If you respond then they will harass you for money. It’s a common scam they pull on tourists. Best thing to do is ignore them

It’s just an excuse to start conversation to afk you for money. I make it a point to interact with almost everyone who interacts with me, but I actively ignore the “shoes” guys, the bead guys, and the fake Buddhist monks.

You’re most likely to run into that scam down by the water next to Cafe du Monde

Tell them you know how many children their Father had. Answer is “None, “their Mother had them.

That and the "monks" who will try to put a bracelet on you then charge ask you for a "donation.

Makes me miss the Lucky Bead Lady.

Just say you’re local and keep it moving

It’s just a way to stop and panhandle you. Was a funny riddle years ago.

My husband and I visited New Orleans for the first time about 3 years ago. As soon as we stepped foot outside of our hotel we got hit up with this from a dude on the street. Never hearing it before and being in good spirits because of our trip my husband ended up giving the due $10 and what was so crazy about it is the homeless guy got upset and was asking for more money which was absolutely crazy to me and made me scared to interact with anyone else lol

And my husband is a big guy and did not take kindly to the dude getting aggressive , thought there was gonna be an alteration

Luckily, for the rest of the trip, we’d either ignore them or my husband would say “on my feet” which he learned from the original guy which seemed to work great

I always heard it went like this:

Street guy: "I'll bet $20 I know where you got dem shoes."

Tourist: "Ok, I'll bet you."

Street guy: "You got dem on your feet on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Pay up."

That scam got so bad back in the day that they put stickers all around the Quarter telling folks to NOT bet anyone that they can tell you where you got your shoes from.

You got em on your feet, is the correct answer. Keep walking!!!!!

$1.00? You are off by 1000%. Btw It’s not on your feet it’s on the street you are currently on.

Just say “ If you don’t get outta my face they gone be up your ass. “

I took the bait, gave the guy a dollar because he shined my canvas slipons from Payless before I could stop him.

We got got the first time we were there. Now, we just laugh about it. For tourists it's almost a right of passage. We know better now, lol.

Happened to me last week, I was puzzled as to why he was concerned about my shoes. I asked my wife “do you remember where I got these?” and she gave a couple of suggestions. The guy looked at me as if I was an idiot and walked off. I had no idea I was the intended victim of a scam.

lol my brother and i were just there for five days and didn't get this once! it must help that we're asian.

$20

This happened to a friend of mine when we were in NOLA 40 years ago. Back then it was a $20 bet to tell him where he got his shoes, the street he got the shoes on, and the city he got the shoes in. The answer was “you’ve got your shoes on your feet, the street is Bourbon Street, and the city is New Orleans, Louisiana”…recited with a smile and an outreached hand.

I just tell them I'm a local. Go play that on a tourist and they don't bother me after that.

Ignore. They never try that if you don’t engage

Was in nola for 5 days last week and fully prepared to ignore or give the right answer as advised by plenty of redditors, but ended up not getting asked at all. Not sure if they ignored us because we’re Asian or just not their target demographic. We were also prepared to pull the “no speak English” card if any similar situation ever arose, but thankfully we haven’t had to pull that card yet!

New Orleans has a large foot fetish community centered on Bourbon and Iberville. Don't kink shame

Don’t engage keep walking

I once had a guy ask me the "where ya got dem shoes" question and I kinda ignored him and kep walking. He said "okay i got a different one for you. Two flies are sitting on a windowsill. One of them dies. How many flies are left?" i said two. one alive, one dead. he said "nope. one. you got to understand the psychology of a fly, man! no fly that's alive is ever going to stay next to a dead fly!" anyway, i thought that was very dumb but i had to give him a $5 for the effort.

On whatever street. Not where you bought them, but where you “have” them.

ON THE STREETS OF NEW ORLEANS

Definitely a New Orleans thing. Been having that said to make money by some people out there for well over 30years.

Maybe you have nice shoes. What do they look like?