Something occurred to me today. Shoes. Girls fucking love shoes. And I realized that I have actually used shoes as openers before quite successfully. Like this one time I was at a strip club and I said to one of the girls "Man, those things must be killing you" and she was like "Yeah! Actually they are! Mind if I sit for a minute?" And she sat there and talked with us for a while.

So here's a good one. It works differently for guys, so I'll try to put it in a way you all can use it.

You: Cute boots/heels/shoes. They must be hard to walk in. (or, they must be killing your feet)

Her: Yeah actually they are blah blah (or, no, not really, but I'm used to it blah blah blah)

You: I'm sure I'd be useless in those things. It always amazes me how you ladies manage it. Like, what happens when it gets icy or rainy?

And then she'll go on, maybe tell you a story about the time she slipped and fell. Or she'll say she wears them all the time, and you learn how to walk anywhere in them and be ok.

If you live in a place where they have "drag races" like here in dc (men in drag and heels racing each other down the road), you could talk about how unbelievable it is that those guys run so fast in those things. If you dont have that where you are you can say you heard about it from a friend and tell her about it.

Then you can pretty much take the conversation anywhere you like. It gets you talking without being too much of a routine or coming off like you're hitting on her. You're just interested, you know? But not in a gay way.

This works for me because I'm a girl who doesnt wear difficult shoes unless absolutely necessary. So I can be like "Shit those look hard to walk in. Every time I try to wear heels I fall down." and then talk about funny incidences where I've fallen off a bus or something.

It always seems to lead into a conversation about something else.

The stripper was paying attention to you because you were paying her. It's her job. You can't trust strippers' initial IOIs until you break through their programming.

You're using a situational opener - "An opener that relates to something relevant to the environment in which you and the woman find yourselves."

***The following is paraphrased from "Magic Bullets"***

Men who don't have game use situational openers. Therefore most attractive women have heard them literally hundreds of times. Moreover, there are only a finite number of interesting conversational subjects that are likely to arise in standard places to meet women.

You may think that your situational opener may be original or interesting. However, most women will have heard this before and will think that it's far more likely that you're hitting on her than that you really care what kind of shoes she's wearing. When was the last time you went up to a woman you didn't know and weren't attracted to and asked her about the clothes she was wearing?

If you are going to use a situational opener, it absolutely must be spontaneous.

THe only advantage of a situational opener is that your transition to other subjects may be easier.

But unless you have a mastery of the subject, stay away from it, as it will only highlight your inexperience.

I get where you're coming from. Maybe I can get away with it because I'm a girl. You asked when was the last time I talked to a random attractive girl about clothes... well, all the time actually. It's my fear of moving into the attraction phase that stops me from getting farther.

As for situational... girls are ALWAYS wearing uncomfy shoes. Always. Especially the hot ones. So, it's not like I'm reaching here for a situation that occurs rarely. Girls wear uncomfy shoes as much as they drink coffee and go into stores. Does that mean that all the store and coffee shop routines fall in the same category as the shoe thing?

But, yeah... maybe this just won't work at all for men...

PM8.. you hit it right on the nose. Well done.

If you are playing a line, opinion opener etc, the more spontaneous it seems to be, the more 'Under the table' you are going to seem. i.e. you'll get the close etc.

Sarge on,

~Simon