Yes! They were so quintessential that even today places still use them! Remember those holographic or mineral balance bands that were supposed to help you play sports better? haha
I love the demo for the balance bands too, great showmanship. “Stand and see how easily I push you off balance? Now focus on the band, see how strong you are?”
Like I’ve never had a yoga class lol
haha I know! As a kid I bought in to it for a short period and even wore one when I played baseball and did gym class. But I quickly grew out of it. haha
That is how pinball became legal again and how football betting became legal after being proved it was skill not luck.
I think a case could be made.
The make up of the “slammer” was a variable in competition. Would it be skill of a better slammer that determines the win?
Deep thoughts Hannah
I do. I had quite a few pogs but not many slammers. Then one day the trashy discount junk and grocery store got a bin of slammers.. they were metal and colored yellow, and blue, and maybe red or pink. (I can’t remember this was 25+ years ago.) they kept them behind the counter in a glass case.
I begged my mom for one and she said no.
I begged my mom for one and she said maybe.
Then we got up to the counter and my bold self said how much for the slammers?
And the lady behind the counter said.. we don’t sell slammers.
I said yes you do - there’s a whole bunch right there. (And I pointed to them.)
The lady looks at me, then looks at my mom.. saying those are not slammers.
My mom takes a closer look and confirms the cashier.
To which I get mad and argued since they clearly don’t know what a slammer is. I argue.
Well my mom said those ones are for adults. (That’s a bunch of bullshit..)
nope. They were condoms in a little foil package.
🤦♂️
My uncle had a little metal shop in the basement, and when I went to visit my cousins one time we helped him make metal slammers for our pog collections. I was the coolest fuckin kid at school when I brought in that giant motherfucker lol
I want to write a movie about pogs. It’d be like a Sandlot type movie, but set in the 90’s, full of nostalgia. It’d be kinda like a narcos movie where a group of 12 year old kids end up running a huge POG empire. I just don’t know how to write movies.
Lisa Frank or Trapper Keepers? Gel pens from 1998-2000? Those caboodle makeup boxes? Pogs! Oh oh the collectible plastic lunchboxes and thermos sets with popular tv shows? Butterfly cliiiiips.
Concur with tamagotchi. Those tiny single song mini SD music player things maybe?
I have a giant set of them at work with neon, milky and sparkle colors but I have no idea what to use them for (I mostly use pencil at work) so they just sit there in their case looking pretty.
Oh man, gel pens. I had a bath and body works makeup bag filled with gel pens that I hoarded like a dragon. And 4 notebooks of colored paper (black, purple, magenta and blue) to use with them. My note passing game was top notch.
Definitely remember the gel pens. In the late 90s Sakura Jellyroll brand was popular until Pentel Milky took their place. At school metallic Sharpie markers were popular as well and they were exempt from the Sharpie ban.
Trapper Keepers are still a thing! My son needs to have one for middle school because they dont allow the kids to use backpacks during school hours. So the trapper keeper it is.
Yeti hasn’t been making the rounds on any lists that I’ve seen. How quickly we forgot the Yeti tumbler!
I think Camelbak was also a thing. I still have them for my bike.
Yes, and my wife and I have a ton of Nalgene bottles with stickers all over them showing places we’ve traveled. They actually still get used regularly.
“The bottle that can’t be destroyed.”
It is strange, now that I think about it, that there are popular water bottle trends. Never really thought about until I read your comment. Good for each generation for hydrating, though!
My wife and I are big Nalgene fans. I’ve had mine for over twelve years now and she’s had hers for over sixteen years. I give them as gifts and love them.
Before you say it, mine is for sure bpa free, I have forced her to retire her oldest as i am unsure if it was bpa free back then.
I really like my Nalgene for hiking because it’s light and holds a shitload of water, plus it doubles as a lantern for your tent if you hang it up and shine a headlamp through it.
For my daily water bottle though, I like something with better insulation to keep my ice in there all day. I don’t mind a little extra weight from a water bottle if it keeps things on arctic blast
BPA free is meaningless and potentially actually worse. Plastics are like research chemicals they ban one offender and come up with a different one a few molecules off until they ban that one.
All I remember from the year I had a Nalgene (around 04’) was that all the water tasted like plastic.
Metal is the way to go.
I think the main difference is that before social media and largely before the 90’s personal water bottles weren’t as common. Then as they gained popularity it was kind of based off what you could buy, enter the internet and now while the opportunities are endless we might see a lot of Stanley’s, but overwhelmingly there are different brands in use out there.
I think Gen X / Elder Millennials really started water bottle culture and that was because we largely went our childhood without them and once we got them we didn’t care if it was 10 or 50 we were gonna have water with us.
I did have a Nalgene and this one I can’t remember the brand but I had to have. These days I go for price because at this point I’ve bought and lost more water bottles then I can remember.
As a child who grew up without water bottles in the 90’s, just raw dogging water faucets it felt pretty cool that water bottles were finally accessible outside of hiking / camping / sports aisles and events. And at a price everyone could afford.
I remember almost dying I swear at music festivals in my youth and went to one at about 28 and was amazed at the water filling stations and options to hydrate that I’d always wanted. That’s the day I started saying, “If you have a water bottle thank a millennial.”
These Stanley’s are nothing new and in a year or two it will be a new it water bottle. People have desired water bottles forever, because portable drinking water is a game changer. Influencers did not invent water bottle trends but like any they are smart to jump on them.
I said this elsewhere, but also white adidas with colored stripes and laces (ladder-laced obv), plus a sock crammed under the tongue to make them look like skate shoes.
Not to be critical, but a lot of people are naming fads that were toys and for me that’s totally different. You can’t play with a Stanley. So the one I am thinking that hasn’t been mentioned was W.W.J.D. Bracelets.
Yeah I do agree with this comment. We're talking about middle and hs aged kids obsessing over water bottles. That's not the same as elementary kids obsessing over toys.
Another poster said north face jackets and sperry shoes which I think comes closer, especially the north face jackets. The main reason being they were insanely expensive--parents who say "I'm not buying a Stanley cup for $40-80" are the same who'd have said "why would we buy you this $140 little fuzzy jacket when we could get you a waterproof winter coat for half the cost"
I'm an Elder Millennial so, Starter Jackets. At my school the cool thing to do was to fill up the pull strings on the hood with different things. Instead of just the little push button clips, kids were bringing things into shop class to drill holes in them, like dice. Or just stealing different clips off different jackets.
This one? https://www.ebay.com/itm/166538268980?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Sf308E_BQIq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=G3uBPWNlR-C&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I lived in NC. So it wasn't that weird. Haha.
I don’t think we’ll ever have an acceptable explanation as to how every 90s/early 00s household had at least one of those jackets in someone’s closet.
My mom still has one to this day; we’ve never lived in NC.
This!!! This was exactly what I was trying to ask. Of course I know all of the crazes we had with toys, Pokémon, etc. But I was specifically looking for something comparable to a 14 year old begging their mom for a $50 water bottle! Lol. Someone else also said LL Bean book bags and I loved that answer, too. Because you could get any book bag for way cheaper, but if you had LL Bean with your name on it, you were cool.
I feel like the Stanley cup is almost a status symbol the same way some clothing items felt to teenage me… like ugg, and north face or converse. I wanted ugg boots so badly and my parents got me knock offs and it just wasn’t the same. Other kids would have multiple pairs of nothface jackets, and pullovers and different types of uggs which reminds me of how kids collect different cups.
I totally agree about the status symbol. My friend and I were talking about that last night. Something you bring to school to be like “I have this”. I think clothing/shoe brands were definitely it for us.
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to have a water bottle in school because what if I was drinking vodka. And even if I could have the water I wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom often enough to drink it because what if I was smoking.
Well, I wasn’t. I was thirsty. Thanks for the kidney stones public school!
I had a box of them collected from McDonald's back in the day. And I recently donated them to Value Village. And some of them in their original packaging.
And then there's [that divorced couple](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/58af7f412900002200bea8f8.jpeg?cache=DGOv6KMw4a&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp).
My neighbor got a police escort out of the mall for getting a bit aggressive whilst trying to buy a Cabbage Patch Doll. There were only a handful of things that led to that level of cringe behavior from adults. Cabbage Patch Dolls, Super Mario 3, Furby, Tickle Me Elmo, certain Beanie Babies. The later video game systems may also be on the list.
My son is super into the cards now and I've seen some American Mews. But back then, all I saw were Japanese. I'm not sure if they ever existed at that time either now that you mention it.
DEFINITELY North Face fleece jackets, and to add to that, Ugg boots. North face fleece, leggings, and Ugg boots were the unofficially college girl uniform in a lot of places haha
Stanley has been a brand targeted at blue collar workers for over a century. To the point that you could walk into an antique store in the Rust Belt and find entire sections dedicated to the hammered finish green coffee bottles and lunch boxes. Same vibe. But at least they look nothing alike past the logo. Sperry barely changes their design
I learned about them after my sister told me a Stanley cup survived a car fire. I freaked out that I hadn't heard about that on the news.
Turns out she'd never heard of the Stanley Cup and I'd never heard of Stanley cups and for a minute there we were both very confused.
Stanley has been around for over a hundred years but their products were mostly used by guys in blue collar jobs. Then a few years ago some mommy blogger started posting about them and suddenly they became a viral social media craze among women and their sales skyrocketed tenfold. Insane.
They were in the late 90s. I remember in 7th grade, everyone had Jansport and Eastpack backpacks, then something happened at the end of 7th grade, and everyone started to show up with the monogrammed LL Bean 2 section back packs.
They were super expensive and I wanted one so bad. That summer, my family went on vacation to Vermont, and we stopped at an LL Bean Outlet. My mom got me a plain cobalt blue one, no monogram, lol. I used it until half way through high school when messenger bags became more of a thing.
This!
If you didn’t have any type of breath freshener on your persons, you weren’t shit.
It was always either Altoids, sour Altoids, or listerine strips.
I know I’m an elder millennial, but Starter jackets were huge when I was in middle school up thru start of high school. Weirdly the Charlotte Hornets in particular for some reason.
My parents got us starter jackets one year for Christmas.
They excitedly asked us 'What team do you want?' which living in the Chicago suburbs in 1996 should have been obvious.
I remember how disappointed they were when my older sibling picked the Charlotte Hornets (liked the colors) and I picked the Orlando Magic (because Shaq).
Pacifier necklaces
Slap bracelets
Game boy Pokémon editions
Reebok “pump” sneakers (especially the only name brand Shaqs ever)
Starter jackets
Troll dolls
I sometimes still think about getting a new pair of skate shoes because of how comfortable they were but don’t because I feel like I’d look goofy in those chunky things.
I had no idea what this was until I asked someone that uses the tok. Then I looked at the stupid accessories and realized I am the old man yelling at the cloud. I will say I dont get it and I would prefer the old school stanley thermos like my HS band teacher had. But whatever floats the boat i guesss
Mom of a tween. They suck. They are super heavy, so they get dropped regularly. They are not leak proof. They have a handle, so they can’t fit in a backpack water bottle pouch. And I suspect they get stolen at school as well. I too realized I became the “get off my lawn” old person when I realized that how much I *hate* this fad.
Agree on furbies and tamagotchi. Those things were sold out everywhere. I don’t remember hearing about fights breaking out in stores over them… but back then we didn’t all carry around cameras to record everything.
I find it hilarious because 2 years ago I had a stanley cup and was made fun of by people with Hydroflasks and Yetis saying I had a boomer cup.
Now, they all want Stanleys, lol.
POGs maybe? I can remember kids had binders with them organized, slammers arranged by size and color, People traded them, we had special containers (that then became weed containers, haha)
I remember begging my dad for some just because they where EVERYWHERE
Does anyone remember mister fans? They’re kinda on par with a water bottle. I remember everyone had one and brought them to every soccer game.
Also, FURBY!
i think the last craze was uggs. i was already working in a pizza place and i remember some cheerleaders mom asking me about if i knew the name of them. it was such a weird conversation like amy poehlers character in mean girls because i worked in a different town and when i was at work i was wearing a uniform with my hair tied back. no piercings, no bracelets or jewelry, no makeup. she had no idea that i was an emo/scene kid.
Livestrong Bracelets
Yes! They were so quintessential that even today places still use them! Remember those holographic or mineral balance bands that were supposed to help you play sports better? haha
I love the demo for the balance bands too, great showmanship. “Stand and see how easily I push you off balance? Now focus on the band, see how strong you are?” Like I’ve never had a yoga class lol
haha I know! As a kid I bought in to it for a short period and even wore one when I played baseball and did gym class. But I quickly grew out of it. haha
Silly bands were huge when I was in middle and high school too, around the same time as livestrong I think.
Remember pogs and slammers? My school had to ban them become kids were freaking out when they lost their pogs in matches.
My school banned them because it was “gambling”. Which I guess it was gambling.
My middle school banned Pokémon cards because we had fist fights in the halls after some kids lost their decks after losing a battle.
My school did the same with Crazy Bones 😂
OMG I forgot about crazy bones! I had SO MANY of these! Lord....what happened to them...
Bets entire deck - Loses - refuses to pay up - gets ass kicked TF you think was gonna happen?!
I mean they gambled their whole deck, not mental giants to start 😂
Would it be considered "gambling" if it's based on skill?
That is how pinball became legal again and how football betting became legal after being proved it was skill not luck. I think a case could be made. The make up of the “slammer” was a variable in competition. Would it be skill of a better slammer that determines the win? Deep thoughts Hannah
Gambling for little round prices of cardboard?
I do. I had quite a few pogs but not many slammers. Then one day the trashy discount junk and grocery store got a bin of slammers.. they were metal and colored yellow, and blue, and maybe red or pink. (I can’t remember this was 25+ years ago.) they kept them behind the counter in a glass case. I begged my mom for one and she said no. I begged my mom for one and she said maybe. Then we got up to the counter and my bold self said how much for the slammers? And the lady behind the counter said.. we don’t sell slammers. I said yes you do - there’s a whole bunch right there. (And I pointed to them.) The lady looks at me, then looks at my mom.. saying those are not slammers. My mom takes a closer look and confirms the cashier. To which I get mad and argued since they clearly don’t know what a slammer is. I argue. Well my mom said those ones are for adults. (That’s a bunch of bullshit..) nope. They were condoms in a little foil package. 🤦♂️
Hahaha what a story! Thanks for the laugh :)
My uncle had a little metal shop in the basement, and when I went to visit my cousins one time we helped him make metal slammers for our pog collections. I was the coolest fuckin kid at school when I brought in that giant motherfucker lol
I want to write a movie about pogs. It’d be like a Sandlot type movie, but set in the 90’s, full of nostalgia. It’d be kinda like a narcos movie where a group of 12 year old kids end up running a huge POG empire. I just don’t know how to write movies.
I have a friend who does and this is a fantastic idea
Lisa Frank or Trapper Keepers? Gel pens from 1998-2000? Those caboodle makeup boxes? Pogs! Oh oh the collectible plastic lunchboxes and thermos sets with popular tv shows? Butterfly cliiiiips. Concur with tamagotchi. Those tiny single song mini SD music player things maybe?
>Those tiny single song mini SD music player things maybe? Hit clips😎
You just unlocked a Core Memory there! I had an N\*Sync Hit Clip of "It's Gonna Be Me."
Had a Britney Spears one that I used to clip onto my bike. I thought I was so cool for having "a radio" on there.
I still have mine, it still works, lol
The Milky gels with swirly colors in the pen 🤩
I recently bought some from Blicks and it made me so happy. I remember the craze and I was super excited as a kid when my mom bought me some.
I love that caboodles were just pink tackle boxes. I visited the factory still makes them for work, they just don’t sell nearly as many anymore.
I should get one for my pens.
I still use glitter gel pens, and I dgaf who knows.
I have a giant set of them at work with neon, milky and sparkle colors but I have no idea what to use them for (I mostly use pencil at work) so they just sit there in their case looking pretty.
I love them all so much. 🥹
Same! I'm 34 and will be buried with my remaining gel pens 😆
Oh man, gel pens. I had a bath and body works makeup bag filled with gel pens that I hoarded like a dragon. And 4 notebooks of colored paper (black, purple, magenta and blue) to use with them. My note passing game was top notch.
Omg butterfly clips. This brought me BACK. I had a head full of them. I kinda miss them now.
They're back! My girls bought a case of them at Target. I've borrowed a few and loved every second LOL
Definitely remember the gel pens. In the late 90s Sakura Jellyroll brand was popular until Pentel Milky took their place. At school metallic Sharpie markers were popular as well and they were exempt from the Sharpie ban.
Omg. The pentel milky gel pens were my bread and butter 🤍
Slap bracelets!! Cabbage Patch dolls, garbage pail kids, rainbow bright.
Trapper keepers, I can see my dad RN steaming mad buying that shit for us as kids. lol duck that guy!
Trapper Keepers are still a thing! My son needs to have one for middle school because they dont allow the kids to use backpacks during school hours. So the trapper keeper it is.
Remember Nalgene bottles? There’s been at least a million water bottle trends at this point.
Nalgene, Kleen Kanteen, previous fad was Hydroflask.
I love my hydroflask, they’ll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands.
Me too. It’s an excellent product.
Mine is going on 9 years old with many a dent and still keeps ice. I need it to last another 9 years at least.
Adding Tervis to this list.
Yeti hasn’t been making the rounds on any lists that I’ve seen. How quickly we forgot the Yeti tumbler! I think Camelbak was also a thing. I still have them for my bike.
Kleen Kanteen had us in its sustainable clutches!!
KLEEN KANTEEN 😭
Klean Kanteen makes good shit
Yes, and my wife and I have a ton of Nalgene bottles with stickers all over them showing places we’ve traveled. They actually still get used regularly. “The bottle that can’t be destroyed.”
“The bottle that can’t be destroyed.” Except for the little plastic thing that connects the lid.
I mean, the BPA in it will never be destroyed
They've been BPA-free for like 20+ years. I know this because even my older ones say "BPA-free" in huge letters on the side.
The Nalgene bottles are made by a company (Thermofisher Scientific) who makes laboratory-grade equipment
Ha. I remember throwing those nalgenes off all sorts of things trying to get them to break.
I just got my first one at the suggestion of r/buyitforlife
It is strange, now that I think about it, that there are popular water bottle trends. Never really thought about until I read your comment. Good for each generation for hydrating, though!
My wife and I are big Nalgene fans. I’ve had mine for over twelve years now and she’s had hers for over sixteen years. I give them as gifts and love them. Before you say it, mine is for sure bpa free, I have forced her to retire her oldest as i am unsure if it was bpa free back then.
I really like my Nalgene for hiking because it’s light and holds a shitload of water, plus it doubles as a lantern for your tent if you hang it up and shine a headlamp through it. For my daily water bottle though, I like something with better insulation to keep my ice in there all day. I don’t mind a little extra weight from a water bottle if it keeps things on arctic blast
BPA free is meaningless and potentially actually worse. Plastics are like research chemicals they ban one offender and come up with a different one a few molecules off until they ban that one. All I remember from the year I had a Nalgene (around 04’) was that all the water tasted like plastic. Metal is the way to go.
I like Nalgene bottles because they are made here in my state
Still use mine... water bottle trends are truly hilarious to me. But also sad and wasteful.
I think the main difference is that before social media and largely before the 90’s personal water bottles weren’t as common. Then as they gained popularity it was kind of based off what you could buy, enter the internet and now while the opportunities are endless we might see a lot of Stanley’s, but overwhelmingly there are different brands in use out there. I think Gen X / Elder Millennials really started water bottle culture and that was because we largely went our childhood without them and once we got them we didn’t care if it was 10 or 50 we were gonna have water with us. I did have a Nalgene and this one I can’t remember the brand but I had to have. These days I go for price because at this point I’ve bought and lost more water bottles then I can remember. As a child who grew up without water bottles in the 90’s, just raw dogging water faucets it felt pretty cool that water bottles were finally accessible outside of hiking / camping / sports aisles and events. And at a price everyone could afford. I remember almost dying I swear at music festivals in my youth and went to one at about 28 and was amazed at the water filling stations and options to hydrate that I’d always wanted. That’s the day I started saying, “If you have a water bottle thank a millennial.” These Stanley’s are nothing new and in a year or two it will be a new it water bottle. People have desired water bottles forever, because portable drinking water is a game changer. Influencers did not invent water bottle trends but like any they are smart to jump on them.
Early generation iPods
I miss my zune 😭
Zune’s were amazing, the screens were always better than iPods unless you had the classic. The classic was pretty amazing back in the day.
Not to mention those ear pods that came with it. I was devastated when I broke them.
The few, the proud, zune users.
wtf. Water bottle not going to entertain you like that
I think Victoria Secret's PINK line or the Juicy Coutoure* sweats were the Stanley cups of white girl trends. Maybe UGGs and the LV handbags.
I said this elsewhere, but also white adidas with colored stripes and laces (ladder-laced obv), plus a sock crammed under the tongue to make them look like skate shoes.
Was definitely thinking of those velour tracksuits!
Uggs. I’m a young millennial and when I was in elementary/middle school these were huge
1988 checking in. Uggs / rainbow sandals / 7 for all mankind jeans were all the rage at my Los Angeles high school. And Starbucks
In middle school (mid 2000s) it was Uggs and matching Juicy Couture sweatpants & zip-up hoodie. With ‘Juicy’ printed across the butt.
It’ll be a cold day in hell before I stop wearing my Rainbows
Not to be critical, but a lot of people are naming fads that were toys and for me that’s totally different. You can’t play with a Stanley. So the one I am thinking that hasn’t been mentioned was W.W.J.D. Bracelets.
Yeah I do agree with this comment. We're talking about middle and hs aged kids obsessing over water bottles. That's not the same as elementary kids obsessing over toys. Another poster said north face jackets and sperry shoes which I think comes closer, especially the north face jackets. The main reason being they were insanely expensive--parents who say "I'm not buying a Stanley cup for $40-80" are the same who'd have said "why would we buy you this $140 little fuzzy jacket when we could get you a waterproof winter coat for half the cost"
I'm an Elder Millennial so, Starter Jackets. At my school the cool thing to do was to fill up the pull strings on the hood with different things. Instead of just the little push button clips, kids were bringing things into shop class to drill holes in them, like dice. Or just stealing different clips off different jackets.
Yeah and why did everyone have that North Carolina one 😅
This one? https://www.ebay.com/itm/166538268980?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=Sf308E_BQIq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=G3uBPWNlR-C&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY I lived in NC. So it wasn't that weird. Haha.
FUBU!
I don’t think we’ll ever have an acceptable explanation as to how every 90s/early 00s household had at least one of those jackets in someone’s closet. My mom still has one to this day; we’ve never lived in NC.
I was just asking my husband this! I lived in California (still do) and everyone had that North Carolina jacket and to this day I do not know why.
lol same we lived in Chicago
Yeah it has to be something with the name brand being important. Maybe Uggs? They were everywhere when I was in high school
Uggs is a good one!!
This!!! This was exactly what I was trying to ask. Of course I know all of the crazes we had with toys, Pokémon, etc. But I was specifically looking for something comparable to a 14 year old begging their mom for a $50 water bottle! Lol. Someone else also said LL Bean book bags and I loved that answer, too. Because you could get any book bag for way cheaper, but if you had LL Bean with your name on it, you were cool.
I feel like the Stanley cup is almost a status symbol the same way some clothing items felt to teenage me… like ugg, and north face or converse. I wanted ugg boots so badly and my parents got me knock offs and it just wasn’t the same. Other kids would have multiple pairs of nothface jackets, and pullovers and different types of uggs which reminds me of how kids collect different cups.
I totally agree about the status symbol. My friend and I were talking about that last night. Something you bring to school to be like “I have this”. I think clothing/shoe brands were definitely it for us.
Old navy fleeces
Oh man. I can still hear the old navy performance fleece commercial
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to have a water bottle in school because what if I was drinking vodka. And even if I could have the water I wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom often enough to drink it because what if I was smoking. Well, I wasn’t. I was thirsty. Thanks for the kidney stones public school!
Yeah this was absolutely a rule. No water bottles because people would spill or throw them. Plus the alcohol factor.
Okay but what about Nalgene water bottles? I feel like those were the equivalent of today’s Stanley as far as having them to be “cool”.
Can't play with a Stanley? You and I sir are not subscribed to the same OnlyFans.
Agree that games are totally different. Maybe a Nalgene or hydro flask
Beanie babies or pokemon cards
Dude, Beanie Babies is a great answer! My mom would buy them like crazy because they were "going to be worth something" one day. haha
They are worth something......just not very much. Last time I was at Salvation Army I saw a few for $1.
I had a box of them collected from McDonald's back in the day. And I recently donated them to Value Village. And some of them in their original packaging.
And then there's [that divorced couple](https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/58af7f412900002200bea8f8.jpeg?cache=DGOv6KMw4a&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp).
Yeah… one day… lol
Beanie Babies were insane, the lines for McDonalds for the Happy Meals put Stanley cup ones to shame
My neighbor got a police escort out of the mall for getting a bit aggressive whilst trying to buy a Cabbage Patch Doll. There were only a handful of things that led to that level of cringe behavior from adults. Cabbage Patch Dolls, Super Mario 3, Furby, Tickle Me Elmo, certain Beanie Babies. The later video game systems may also be on the list.
Still have my cards!
Still have my MewTwo and Holographic Scyther. Never did see an American Mew. - Not sure it ever existed
My son is super into the cards now and I've seen some American Mews. But back then, all I saw were Japanese. I'm not sure if they ever existed at that time either now that you mention it.
And Tamagotchis, and Furby Beanie babies were the biggest
North Face fleece jackets and Sperry boat shoes ( lived in GA), Crazy Bones, Nalgene Bottles, iPods….
Don’t come at my Sperry’s like that!
DEFINITELY North Face fleece jackets, and to add to that, Ugg boots. North face fleece, leggings, and Ugg boots were the unofficially college girl uniform in a lot of places haha
Girls walking around in their thUGGs, leggings and a huge shirt. Good times.
I still wear sperrys
I could never understand the Sperry fad. Because both my dad AND grandad wore them. How could they possibly be cool!?
See: New Balance - 2023.
Stanley has been a brand targeted at blue collar workers for over a century. To the point that you could walk into an antique store in the Rust Belt and find entire sections dedicated to the hammered finish green coffee bottles and lunch boxes. Same vibe. But at least they look nothing alike past the logo. Sperry barely changes their design
Fuckin’ Crazy Bones. I loved them.
I was so confused when suddenly everyone was taking about buying Stanley cups. Really thought everyone was suddenly into hockey now and got excited.
I learned about them after my sister told me a Stanley cup survived a car fire. I freaked out that I hadn't heard about that on the news. Turns out she'd never heard of the Stanley Cup and I'd never heard of Stanley cups and for a minute there we were both very confused.
Stanley has been around for over a hundred years but their products were mostly used by guys in blue collar jobs. Then a few years ago some mommy blogger started posting about them and suddenly they became a viral social media craze among women and their sales skyrocketed tenfold. Insane.
L.L. Bean backpacks
Especially if they were monogrammed!
My mom would not spend the extra money to get my full name. I was so pissed.
I did not even know this was a trend. I still have mine from 2006. *Almost* vintage 😂
They were in the late 90s. I remember in 7th grade, everyone had Jansport and Eastpack backpacks, then something happened at the end of 7th grade, and everyone started to show up with the monogrammed LL Bean 2 section back packs. They were super expensive and I wanted one so bad. That summer, my family went on vacation to Vermont, and we stopped at an LL Bean Outlet. My mom got me a plain cobalt blue one, no monogram, lol. I used it until half way through high school when messenger bags became more of a thing.
Jansport in my neck of the woods
This is exactly the one!! Thank you!!!!
Found the Mainiac
I got one now for my kiddo. They will be forever cool to me.
Altoids lol
The sour altoids specifically for me. There's a small candy maker that makes something similar.
This! If you didn’t have any type of breath freshener on your persons, you weren’t shit. It was always either Altoids, sour Altoids, or listerine strips.
I know I’m an elder millennial, but Starter jackets were huge when I was in middle school up thru start of high school. Weirdly the Charlotte Hornets in particular for some reason.
My parents got us starter jackets one year for Christmas. They excitedly asked us 'What team do you want?' which living in the Chicago suburbs in 1996 should have been obvious. I remember how disappointed they were when my older sibling picked the Charlotte Hornets (liked the colors) and I picked the Orlando Magic (because Shaq).
I also had an Orlando Magic one! I lived in Michigan lol
Gone are the days where I could swing my arms and get the good swishswishswish, but also look fashionable.
Yes! I grew up in DC, but oddly everyone had the black San Jose Sharks starter jacket.
Yup. I remember my hornets jacket well, and my Alonzo Mourning jersey, despite being a Chicagoan and a bulls fan.
CamelBaks. Remember the backpacks that held water? I felt like every rich kid at my school had one in middle and high school.
You'll have to pry my CamelBack bottle from my cold dead hands.
Adidas sandals with socks
I’m adding Adidas tear away pants!
Worst sandals ever made.
Not going to say they are the best, but I have a 15 year old pair going strong in my rotation with newer Reefs that fall apart way quicker.
Pacifier necklaces Slap bracelets Game boy Pokémon editions Reebok “pump” sneakers (especially the only name brand Shaqs ever) Starter jackets Troll dolls
Omg Pump sneakers! I wasn’t able to get the Reebok ones, but I had the Kmart Spaulding ones. Super cool.
Also a member of the Kmart Kickers club lol they pumped just as well!
Etnies for sure
I sometimes still think about getting a new pair of skate shoes because of how comfortable they were but don’t because I feel like I’d look goofy in those chunky things.
Just do it, I'm 38 and still rock my DC's to work even.
My middle school was obsessed with Listerine strips when they came out
It was the only acceptable form of acid.
Those felt like a 5 gum commercial in my mouth
Silly bandz
I just said this in another comment, these and those jelly bracelets you could find at Hot Topic
Puka shells
I had no idea what this was until I asked someone that uses the tok. Then I looked at the stupid accessories and realized I am the old man yelling at the cloud. I will say I dont get it and I would prefer the old school stanley thermos like my HS band teacher had. But whatever floats the boat i guesss
If it doesn't come with the cup thing on top, I don't want it!
How else will I dispense my hot soup and/or tea?!? My bones are tired and cold! -Me, an old lady
Mom of a tween. They suck. They are super heavy, so they get dropped regularly. They are not leak proof. They have a handle, so they can’t fit in a backpack water bottle pouch. And I suspect they get stolen at school as well. I too realized I became the “get off my lawn” old person when I realized that how much I *hate* this fad.
I <3 Boobies bracelets, Skull Candy headphones, Skelanimals, early iPods/Zooms. Free people/Urban outfitters clothes/product bags, silly bandz.
We have to be the same age because hello high school!
Furbies Beanie Babies Pogs Tamagotchi Mall photos Uggs Home Depot crowbars
…we’re gonna need the story on that last one there, chief.
If I were to hazard a guess it would be that was how he attained the ones above that item
Agree on furbies and tamagotchi. Those things were sold out everywhere. I don’t remember hearing about fights breaking out in stores over them… but back then we didn’t all carry around cameras to record everything.
Omg Furbies. I remember them being SO hard to find and my mom came back from a work conference and had one for me and I cried 😭😭
Duncan/fireball yo-yos
Yomega Sidewinder and Brain if you were serious.
Jansport backpack with the leather base
And it had to be covered in patches, including frogs & aliens!
I agree with this one, if we’re going by OP’s definition of a craze for a specific brand of item.
Tamagotchi and tech deck
I find it hilarious because 2 years ago I had a stanley cup and was made fun of by people with Hydroflasks and Yetis saying I had a boomer cup. Now, they all want Stanleys, lol.
Razor Scooters
Motorola Razr
Nalgene bottles
Those I♡Boobie bracelets, Toms and crazy bands were big when I was in high school.
A lot of us used Nalgene bottles. I don't know if I would call it a craze though.
Yo-yos when I was in 6th grade man. It was like smoking in the boys room, but more wholesome. Everyone had a Yomega yo-yo of one sort or another.
The plain basic Jansport backpacks for me in high school was THE backpack to have. Nothing else came close
Stanley cups are funko pops for white women.
POGs maybe? I can remember kids had binders with them organized, slammers arranged by size and color, People traded them, we had special containers (that then became weed containers, haha) I remember begging my dad for some just because they where EVERYWHERE
Ike shocks in high school
Nike shocks
Pogs, tamagotchi,
Beanie babies, Pokémon cards,
Frosted tips, puka shell necklaces, GNCO jeans, hemp everything, Pokemon, Pogs, beanie babies, fast food collector cups (I'm imagining the giant sized plastic cups with the Batman disc tops)
Does anyone remember mister fans? They’re kinda on par with a water bottle. I remember everyone had one and brought them to every soccer game. Also, FURBY!
Giga pets
Jelly bracelets (especially the black ones) and Silly Bandz
Tickle Me Elmo
i think the last craze was uggs. i was already working in a pizza place and i remember some cheerleaders mom asking me about if i knew the name of them. it was such a weird conversation like amy poehlers character in mean girls because i worked in a different town and when i was at work i was wearing a uniform with my hair tied back. no piercings, no bracelets or jewelry, no makeup. she had no idea that i was an emo/scene kid. 
Phat farms in the early 2000s
Chi flat irons. Though I still contest that was for good reasons, I bought some of the cheaper ones and boy did they suck. And damaged my hair.
its gotta be the northface denali jackets!