,000

7) Nike So Cal Air Force 1 Supreme Max – $50,000

6) Air Jordan Silver Shoes – $60,000

5) Air Jordan 12 OVO (Drake Edition) – $100,000

4) Air Jordan 12 (Flu Game) – $104,000

3) Michael Jordan’s Game Worn Converse Fastbreak: $190,373

2) Nike Moon Shoe: $437,500

1) Solid Gold OVO x Air Jordan – $2,000,000

How to Organise Your Shoe Collection:

It’s been a while since I’ve organised and re-arranged my shoe collection so I thought I’d document the process this time and share some information on how I organise! I’ve been keeping my shoes in these IKEA bookcase cabinets for more than 5 years now and they have even survived a dis assembly and re-assembly after a house move as well. They’re gorgeous in design and happen to be the perfect size for my shoes and having them organised and on display in these cabinets have been the best investment. Today, I’m going to be sharing with you all the details on how I set up these cabinets and how I use them to organise my shoe collection!

THE BOOKCASE I USE TO ORGANISE MY SHOE COLLECTION:

I get a lot of questions about these cabinets that I use to store my shoes and the cabinet that I use is actually l the IKEA Billy bookcase. It’s a really reasonably priced bookcase and comes in a range of colours to suit your decor. I chose white as I wanted it to blend into the background and have the shoes pop as the centre of attention! However, do note that when using the Billy bookcase, the length of your shoe aka your shoe size needs to be taken into account. So this crucial bit of information counts: the shelves on the IKEA Billy bookcase measure 25.3cm, meaning that if your shoes are longer than this in length, then they will stick out. This can be okay if you aren’t installing doors and don’t mind having them stick out, but if you want to install doors then they won’t close properly. For reference, I wear a size 37-38 (AUS 7-7.5) in shoes and all my flat shoes fit perfectly in my bookcase, however some of my more pointed flat boots are the slightest bit too long, but this can be fixed by placing them slightly sideways to fit. If you have a smaller shoe size than me, your shoes will fit no problems on the IKEA Billy bookcase. However, if you have a larger shoe size, you’ll find that your shoes may stick out of the shelf a little. 

HOW MANY SHOES CAN I STORE PER BOOKCASE?

The IKEA Billy bookcase stores four pairs of shoes per row, meaning that you can store 24 pairs of shoes per bookcase if I use the standard set up of 6 shelves, which are evenly spaced. However, if you want to store more shoes like what I have done below, you can purchase two additional shelves per bookcase and re-arrange the shelves so that they sit at different heights. There’s a bit of a technique to this as there aren’t holes along the entire height of the bookshelf so you can check out my photo below to get a good idea on how to arrange the shelves. By adding in two more additional shelves to your bookcase, you can fit 32 pairs of shoes on each bookcase. I use the taller shelf spaces to store taller shoes like heels and boots and I use the shorter shelf spaces to store flat shoes like sneakers and sandals. So for my two bookcase set up, I can fit up to 64 pairs of shoes, which is more than plenty, I think! But! If you have a tall ceiling, you can also buy additional inserts to place on top that will give you an extra row. For me, I didn’t need this extra storage space so I opted to leave it opens so I could store my shoe boxes and baskets. 

AN ALTERNATIVE OPTION WITH LARGER SHELF DEPTH:

I’ve seen others use the IKEA Kallax as another popular option for storing shoes. This shelf is deeper than the Billy, meaning that if you have a larger shoe size, this could work better for you if you want the shoes to fit nicely. However, the Kallax does have separate cube compartments, so you may not be able to fit as many shoes in! But they do make a nice minimalist display, especially if you don’t have too many pairs of shoes. 

KEEPING THE DUST OUT: 

For my shoe storage, I decided to install doors to keep the dust out. At first, I was reluctant with the whole idea of doors as I wanted them to look nice and pretty like a display, however functional reasons won me over and I bought the doors shortly after! The doors I use are the matching IKEA Billy glass doors and I actually think they look great and don’t really get in the way at all. I love how nothing gets dusty inside as well, that’s the ultimate win, of course. I’ve just had a look online and I don’t think IKEA sells the glass doors separate anymore, but you can buy two bookcases with glass doors together here. 

HOW TO ARRANGE YOUR SHOES:

 Here comes the fun part! When it comes to organising your shoes, you can choose to arrange them by colour or style.

-          By colour: Organising by colour looks nice on the eyes, as you can see a consistent flow of colours throughout your cabinet. The good thing about organising by colour is that it could help with styling an outfit especially if you style your outfit by co-ordinating or contrasting certain colours. However, if you’re more the type of person who styles an outfit according to specific styles, then it may be a little more difficult to find the shoes for your outfit.

-          By style: Another way to organise is to arrange heels together, sneakers together, boots together, sandals together, etc. This could look a little more mismatched in terms of the colour throughout the cabinet; however it could still look neat in that you have similarly shaped shoes together. Organising by style might be a little easier when it comes to dressing, as you can find all the same styles together.

For me, I’ve switched between organising by colour and style depending on my mood throughout the years. However, generally I prefer to organise by style. I find that it’s a lot easier for me to find the shoes I want if I organise by style as I typically choose shoes according to the type I’m looking for.

Of course, the beauty of it is that you don’t have to stick to one particular method! Change it up as you go until you find what works for you!

 

 

STYLING IT UP:

Chances are, you probably don’t have the exact number of shoes to fill one or two bookcases. If you have spare spots in your shoe shelf, instead of buying shoes you don’t need to fill them up with, you can decorate with accessories such as handbags, decor items or even indoor plants! I like to fill my gaps up with my bag collection so that I can see everything together.

As you can see, I’m a big fan of Bared Footwear; their shoes have honestly changed my life. Being someone who has wide feet and bunions, I could never find shoes that were comfortable until Bared Footwear came along! Much of my collection is from Bared, most of them are older styles (not sure if they’re all still on the website, but maybe they are in new colours!) but the winter boots I’m wearing in this post are new styles from them. The black ones are the Bared Gold crest boot in black croc leather and the white ones are the Bared Fire crest boot in white leather!

 

KEEPING IT ORGANISED:

One of the things I love about having my IKEA bookcases is that it keeps my shoe collection under control. After getting my two cabinets, I decided that this space was more than enough pairs for me and so if my Billy bookcases ever feel like it’s about to reach maximum capacity, I make it a point to look at what I actually wear regularly, and which pairs I don’t wear so much and re-home those accordingly. It helps that my sister and I have the same shoe size, so we often share our shoes, especially heels and styles for special occasions!

Declutter the Damaged

We seem to hold onto shoes that we have once loved but are no longer wearable.  This could be a matter of scratches that are noticeable even when treated, parts that have some adrift (think sequins or other details), and heels and soles that are beyond repair

When your shoes become undesirable and you personally would not buy them in their current condition and don’t see a repair being a benefit, it is time to let go.

The feeling you can get from decluttering these items can produce a nice lift to your wardrobe as you can let go of that feeling of looking after something that is no longer useful.

I would add into this list any shoes that stink when you take them off.  No-one wants to smell that!

Uncomfortable

I used to have some beautiful shoes but each time I would wear them they would dig into my toes, or rub on my heels.

I made the decision one day to remove every pair of shoes that I could not wear all day and feel comfortable.  This was a good decision and I was relieved not to feel I needed to rotate them and wear these uncomfortable
shoes.

If you are not sure how you feel about your shoes, trying wearing each pair and take note on how you feel about them to make sure your decision to let them go works for you.

Style

Not all of us care about the latest fashion but often when we put an outfit together we want it work well with the overall look.

Your wardrobe styling may have changed over the years based on your lifestyle or work environment and the older shoes may not work with your outfits anymore.

Decluttering this category might be a matter of working on which shoes you enjoy wearing and which ones just look weird with what you now wear.  Think gorgeous stiletto heels but you now only wear jeans and tee’s and prefer sneakers and ballet flats.

Remember it doesn’t matter what other people think about your style, but you need to be happy about your reflection for you.  You might have a quirky look that your love, so embrace it and make it work.  Once you do that, get rid of the rest.

Decluttering questions

Sometimes we need to question ourselves around why we hold onto some things.  For shoes we might feel all of them are justified.  That is fine, but have your really thought about it or just accept what you have and don’t know what to do with them.

You may like to ask these questions when working through a declutter of your shoe collection:

-          Do I love them?

-          Have I warn them over the last 12 months?

-          Will I wear them again?

-          Are they damaged beyond repair?

-          Do I care enough about them to repair them?

-          Do I try them on all the time but can never work
out which outfit they work with?

-          Am I just holding onto them because they cost a
lot of money?

-          Are they dancing shoes and I will no longer be
doing dance?

-          Are they too high and cause back or foot issues?

-          Do I have too many to wear and only ever stick
with a handful of favourites?

 

Stepping out

Once you have decluttered your shoes you may like to think about how you control what comes into your wardrobe in the future. 

If you are working on a capsule wardrobe or simply limiting the excess, there are some things to consider making sure you don’t get into the same mess as before you decluttered. 

Try to work on the following and choose:

-          Comfortable shoes

-          Classic styles

-          Neutral colours

-          Certain number of shoes

You may think the list above might make your shoes collection seem boring and old fashioned, but if you pay attention to what you need you will be able to find some beautiful options.

I have a very minimalist wardrobe and my shoe collection is a total of six.  It used to be well in excess of 60.

Initially this number seemed like it would be difficult, but I have realised that even now I wear three pairs of shoes most often (and one of those are my walking sneakers).

One of the best methods I use to make decisions about decluttering is to organise all my items into favourite (and usable) through to not so loved items.

One of the things I have found harder is when I consider the cost of the shoes.  When they are designer shoes and particularly expensive, I have had to disassociate the cost with usefulness. 

Sometimes cheaper pair of sneakers is of more use to me than shoes that are beautiful and cost 5 times as much. 

At this point, it is irrelevant what the cost is, as the money is gone and you will not get that back. 

I then start decluttering based on the least loved item and declutter to the point where it gets harder to make the decision.  This helps because you can sometimes reduce the decision making in half by making the easier decisions first.

I am also a fan of wearing all items in the wardrobe before you declutter them.  This gives you the opportunity to see how you feel in the items and if they are comfortable and also if you actually like how they feel and look.

Some things are easy to declutter, so if you can do this initially, go ahead.  If you become stuck on others then give it another week to think it through.

Another technique can be to have a basket that you put all the decluttered items and move them out of sight.  If you keep thinking about something you decluttered, it will still be there and you can retrieve it.

Whenever I have done this, I have retrieved some things, but they inevitably end up back in the basket because my initial feeling was the right one.

Trying this method can help you feel more confident about your decisions and reduce the feeling that you may make a mistake.

Final tip:  To reduce the need to declutter in the future, try being particularly strict when considering buying more shoes.  If you feel compelled to buy more, think about which shoes you are willing to remove from your existing wardrobe and how you will recycle them.

So Hope you all loved it!!! Until Next Time!!