Sunday, August 8, 2010

Posted by xCHIPxSEM | File under : , , , ,

If you were part of the straight edge scene in the 1990's, theres a good chance you owned a pair of JNCO's. Be it jeans or jean shorts, JNCOs were all the rage and (most) everyone wore them. Im not sure who was the first to start wearing them and influence an entire generation of kids to wear enormous pants but I'd really like to find out. I never wore the pants because to be quite honest, living in Miami I can wear shorts year-round. To this day I only own 4 pairs of jeans. But I did wear my JNCO shorts into the ground, to the point they literally fell apart and by that time, JNCOs were on their way out so replacements were never purchased.
If you're reading this and saying "JNCOs? The hell is he talking about?", well let me give you the Cliff's Notes version. Denim pants and shorts that used an awful lot of fabric and had designs stitched into the back. You can read up on the history of JNCOs here. The shorts I liked but the pants I couldnt get down with. I hate stepping on my jeans and with JNCOs, they ALWAYS dragged on the ground and left the denim tassels following behind. Either way, somebody or some band brought them to the scene and transformed a generation of kids for the next few years. With the end of the 90s came the end of the JNCO fascination as "fashioncore" set in. Kids traded in their baggy pants for tighter ones and JNCOs became something that kids joked about as often goes in the hardcore scene.
Often times, companies choose not to associate themselves with the people that are buying their product (i.e., Faygo and Juggalos) but JNCO embraced the straight edge scene and even put out a pair of shoes for the straight edge kids. I had no idea they made these until our friend Brian Murphy of Hows Your Edge and Tee Till Death dropped them on TTD yesterday. I wish I had some info on them but some of the comments state that they were made in 1997 and sold at Journey's. This particular pair is up on Ebay right now with about 6 hours left so if you want to go after them, you still have time. If anyone has anymore info on them, drop us a line and let us know so we can do a follow up. Check the pics below. JNCO was definitely onto what was going on in the scene at the time with the image of baggy clothed wearing X'ed up kids on the soles of the shoes. Maybe they had hardcore kids working there at the time because seriously, take a look at the original tag that the seller included which states that the shoes are "hardline approved" and are the "rebirth of hardcore pride". 18 year old Chip would have been over the moon about this. I really hope someone scoops these up and can give us more info on them.
As we've seen, things go in cycles and now that 90s hardcore has generated interested again, is it possible that JNCOs and tulasi beads will make their comeback as well? Will JNCO jeans become sought after collectors items like records? Only time will tell.


-Note: All info regarding the shoes is from Teetilldeath.com and all credit to them.

15 comments:

jhulud said...

I still have my JNCOs in my closet. I remember rocking them at shows at The Plus Five and Club Q. Of course accesorized w/ the required chain wallet.

ERIC SXE said...

I never did the JNCO's but I did rock my World Industries cargo pants,(still have them) army green that were HUGE like JNCO's. Complete with chain wallet and usually some Vans and various XXL shirts! I loved that look and miss those times! There was definitely a crossover in clothing styles from the skateboarding and hardcore scenes at that time.

Unknown said...

Hey Eric, remember that old flyer from the bay area that made its rounds with the kid and the grocery divider? That was back when Monster Crew was around. Such a funny baggy pants flyer.

Handsome Pete said...

Skateboarding brought the big pants. I was wearing 40 inch waists because of skate fashion. I just happened to be into hardcore as well.

I embraced JNCOs fully. They somehow made the oversized pants look slightly less silly.

Very slightly.

JNCOs, Polo Sport, Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas. It's all I cared about from about 1994-1996.

It made for an easy transition when I started going to clubs.

Emil said...

fucking embarrassing

Gibson L5 said...

i was around for this horrid era and i gotta say kids got beat up for dressing like this idk what scene you dorks came from but i surly don't remember any of the bands i got to see jockin this style and this whole attire had And still has juggalo written all over it and i won't even mention how the slipknot lamers embraced it because i liked slipknot. HA. that's why the mention of faygo was applied. a lot of what gets posted when things are slow is best left in your closet.

Anonymous said...

look at this elitist fag.
The baggy look came from skaters. I to remember going out and buying size 40's just to have big legs. This was before I was into hardcore. Around '93-'94 I started wearing the big pants. Jncos made the style much more comfortable. I also had some kikwear that I think are raver pants now days.
Now they're associated with wiggers like the asshole above me stated. I still have and wear jncos from the 90's. I could give a fuck less what anyone thinks about it. Yea i still sport the wallet chain on my independent wallet to!
fuck these skinny jeans wearing fags.

chaplinstache said...

i blame ravers

Anonymous said...

im w the 2nd 1 up from me jncos rock fuck u bitchs that want to always be checkin out another dudes dick shovel ur tight ass emo pants up ur ass and also jncos isnt just st8 edge but metalhead rocked out as well

Anonymous said...

This blog is outdated, but I love JNCOs, maybe all the men on here that were talking shit about them were the posers, that's how they recognize fellow posers. How can any man with a larger penis be able to wear overly tight jeans and have to constantly adjusting your junk. JNCOs give you the freedom that you need, where it counts most. JNCO till the day I DIE...

Anonymous said...

Those sure were some ugly ass jeans. I am so glad I never wear them like every asshole did back in the day that it was a so called fashion!haha
Correction to the individual that said (metalheads rocked these jeans as well)I believe only numetalheads wear these kind of clown pants!

Anonymous said...

you can poop ur pants and it never touches you in these.....i love them

Anonymous said...

Ahh yes, I remember wearing my Jnco jeans until they fell apart. You could conceal almost anything in those massively deep pockets! It seemed everyone was wearing baggy jeans, hoodies, baseball caps, and had either a Jansport or Eastpak backpack in the mid '90's!

Anonymous said...

If you still fit in what you wore in the 90's... heck yeah wear it! I can't wear the pants anymore as I am 100 lbs beefier than back then. But the shirts that used to be huge baggy are a perfect fit and I still rock them with tattered jeans and Vision Streetwear shoes! The silver glitter Jnco on the one shirt is cool with the silver that is finding it's way in my beard stubble... lol.

The irony I find though is these old cloths are still in fine shape while the expensive clothes I buy my girls these days have the not cool kind of holes in them after a few washes. They won't get to do what we do cause the clothes don't last.

Anonymous said...

JINCO'S are for Juggalos. Those shoes, on the other hand, are fucking rad.