One of my favorite movies of all time has to be “Dumb and Dumber”. It does not matter how many times I watch it, I laugh every time! One of my favorite scenes from the movie is when Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) walks out of a Seven Eleven and tries to start a conversation with two gentlemen sipping drinks.  Floyd’s classic one liner is “Hey Guys…Big Gulps huh?  Alright! Well see you later”. I laugh because he is trying to start a conversation with people he has nothing in common with.  When the situation gets awkward, even for Lloyd Christmas, he leaves.

I have to admit that sometimes in life I feel just like Lloyd Christmas did in that scene. Starting a conversation with someone you have nothing in common with can be very awkward.  Growing up, my brother and I always used that line in awkward conversations at family reunions. We also came up with a few one-line-conversation starters on our own.

We have a few cousins we have nothing in common with except for being in the same family. These cousins are very quiet and tried and keep to themselves.  So being the social butterflies of the family, we came up with a game to see who could get them into a conversation for the longest. We would ask them one line conversation starters like “What is your favorite animal?” or “What is your favorite color?”.  We would try to keep a straight face after asking one of these questions, but sometimes we could not hold it in.

The last family reunion I attended was different. I found one of these cousins wearing a pair of Vibram FiveFingers!  I was wearing a pair of them also. What did we talk about?  Yes!  We talked about the most comfortable shoe on the market! We talked about the freedom and flexibility our shoes gave our feet! It was probably the most in depth conversation he and I had in our 25 years. That conversation opened up the door for me to get to know my cousin better.

This is not the only conversation my Vibram Komodosports are responsible for. Every time I wear them someone always asks me about them. Yes people are skeptical about how the look, but I always tell them they need to buy a pair and try them out. I work two jobs, and one of them is in sales. Some of my sales leads have started with a conversation about my Vibram FiveFinger shoes and lead to what I do for a living. I will take all of the help I can get to get a sale!

If you do not believe me about Five Fingers being a great conversation starter, try it out.  My guess is that if you are already a user of the shoes you know exactly what I’m talking about.

What interesting conversations have you had because of FiveFingers?  Let me know in the comments below!