JNCO

Life | Fads | 90s | 00s

7 Things About JNCO Jeans That, Like Your Feet, You Never Saw Coming

JNCO

Who ever was in charge of sizing in the 90s was not really doing a great job. Crop tops were just tiny little chunks of fabric, the skirts seemed to be lacking in length, but there was one piece of clothing that seemed to find all of that missing fabric: JNCO Jeans.

JNCO jeans seemed to think that because the rest of the clothes were using less fabric, that they should double up and make their pants wider, baggier, and super heavy. Nothing says fashion-forward like a pair of pants that weigh as much as the kid wearing them!

Everyone wanted their own pair of JNCOs, obviously because they looked so cool! But how much do you really know about the brand that influenced your middle school style?

1. The name has a meaning

JNCO is actually an acronym for "Judge None, Choose One".

2. Even though they would "Judge None", they were made to challenge conventionalism

Their original mission statement was "Challenge conventionalism. Explore the unfamiliar. Honor individuality.” They focused their marketing on skateboarders and surfers to try and make it into the extreme sports demographic.

3. They teamed up with Pac Sun to try and get more people buying their giant pants

The company claimed that "People can go anywhere to buy Levi's,'' Carl Womack, Pacific Sunwear's chief financial officer said. ''Fashion-oriented kids don't come to us for that. The only way we can distinguish ourselves is with smaller brands. JNCO has gone from almost none of our business to about 10 percent over a period of a year.''

4. They focused on hands-on marketing

To get the name out there, they would often give away free pairs of JNCOs to kids at skate parks.

5. There was a brief moment in time where the New York Times claimed JNCOs were better than Levi's

"Levi's are sort of, I don't know, outdated or something," the article read. In 1997 the Levi Strauss company was going through layoffs and poor sales, but JNCO was bringing in the big bucks, making $186.9 million in sales in 1998 alone.

6. They were banned from some schools

In Orange County, schools banned the baggy pants, saying that they were hazardous in a few ways. They claimed that students might trip and fall over the pants, and also that it would be easier to hide weapons in them.

7. They struggled with counterfeiters

Just like any popular clothing brand, knock-offs can saturate the market. The company had to hire private investigators to look into the counterfeits because they were taking over the market.

Because the world is kind of a strange place, JNCOs are back in style. Fashion is so cyclical that people have decided that it's time to give these baggy pants another shot. You can even buy a pair of JNCO's with leg openings that are a whopping 50 inches wide.

Would you want to rock the JNCOs again? Or is this a trend that is better left in the 90s?