Fashion trends (particularly in sports)

Cafe Society
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What causes some of these trends to hit a tipping point (while others don’t), and how is it determined how long they stick around? And is it sports influencing the culture at large, or the culture just being visible in sports? There are some that seem to be pretty well documented (the Fab Five at Michigan popularizing baggy basketball shorts), but others seemingly turn up overnight. These are more individual fashions, as opposed to the proliferation of jersey colors/combinations that are strictly motivated by marketing (and the poor taste of designers and consumers).

Here is an example: Other than seeing a rastafarian or hippie every once in a while, I don’t remember dreadlocks at all prior to the late 90’s. In particular, it seems like no one had them until Ricky Williams started to grow them out at Texas in the 1997-98 range. Now they’re noticeably more prevalent, and they’re long enough that they come out of the back of their helmet.

Also, headbands in the NBA. A couple guys started wearing them in the NBA, now half the guys on every team wear them. It seems like this started in the early aughties, as I don’t really remember it when I was still following basketball closely in the 90’s. (I can’t imagine Jordan ever wearing a headband.) I know this isn’t necessarily a new thing, as Slick Watts did it, but that was in the 70’s, which was before most of the players were born, or old enough to remember it. When one guy (Slick) does it, it can look cool, and can be kind of a calling card. When everyone is doing it, not so much. (Can we get the story of the star-bellied sneeches to be required reading at the rookie symposium?)

So, how does something like that take off, but Kerry Kittles with the one sock up to his knee, and one sock down – or Clifford Rozier with both socks pulled up – not take off? Is one really just perceived as being more cool than the other? I don’t see much difference between headbands and high socks in terms of style.

Feel free to add any other fashion trends I’m forgetting, or please explain if you have any insight.

Maybe I’m just getting old.

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Didn’t the Fab Five-era Michigan team also popularize black shoes, or were they already popular before that?

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A headband sops up the sweat from your forehead. Guys without hair saw the advantage in the 80s. I saw it in the early 70s, and it kept all but the most psycho accountants from occupying the seat next to me on the train.

Exception: “This is how I feed my family for ten dollars a week…”

The guy literally spent only twice his trainfare to feed his children. Rickets and pellagra doomed his kids while I couldn’t give a big enough hint to their father that I’d rather read my book than listen to his blathering.

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Ponch8, I’m not sure on the black shoes. That may have been part of it, but I think it was about black shoes and black socks, at the same time.

dropzone, that’s kind of my point. The idea that a headband keeps sweat out of your eyes isn’t something that was discovered within the last 10 years. Bjorn Borg knew realized it before some of the NBA players were born. That’s the thing about these trends: in the event that it isn’t a new technology (the tape the beach volleyball player had on in the Olympics), it will be something that may have a minimal effect on ability, and yet these things will take off, because it looks cool.

Another example is visors on football helmets. It’s my understanding that the NFL wouldn’t allow them unless the player had an eye injury. It seems that the NFL has relaxed this rule.

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Wilt Chamberlain notably wore a headband in the early Seventies (not sure about before that). Michael Jordan certainly popularized the shaven head. Latrell Sprewell is the one I associate first with dreadlocks.

I’m not sure exactly how the NBA moved to long shorts (gradually or all at once; by choice or by decree?), but I remember that circa 1980 Robert Reed of the Houston Rockets had a religious issue with the short shorts then prevalent, leaving the team for a while.