ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN)  -- OutKast's Big Boi is a junkie, has been for years.



Big Boi: "You can really tell a lot about a person through the shoes, so I always like to keep me a fresh pair."



The multiplatinum rap star got his first shoe fix back when he was better known as Antwan Patton, a busboy at Steak and Ale. He saved up his paychecks and rushed to a dealer to cop the only thing that could cure his jones -- a pair of British Knights tennis shoes.



"I've actually been into sneakers since I was a little kid," Big Boi, 34, said backstage before his concert this month at the Sneaker Pimps exhibition in Atlanta. "You can really tell a lot about a person through the shoes, so I always like to keep me a fresh pair."



Sneaker culture has thrived for decades, but shoe companies have increasingly capitalized on the demand for one-of-a-kind kicks. Collectors, known as sneakerheads, have lined up to pay hundreds, even thousands, of dollars to ensure few people are wearing the same shoes.  See some of the rarest shoes »



"Coming up, my mom got five kids so there wasn't a whole lot of stylish tennis shoes around the house, so I used to want a lot of sneakers," Big Boi said, explaining that he started making up for lost time -- and shoes -- long before OutKast's 1994 debut, "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik."



Juan Castaneda, 27, also grew up in a family of modest means and longed to don the fresh kicks he saw his peers wearing.



"When I got money to buy them, I started catching up," said Castaneda, who works at a nursing home in Hendersonville, North Carolina.



He estimates he owns about 200 pairs of sneakers, including a pair of Nike Air Jordan XIs with patent-leather trim called "Space Jams." They cost him $500.



It's supply and demand at its simplest, said Elliott Curtis, a former Carnegie Mellon University basketball player who for two semesters taught Sneakerology 101, billed as the first accredited class on sneaker culture.



Shoe companies create a limited number (say, a few hundred pairs) of shoes -- even if it's just an old model with new colors or materials -- and demand automatically spikes.



"It's like a status symbol. If Nike is selling a shoe for $2,000, they're not expecting to sell that many," the recent graduate said, adding that sneakerheads are drawn to scarcity.



"If they've got money, they can buy coolness," Curtis said.



Curtis goes to garage sales and mom-and-pop stores seeking rare and retro sneakers for his 75-pair collection, but he concedes he's waited in line for limited editions and paid as much as $250 for a pair.



Sporting an ultra-rare set of blue-and-red "Bugs Bunny" Nike Air Jordan VIIIs, Big Boi said he today boasts at least 400 pairs of sneakers, but he rarely pays for them because shoe companies send him pairs.



His most expensive, a pair of crocodile-skin Nike Air Force 1s, sell on various auction sites for up to $1,800. Big Boi has never worn them, but he plans on taking them out of their Nike lockbox this summer so he can wear them in a video for his upcoming solo album.



To Peter Fahey, the mastermind behind Sneaker Pimps shoe shows, Big Boi's enthusiasm is typical.



Sneaker culture got its start in New York in the 1970s, mostly among playground streetballers and practitioners of an emerging genre of music called hip-hop. Over the next three decades, rappers and basketball players -- most notably, Run DMC and Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan -- would play integral roles in boosting the popularity of rare kicks.



"Run DMC were probably at the height of the whole movement. It was the first time music and sneakers crossed like this," Fahey said of the group's 1986 hit
What are shoe companies capitalizing on? Whos shoes are they? How many pairs of shoes? How many pairs of shoes does Big Boi say he has? What is there a niche demand for?
the demand for one-of-a-kind kicks. Big Boi: 200 at least 400 one-of-a-kind kicks.
question: What are shoe companies capitalizing on?, answer: the demand for one-of-a-kind kicks. | question: Whos shoes are they?, answer: Big Boi: | question: How many pairs of shoes?, answer: 200 | question: How many pairs of shoes does Big Boi say he has?, answer: at least 400 | question: What is there a niche demand for?, answer: one-of-a-kind kicks.