It's relative to the size of your piggy bank or colour of your Amex, and for comedian Joe Avati​, he needs 300 pairs of Italian and French designer shoes.

Splashing up to $1200 for a pair, the labels span Prada, Christian Louboutin, Versace, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Saint Laurent and Salvatore Ferragamo. He owns a pair of thongs but even they are Gucci. For something more rugged, he loves his Aussie R.M. Williams boots.

Mr Avati is not a struggling comedian. Specialising in Italian humour for 20 years with excellent ticket sales in Australia, the United States and Canada, he flies first class and drives a Maserati. "I don't have a hobby, I don't follow sport. I just love shoes," he said. For anyone wondering why a man is so attached to so many shoes, Mr Avati wanted to state: "I am not gay."

The multi-coloured leather and suede collection has three homes: his apartment, a storage cage and his hometown of Sydney. His dream to display the family of 300 as "artwork" in a custom-built walk-in robe is being realised during the renovation of his future residence, a heritage-listed Victorian house in Carlton North, which will feature a shoe room.

In this extreme First-World problem, Mr Avati had to negotiate with the City of Yarra over the size of the room, given the location of a chimney. Wanting the space to be five metres by three metres, he had to compromise on lowering the height to 2.5 metres to obtain a council permit.

"Mr friends have me listed in their phones as Imelda," laughed Mr Avati, referring to the deposed first lady of the Philippines. The widow of the late president Ferdinand Marcos was fond of giving gifts to herself and reportedly protested: "I did not have 3000 pairs of shoes, I had 1060."

The Australian footwear industry is worth $2.8 billion and a report by business information analysts IBISWorld says that although 32 per cent of customers are men, the fastest-growing segment is male footwear.

Senior industry analyst Lauren Magner​ wrote: "Previously largely impervious to the influence of footwear fashion, recent changes in societal trends have resulted in men focusing more attention on their footwear."

In a straw poll of well-heeled (in the numeric sense) Melbourne men, shoe ownership levels span three pairs to 100 and that figure belongs to Chin Chin chef Ben Cooper, a lover of sneakers and suede brogues.

When not spicing up the restaurant kitchen with his work boots, Mr Cooper likes to express himself through shoes. "The average person takes about 220 million steps in their lifetime so make them count. Step out in style and give your feet something to celebrate," he said.

You won't find Mr Avati in the Jerry Seinfeld​ jeans and runners combo. "I think runners should never leave the basketball court," Mr Avati declared. Somewhat ironically, he is known as the "Jerry Seinfeld of Canada" for his Calabrese humour that resonates with the Italian community.

As a child with flat feet, Mr Avati's father, Frank, bought him quality shoes from Italy and the feel of fine leather has remained. "My father said that you can judge a man by his shoes."

The world's footwear king could be American sneaker collector Mark "Mayor" Farese​, a gold-chain wearing dude who owns 3000 pairs. You can peer into Farese's grandiose life in New Jersey, and his clear boxes, by watching the hip-hop culture documentary Fresh Dressed at ACMI from August 29.

The "Mayor" boasted to Fairfax Media: "I can wear a brand new pair every day for almost eight years."

The stash is worth a staggering $750,000 but the "Mayor" said: "That's not what I paid for it. I have no clue how much I've spent over the years, so don't ask." He signed off with a smiley face.

There are only 365 days in a year, so that many pairs really should suffice.

Follow the footsteps of comedian Joe Avati http://joeavati.com/