[doombolt]

This would depend heavily on weather. Not everybody is living in California. There are places when you need five different pairs of footwear just to survive a year. Some might last, some won't. Throw someting in to wear indoors.

[wott]

1. It is not a matter of "need", rather a matter of comfort and practicality. (I leave in mountains).

2. I do have half a dozen different types of shoes (something like 1 or 2 pairs of army boots, 1 for cycling, 1 for MB-hiking-gardening, 1 for gardening, 1 pair of tennis shoes to wander in and around the house, and probably 1 old worn spare one I forget about). It doesn't mean I buy them all every year. I haven't bought any in 2017 or 2018. The army boots are 5 to 10 years old, same for the hiking shoes I use for mountain-biking (4 years old?) and gardening (15 years old?), since I cannot really hike any more. The tennis/cycling shoes are dying but they were already dying last year and in fact they are still good enough :-) So I probably buy only 1, perhaps 2 pairs, in an average year.

[doombolt]

It is only a matter of comfort, and not survival, if you own a car and drive it around exclusively. If you own a car, well, impact(car) > impact(any number of pairs of shoes).

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

I'm still skeptical. I have one pair of shoes for day to day usage, one nice pair for dress up, on pair of snow boots, and one pair of slippers. Each has lasted me many years, and I live in Wisconsin which isn't known for having anything like California's weather.

Climbing shoes on the other hand I need to have resoled every 6 months or so.