Do you have shoes you never wear because of the pain?
It’s a well-known fact that women have an irrational love of shoes, happily buying a new pair without a second thought for their bulging wardrobes at home.
But new research released by the makers of footcare brand COMPEED®, reveals that UK women own on average 25 pairs of shoes, but on average a quarter are never worn because of pain or discomfort such as blisters, corns and bunions.
In fact according to the survey, on average a British woman could have £190 worth of shunned shoes in her wardrobe - that’s as much as £3.3 billion worth of shoes lying abandoned across the UK.
Psychologist Emma Kenny, commenting on the study, says: “Women buy high heels because they make them feel confident and sexy. Confidence is something we all aspire to. It makes us feel happy, full of direction and in control of our lives; so it makes sense that we invest in things that aid this feeling. The results show that women in the UK agree, and that's why they see shoes as part and parcel of the important purchases they make on a regular basis. With confidence comes possibilities which helps explain the amount of money women will spend on shoes over a lifetime.”
Despite 93% of British women experience pain when wearing high heels, it doesn’t seem to curb their spending – the survey revealed that women spend an average of £608 a year on their footwear.
From planned purchases to spontaneous splurges it’s clear that shoes top women’s list of priorities, especially during the sales season with four in ten admitting they snap up 'bargains' in the spring and summer sales.
So why is it, that women are happy to spend excessively on unwearable shoes, that they then leave to gather dust in the back of the wardrobe?
Alexandra Papa, spokesperson for the COMPEED® brand, says: “It is interesting to see from our research that such a high proportion of UK women are suffering needlessly for fashion, or abandoning large chunks of their shoe collection because of discomfort. We have a variety of footcare products available in our range, which can help women stay one step ahead of blister pain and make their unwearable shoes, wearable.”