My oh my how far we have come. It seems like every decade we laugh and joke about the fasion from the decade before, and how stupid people were for ever thinking any of that crap was cool. But, YOU know as well as I do that we fell victim to some of the coolest/lamest clothing choices just like those poor kids before us. I grew up in a very small town where I did not have the privlege of attending 3 different schools as a child. No, for me in a town of about 1700 people, I spent my entire gradeschool career going to the same building, the same school, the same place, every single grade from kindergarten to senior year. It actually wasnt until I graduated that I found out this wasn't normal for most. Turns out most towns have seperate buildings for elementary, jr.high, and highschool...who knew? So as you can imagine, once your peers make a tag for you (wether your the "popular kid", "nerdy kid", "skanky kid", "the princess", "the rich kid", or god forbid "the gross kid") for the rest of your childhood, you never had a chance to "reinvent" yourself. There were no "New building, New start" oppurtunities where I grew up and so you can imagine how incredibly "cliquey" a place like that can be. Oh yeah, and for the classes of 2000-2004 (i'm '03) growing up, our incredible since of fasion was just about the only thing we really had to judge one another on. I could easily just sift through some old photo albums and put pictures of myself on here and show you the same thing, but that would be making it way to easy for my friends...

Anywho, here are the coolest things you could possibly own in the 90's...

-JNCO jeans-




These were esential your every young man. JNCO jeans
were a straight rebelion of the 80's tight pants and summed up what the 90's were all about...kids with attitude! There had to be 50 different kinds of these pants and they all had their own personallity. The Mammoths were the best/biggest, but my favorites were the Kangaroos. Each pair had its own name and matching patch logo on the back pocket. Shopping for these jeans however, was a process. First, they were really expensive so you never got to have more than like 2 pair. Also, you had to get the right kind for you...Not everyone could pull off the Mammoths or the Fatboys. Also the more frayed the bottoms were, the better. This was a concept that parents loathed...it was great! We use to trade them. Maybe set a dare of some kind with a buddy that said "I bet you my Lowdowns I can make that jump!" These were the coolest jeans for a number years.

-Snap Braclets-


Now banned from most schools, the Snap Braclets were strangley popular. I myself never fell to hard for this one, but I did have one or 2 for a while. I remember girls were the target audience for these and could wear any of them, but if you were a guy, you better never get caught wearing one with to much detail, that was "gay"(which in the 90's simply meant "stupid", im sorry if that offends anyone but thats how it was) Solid colors were good, and maybe a pinstripe or something real simple was ok to. Turns out these things were dangerous somehow (And even I couldn't figure that one out?) but apparently enough so that they were banned from my school and a number of others across the country. I remember a lot of girls wearing them in there hair as ponytail holders, and sometimes you could throw them at the monkey bars and get them to catch!

-Timberlands Tan Boots-



Usually acompanied with overalls or sometimes even jean shorts, these boots carried a since of preppiness even though they wern't that expensive. Of course once they're dirty they no longer have the same effect, then theyre just work boots, but if kept clean and in good condition you could actually get away with wearing construction boots to the nicest parties and outings. And if worn with matching "Carpenter" style pants, now you have a true 90s outfit! I think Joey Lawrence or maybe "J.T.T" started this one...it was hot for a while.

-The "Fred Durst" Yankees Hat-



Ok....Lets just get this out of the way and then move on from it quickly. I had like 4 over the years. and most of you did to. Limp Bizkit was the biggest/best band of the mid to late 90's. Hands down, whether you like it or not, they were. And Fred Durst, for one reason or another, was an icon for most teenage boys. He introduced me to brands like DC and Pony, and those adidas superstar sneakers. This specific head piece however, was most influential. It was pretty clear, having a Yankees hat of almost any color made you a Yankees fan...but the red one, no doubt about it, made you a Limp Bizkit fan! This was also the begining of the "New Era" line of fitted hats. If it wasnt "New Era" and fitted, it wasnt the right one. Lets just move on now....

-Wrestling T-Shirts-




You almost didnt even have to be a fan of wrestling to be seen with one of these in the 90s. But of course if you were, then you know it was an absolute MUST to have at least 5. Yes, obviously there was the original shirts like you see above, the classics, but then there were 100s of lesser shirts that you could buy at Walmart or any random retailer. The best ones however were only available through WWF Shopzone or higher-end entertainment stores in your local malls. My favorite was the DX "Suck It" shirt that you see above. In my area, this shirt was the hardest to find and (needless to say) not the most appealing to parents. But like most "boy" things in the 90s, they were vulgar, offensive, and downright disgusting at times. I really had no idea how bad it looked at 13 walking around in a shirt that said "Suck It" on the back. To us wrestling fans however, we didnt give it a second thought. This is what we saw our idols wearing every week of Monday Night Raw or Monday Night Nitro, it was a staple in my life and i'm sure for at least most of you, it was the same. I remember thinking how funny I was because I wore a Stone Cold shirt that said "Jackass" on the back to a church thing once....I was dumb though. moving on...


-The "J-Kidd" Nike Zoom Flight 5-



Alright, so I dont know about the rest of you, but these shoes were extremely important in my childhood. These are the Jason Kidd Nike Zooms that changed the way I thought about shoes forever. These were my first expensive pair of shoes; before these, I was perfectly content wearing L.A Gear or some other form of "athletic shoes". But when these high dollar Nikes came along, It changed the way I would buy shoes for the rest of my life. These shoes represent my transistion from Walmarts shoe asiles, to FootLocker and Finish Line. At well over 100 dollars, this shoe was my first "dont mess 'em up" kind of shoe. Complete with the TPU pod "Alien Eye" on the side of the shoe (which was wicked cool because you could see yourself in it!) This shoe was unlike anything you had ever seen before. Only 2 kids at my school had them, Me and an older kid that made fun of me because I was trying to hard to be cool. Regardless, I was a huge J-Kidd fan in the 90s and this shoe was a real highlight of my childhood. They actually still hold up to todays basketball shoe standards. Aside from having poor ankle support, and the fact the the pod would scratch very easily...I would love to have a pair today.

I have tons more fun stuff....But seeing how this is my first article I want to get some feedback before I continue...Maybe you guys aren't even interested, who knows? If you like this stuff and want more then I will continue this trip down memory lane. I hope you all found something in here that makes you smile...even if your just laughing at yourselves (or just at me)...thats ok to do because like I said in the begining...it doesnt matter what year it is...'78, '85, '91, '99 or 2008....if it happened 10 years ago....its probably funny now.