This ad, featuring basketball player Jerry Stackhouse, is our favorite and probably one of the most iconic Fila advertisements. The recent 90′s revival has made the Fila brand even more popular and people scramble to get their hands on some retro Fila designs. Their popularity in the 80′ & 90′s was boosted by rap groups such as the “Fila Fresh Crew” and their garments were worn by the biggest hip hop and sports icons of the 80′s, cementing Fila’s status as one of the most recognizable old school sportswear brands. Their simple but practical designs made them a must-have for athletes but it wasn’t till the 80′s that the brand was transformed into a must have for hip-hop heads. The Fila brand was born in Italy and started out as an underwear brand before moving into sportswear in the 70′s. The brand’s bright colors and big logo definitely caught attention, but it seemed like almost every demographic was trying to rock FUBU in the ’90s. ”Karl Kani saggin’, Timbo’s draggin’” – MC LyteįUBU, or For Us By Us, was a conscious brand that attempted to raise awareness of supporting black-owned businesses. Here’s one of our favorite KK ads of all time featuring 2pac. His hard work paid of with the endorsement (both paid and unpaid) of some of the biggest hip hop stars of the time such as Aaliyah, Nas, Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg wearing his stuff. An ambitious entrepreneur, Carl networked relentlessly throughout the early 90′s to develop and promote his brand. According to Carl, the brand name was born through his constant thoughts of “Can I?” “Can I be the Ralph Lauren of the streets?” “Can I be successful?” This eventually lead to the modification of his name to “Karl Kani”. Here’s our favorite image from the campaign featuring Aaliyah and Mark Ronson.įrom Brooklyn, New York, Carl “Karl Kani” Williams started a urban fashion line when he was just 16. This move prompted a change of style for many females in hip-hop, who once they saw how baggy jeans could be styled out started to adopt a more laid back, tomboy look. Phone numbers! When websites start showing up on the ads in the later part of the decade, most are accompanied by an email address, usually to the next page if your mind hasn’t already exploded from reading about how things worked before the world wide web.Īrguably the most recognized brand in 90′s sportwear, TH was popularized by clever marketing using the late Aaliyah as the face and “muse” of the brand to attract an urban audience. Crazy right? And this being pre-Internet, there are phone numbers on the ads (bonus points if you call to see if they still work). It was only until 1995 or so that companies realized that rappers were commercially viable. An interesting thing to note is that not many rappers were starring in ad campaigns in the first half of the decade. Chances are these ads will transport you back to a magical time when you were first developing an interest in hip-hop and fashion. Recently, we fell into a glorious Internet wormhole of hip-hop and fashion from the 1990s. FASHION: Hip-Hop Fashion Ads of the ’90s!
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