Jodi Lewis wouldn’t be caught even taking out the garbage without a nice pair of shoes on her feet.

She has 58 pairs in her closet — and under the bed and in every spare corner.

Her shoes take up enough space that her husband, Edwin, has to store his own things in the guest room.

“I feel like if I go somewhere and I don’t have heels on, I get anxiety,” said Mrs Lewis, a marketing executive. “If my feet are hurting I feel disappointed if I have to take my shoes off. I am only 5ft 1in so the heels give me a little lift.”

For people whose feet cry out in pain at the mere sight of a pointy-toed shoe, a shoe addiction can be a little mystifying.

Singer McCartney Hart has 60 pairs of shoes. She fondly remembers the day she bought her most expensive pair — $875 Jimmy Choos.

“I saw these shoes in the Prudential Center in Boston and I adored them,” she said. “I had to get them. They are red patent leather, and have a Mary-Jane look with stiletto heels. Then Louis Vuitton came out with a red patent leather purse that matched. I was so excited.”

She has worn her Jimmy Choos while performing, and to holiday events.

“I have loved shoes since I was a little girl,” she said. “My shoes always have to match my outfit. In fact, I often buy the shoes first and then try to find an outfit to match.”

She and her then-fiance Dwight Hart drove all over the East Coast in search of the perfect colour shoes to match her wedding dress. They thought they found them in Boston, but they weren’t the right shade. She found just what she was looking for in Providence.

Mr Hart also has a passion for shoes, and has sneakers in many different colours.

“I don’t really like shoe shopping with my girlfriends because the chatter can be distracting,” she said. “I like to stay focused. However, I like shopping for shoes with my husband.”

Said Mrs Lewis: “When I first met my husband, I was intrigued that he also liked shoes. He had a lot of sneakers and boots. The sneakers were in all different colours.”

Sionna Barton, who works with the Bermuda Health Foundation, said she owns about 70 pairs of shoes.

“I was a tomboy in high school,” she said. “It wasn’t until college that I got into it. I joined the dance team and became a bit more girlie, but still I had no clue what was trendy and what wasn’t. I got into shoes because they were so much easier to figure out. They were either awesome or they were ugly. In college, I started going out to get boots for the winter, as I was in New York. My love for boots came in then.”

When she finally returned to Bermuda to work, she blew her first pay cheque on a pair of black leather shoes and a wallet from Lusso.

“I don’t have the wallet anymore but I still have the shoes,” she said.

Tamara Bradshaw, an event coordinator, has between 60 and 70 pairs of shoes. She has modelled in the past, writes a fashion blog called onpinkshores.com, and maintains a Pinterest board called Shoe Lust (www.pinterest.com/tmaraxo/shoe-lust/ ).

She admitted to, occasionally, binge shoe-shopping.

“Sometimes I go for a month or two without buying shoes, then I get the urge to go to the shoe store,” she said. “Sometimes I am just strolling by and think, let me just pop in here. I’ll come out with four or five new pairs of shoes. Sometimes I shoe shop to give myself an emotional lift, or because I’m bored.”

Miss Bradshaw loves the entire experience of shoe shopping.

“It is like a mini fashion show every time I try on a pair of shoes,” she said. “I like to walk around in the store with them and try to picture the kind of outfit I would wear with them. It gives you a special feeling.”