EveryDate Carry: What Guys Should Bring on a First Date
You want the short and sweet version of what every guy should bring on a first date? Whether a Tinder date or a blind date, a casual coffee date or a romantic dinner, a highly anticipated rendezvous or a pity date with a friend's second cousin who just moved to town, the only things you really need to bring are: cash; class; and your listening cap.
Awwww, right? But it's true. Laying on those three things, my mama always told me, is a surefire way to impress a lady. And since I was usually very interested in laying on a few other things over the course of my date, I always did my best to follow her advice.
Beyond the 3 simple C's, here are a few more EveryDate Carry items you dudes might want to throw on, pocket up, stash in your car, or stick in a vase for a first-time outing with a girl.
Note: Date item prices are approximate, and listed as they were at printing. Prices are subject to change. Thanks to Cobweb Hotel Vintage for the above image.
Note 2: If below items do not succeed in scoring you a second date, I'd recommend writing to Second Date Update for Brooke & Jubal's help.
Eletrunks Functional Freeballing Underwear
Ladies aren't the only ones who make plans for what they look like if the layers start to peel off. I'm not saying you need to get some designer underwear, just that the pair you put on the night of your first date shouldn't be the same "lucky" pair you've been wearing since the night you lost your virginity.
Unless that was within the last few months. Or is yet to come. In which case I just hope you pick a pair that fits right, is clean, and is hole-, stain, and skid mark-free.
These Eletrunks briefs are just icing on the cake, underwear with a Lifter cord that allows for subtle adjustment of your prized package during wear. So they're "functional freeballing underwear" not because they'll leave your balls to bounce and jerk around freely, but because when you slip on a pair of Eletrunks, you'll feel like the Emperor in his new clothes. As if there's nothing there at all.
CashStash Waterproof Emergency Cash Capsule
An extra hundo juuust in case you're unlucky enough to lose or have your wallet stolen, or not realize before that she's going to charge you for these services.
Or maybe just a lucky $2 bill.
The True Utility CashStash is a waterproof capsule sized to fit a keyring and hold a single bill.
Swago Cologne Wipes
Swago's for all the nervous sweaters out there. The sullied men who forgot what happens to their clothes, hair, and skin when they spend too long in a coffee shop, or eat at an Indian restaurant. The smelly, smelly dudes who don't have time to un-smelly themselves before a happy hour date.
Swago Cologne Wipes are like moist towelettes, but instead of cleaning sticky hot wing sauce off your fingers, they clean stinky b.o. off your neck, pits, chest, and back, and replace it with the smell of a Legend.
Or a Champ. A VIP. A Gentleman. Swago's other individually packaged wipe scents.
Solaris Lockstone Fragrance Bracelets
These fragrance bracelets send you down the Baby Bear road to wearing cologne on a date. Not too much. (She gags! She chokes for air!) Not too little. (Why is she sniffing at every other guy that walks by?!) Just right.
Solaris Lockstone bracelets give a nod to the night sky, encircling wrists with a choice of dark and dreamy semi-precious stones leading to a series of personal fragrance-absorbing Lockstones shaped into the 8 planets in our solar system. They're unisex too, so if your new lady likes your scented bracelet, and you like your new lady, you can get her one of her own for date #2.
Listerine Pocketpak Breath Strips
You know bad breath is a bad idea, and even if you steer clear of garlic, onions, canned tuna, and vomiting you know you need to bring a backup in case a halitosis wildcard gets thrown in there.
Gum or Altoids might work as well for you as squares of dissolvable mouth wash, but I like Listerine's Pocketpaks because they're true to their name: packed for the pocket. Small and slim, unlike a fat pack of gum, and silent on the move, unlike hard chalky discs rattling around inside a tin can.
Also unlike gum and mints, if you decide to go in for the kiss, there's no chance you'll give her your breath freshener along with your smooth tongue acrobatics.
Indigestion Tablets
It'd be a shame if, during a date with a girl who would definitely be your Lisa from Weird Science if you got to make a girl, you had to bolt home right after dinner because the Korean food you ate gave you the Class A shits. No reason to suffer through a mildly rumbly and upset stomach either. Bring some Pepto. These are their tablets, packaged for travel in 2-tab pouches.
Neck Carriage Titanium Palm Cap Stick
Ti Rod Tactical's Titanium Palm Cap Stick might be the most strangely versatile piece of EDC, and EveryDate Carry, you can hang around your neck. Its applications include:
Door Knocker. When you pick her up and go to her door like a gentleman, save your knuckles, and yourself from having to knock twice, by rapping on it with a fine nub of titanium.
Jaw Knocker. Though much shorter than Yawara- and Kubotan-style sticks, Ti Rod Tactical says those forced to fend off muggers and defend their ladies' honor can also rap on heads with this fine nub of titanium.
Acupressure Stick. In layman's, and potentially-getting-laid-man's terms, that means massage time!
If the night turns into morning, and the stiff drinks into a stiff hangover, use the Titanium Palm Cap Stick to crush up your favorite painkillers and dump them into a nice chocolate peanut butter banana milkshake, both of which always make me feel better.
BACtrack C6 Keychain Breathalyzer
Even if you're not driving on your date, a breathalyzer the size of a 9V battery could serve as a fun activity for you and your lady as the night progresses. And if the date's going poorly, invite the rest of the bar to join in the BAC Game, and maybe you'll both meet someone you like better in the process.
I Will Not Be Your Father Condom
If this girl's got The Force with her, you'll be able to show her this Best Condom Ever whether she gives you a chance to use it or not, and you'll both have a good laugh about it. A good laugh, and an enthralling 2-hour convo about Star Wars.
Romance Pants
The legit player's ultimate accessory, Romance Pants dim a room's lighting and raise its stereo volume when their zip fly is pulled down. The seduction continues - though at this point you have probably advanced beyond the seduction stage - at the unbuttoning of the waist button, which triggers electronically ignited candles.
According to Team Instructibles members, extensive R&D and precisely calibrated technology bequeath Romance Pants with the power of "subtle sensual assault" and the ability to "set the mood to the appropriate level of getting it on."
Beef Jerky Flower Bouquets
This is how I used to make sure the girls I went out with didn't spring vegetarianism on me at dinner. Meat eaters only, please!
Obviously, adding a beef jerky flower bouquet to your EveryDate Carry carries a chance - a good chance these days given everyone's weird-ass diet - of killing any chance you ever had with this girl. But at least if the gift backfires you'll have the consolation prize of more than 8 ounces of 100% pure dried beef shaped into stunning roses or daises to eat at home alone tonight.
Fran's Chocolate Salted Caramels
Fran is 100% not paying me to say this, but in my salty-'n'-sweet-lovin' opinion, Gray or Smoked Salt Caramels will give you a better chance at a second date than, like, saving a stranger's baby from getting hit by an e-bike.