Last summer, which was full of great stories of varying degrees of believability, a group of 6 of us went to Moe’s Cantina after a Cubs game. Aside from the fact that all the waitresses were wearing sexy tight corsets, the place was packing heat. As we were sitting there with our first round, we look over and see a group of 6 girls sitting around a booth table, casually enjoying their shared appetizers and fruity drinks.

They seemed to be passing around what looked like a greeting card, so we guessed one of them was celebrating a birthday. Having a bona fide opera singer among us, we decided they needed a serenade, a loud, obnoxious, conversation-stopping, bar-silencing “Happy Birthday to You”. But instead of just going over directly, we thought it would be fun to build some suspense, so we had our tight-corset-wearing waitress (who was also worth our undivided attention, but we decided on the group over the lone star) drop off a note at their table, straight out of elementary school, something to the effect of “Celebrating a Birthday?, [check yes or no].”

The cheesy note worked, and the girls were giggling and looking around, wondering where it came from. As we waited for the right moment, our plan almost blew up right in front of our face. A group of guys was walking by on their way out, and the girls, thinking they had written the note, started talking to the dudes. They almost stole our set, but their conversation must not have been engaging enough and they were soon dismissed. Time to move in for the kill, before some other douches try to roll our girls again.

We rolled over, sat down, chatted them up, and sang for the birthday girl. Our goals of being obnoxious, making conversation stop and getting everyone in the place to look at us were met. After the informal show, we exchanged several phone numbers, to add to the ever growing, though thoroughly unreliable, list of girls you can call out of desperation when you realize the party you’re throwing is likely to be a sausage fest that would make any Bavarian proud.

They didn’t come to the party, and we never saw the girls again. But it was a more memorable evening than had we just sat around finishing our Buds talking about how sweet we are, how hot girls around are, or how much certain people suck.

Ship it! Gear is about superlatives, not about comparatives. So in that line of thought, here is a post about the baddest-ass book ever, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, by Neil Strauss.

Whether or not you respect, admire, loathe, or envy pick up artists, the shit they can pull off and some of their stories are just amazing. From celebrities to home-town honies, the book details the methods, the lifestyle, the people, and the craziness associated with the seduction community. If it were not clearly stated that everything in the book was real, it would instantly be forgotten as a tale too extraordinary to be believable and had 70% of the initial print sent back to be burned by the publisher. But it’s all true, and you laugh out loud, gasp in amazement, and learn some tricks along the way.
The tone for the book is set on the first page, the dedication:

Dedicated to the thousands of people I talked to in bars, clubs, malls, airports, grocery stores, subways, and elevators over the last two years.
If you are reading this, I want you to know that I wasn’t running game on you. I was being sincere. Really. You were different.

The book is also realistic, and is not afraid to show some of the negatives of such a lifestyle and outlook, while highlighting the positives. The ride is awesome. Sometimes you are led to self-pity and humiliation lamenting the fact that you have never had back to back threesomes in consecutive nights, or never picked up a 10 body 10 face blond in a bar full of better looking, richer guys. Sometimes you are validated, by how you’ve always thought of girls, or how you’re just a natural bad ass, pullin off shit guys read books and spent months practicing (such as getting 37 number-closes in a night, making out with a girl after 10 minutes of meeting her, or sitting a table full of girls and making them all love you)

The best part is the protagonist and author. Starting somewhat nerdy, AFC (another fuckin’ chump) as he would say, he emerges as the preeminent pickup artist. It’s not so much about what he learns, but what he was being able to come out and be more confident.

And some of the lines are indeed memorable. Such as the “Jealous girlfriend” opener, asking an innocuous question about a friend whose girlfriend is really jealous and wants to burn his old pictures of her. It’s not lying, it’s flirting, and besides, everyone has a friend in that situation (or similar). The brilliance is that it’s not hitting on them, and you can easily start a conversation. Great.

Even for you girls, before you start thinking this is just another misogynistic post, read the book. Why not understand better what guys are thinking, what games they are playing, to better defend yourself and see through such actions. And you will most likely learn things about yourself and how you act and react that you probably hadn’t thought about.

So read it, live it, learn from it, and roll deep.

The first thing everyone asks and needs to know: what exactly does “ship it!” mean. To put it shortly, it’s an enthusiastic confirmation of a potentially awesome event. The word potential is used carefully, since nothing can be guaranteed to be awesome until you actually committ to doing it, so in that sense everything is potential.
Having given the basic definition, one must figure out their own uses, but remember that it is an extremely versatile phrase. It can be used as a confirmation of a future event:

Person 1: Want to head down to Wrigley to watch the Cubs beat up on the Royals?
Person 2: Ship it!

an active verb:

“Ship me some red bull”

or a stand alone future participle:

Person 1: You end up getting that girl’s number last night? Person 2: Consider it shipped!

Also, Admiral Awesome, an orginal Ship it! Guy, posted a definition on Urban Dictionary for the world to see.

The website, as many of you know initially had only 2 sections (one of which is still available at The Original Post, but we felt it was very limited and limiting. So, in the spirit of Web 2.0, we started this blog as a better way to communicate with our customers and convey the meaning of the brand. The goal is to share interesting stories, and the attitude that makes it all possible.
And as a disclaimer, yes, we are a clothing line, we sell things, and we want you to buy our clothing. But we want you to buy it if you like it, if you think it’s cool, if you agree with the lifestyle, but not because it will make you cool.
Enjoy the readings and musings, and we always love to hear from customers, either as posts directly on the blog, or by e-mail: blog@shipitgear.com.