Growing up in Philly, the slang for a no-name brand of sneakers was BO-BOs. What did they call’em in your neck of the woods?
Also, did anyone ever trademark the name BO-BO for a brand of sneaker?
In my neighborhood, they were simply refered to as ____ specials, the blank filled in by whatever the cheapest, lowest-quality bargain store was at the time.
Also, $1.99 K-Mart specials was popular…
Here’s a relevant website:
http://www2.roanoke.edu/business/StudentProjects/CorenDapuzzo/Shoes.html
Hard to tell if it’s a brand name or a slang term, but they call sneakers Bo-Bo’s.
As seen on sneakers.pair.com, they had different names around the country: fishheads, bobos, etc. The site’s owner, a man named Charlie, uses the term “Chuck Clones” to refer to them without confusing people, since most of them look similar to the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star®(affectionately known as “Chucks” by their fans.)
Ryan W. Mead®
enolandcooper Curious about your age. It might be telling.
Not that this applies, but JE Lighter, in Random House Dictionary of American Slang says that bobo is a baseball slang term which means a protege or favorite. From around 1959 in print.
Then, from around 1990 in Black English as a white, authority figure.
I don’t propose that any of this applies, only that it existed.
I’m 27 from Columbus, OH…and my friends and I have always called “knock-off” shoes “bo-bo’s”, as well.
Also grew up in the Philly area (now 27 y.o.). We called generic sneakers “bobos,” but the term usu. referred to a specific style of sneaker:
-white canvas low-top sneakers for girls. (definitely NOT Chuck Taylor high-tops)
These cost about $5. Avail. at Kmart and the like. Kids bought them for Marching Band practice, some theater productions, some service jobs, etc. Many nurses also wore them.
There was also the song (to the Getty gasoline tune):
Bobos–they make your feet feel fine
Bobos–they’re just a dollar-ninety-nine
(or, “they cost a nickel and a dime”; must be inflation, as I see in Wendell’s link that they’re just $29.99)
Bobos–they’re made by hobos
(or, among less-enlightened suburban kids, “they’re made by homos”)
Da da da da dum, da da dum, da daaa…
(I forget the rest)
They should really start teaching pop-culture references in school. That would be the “Colonel Bogey March,” written in 1914 and immortalized (among other places) in *Bridge Over the River Kwai."
Buffalo, New York, in the 1970s and 1980s - “Liberty shoes.” The name might have been more appropriate for a World War I era civilian shoe made of wood and burlap, but it’s actually named after Liberty Shoe Store, a now-defunct local chain that sold almost nothing but Keds-like bo-bos.
Cleveland, 1980s. All non-name brand shoes were called “Buster Browns”, which I think was actually the name of a real brand. We also had essentially the same song that toadspittle mentioned, but with “Bobos” replaced by by “Busters”.
So get some Bobos
From hobos
Today! 
Ah, memories.
-MMM-
Really?
You re-animated a zombie for that?
Bobos were a thing when I was a kid and we totally sang the song Everytime one of our friends got them…we all wore them. No 12 year olds wore designer shoes.
And the went well with the tough skin jeans we all wore:smack: you know, the ones with the patches in the knees:rolleyes:
Ah, Bobo. Reunited at last.
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