Instead of paying attention in class, kids could pump away at the little basketball on top on their Pump shoes.

We all have photos of ourselves back in grade school or high school that we have needed to hide or burn because our fashion sense was brutally embarrassing. In fact, members of our generation often wore several items that are now considered fashion faux pas in one outfit. Now is the time to rehash some of these fashion fads we pretend we did not follow.

Tight-rolled pants

Fortunately, achieving a cool look no longer involves wrapping the bottoms of our pants around our ankles in an air-tight seal, but back in the 1980s, this was all the rage. Girls, and sometimes even boys, would tightly fold the access material at the ankle of their pants over sideways and then roll the bottoms of their pants up a few times, creating pants with a certain balloon-like quality. Hopefully this was a trend that will never come back into style.

Pump performance shoe by Reebok

These shoes were introduced in 1989 and provided boys and girls with a mindless, portable activity. Instead of paying attention in class, kids could pump away at the little basketball on top on their Pump shoes, which would then inject air into the body of the high-top shoe.

In 2004, Reebok released the Pump 2.0, which promises to enhance athletic performance. Now, the pump is inside the heel, so air pumps into the shoe automatically with each step one takes. What’s the fun in that?

Sources: reebok.com/useng/news/atrpump.htm and

boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/05/thatwasthenthisis_now/

Legwarmers

This early-1980s trend was started up by common folk who were going for the dancer look. Leg warmers were like knit footless knee-high socks, and at the height of their popularity they came in every color and pattern imaginable. They were worn over jeans, or, for the ultimate 1980s look, over stretch stirrup pants.

Little girls wore them to school, teenagers wore them to dances, and adults strutted down the streets in them like they thought they were part of a Janet Jackson video.

According to fashion experts, leg warmers made a comeback in the last few years; luckily, no one seems to have been brave enough to wear them.

Source: eightyeightynine.com/culture/legwarmers.html

Zubaz

These super-stretchy shorts and pants were created by two bodybuilders in 1991 to accommodate weight lifters’ bulging muscles. Unfortunately, they ended up being unattractively accommodating to the chubby bottoms of non-athletic men who wore them as street clothes.

Female inmates at the Minnesota Corrections Institute were given the job of stitching these gaudily patterned nightmares together, which is appropriate, because anyone who wore Zubaz outside of the gym should have been locked up.

Sources: badfads.com/pages/fashion/zubaz.html and zubazpants.com/articles/archive/jbyrne26.html

HyperColor T-shirts

Generra brought these crazy color-changing T-shirts into the world in the late 1980s, promising consumers a top that would change color when it came in contact with heat. Problem was, it usually took a lung’s supply of hot breath directly applied to the fabric or a hair dryer to see any major color change.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, everyone wanted this T-shirt which displayed sweaty armpits with pride. The biggest problem with HyperColor T-shirts was the fact that washing them wasn’t really an option if one wanted to maintain its color-changing effect.

Color-changing armpits on a t-shirt: cool. Foul odor-emitting armpits on a T-shirt: gag me with a spoon!

Source: retroland.com/pop_synopsis.php?eid=3626&cid=1&decade=1990&title=HyperColor

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