Okay story time.

A friend in college is sitting at a bus stop. Somebody sits next to him, says "hey I like your shoes", strikes up a conversation. Ends up inviting him to a business/networking seminar.

My friend goes, comes back with a book and is saying all kinds of stuff about passive income and how you gotta take control of your finances.

I google the book name, the second result is a reddit thread about how somebody at a bus stop had their shoes complimented and then got recruited for the same thing. Turns out it was Amway.

So, yeah. 'I like your shoes' works well enough as a conversation starter that it's literally in the pyramid scheme manual.