A question about street pass + gold pants

Hey a while ago I changed my miis pants with a tutorial some hex editing. This is well know that you need to have sharing off in order to keep the gold panted mii the way that you edited it. So my question is, in order to street pass, do you need to have this setting on. I have been to places where I would usually get a street pass (School/Mall) and haven't got one yet. Is this bad luck or because of the gold pants?

Thanks in advance