"Don't call it a comeback!" Oh, wait. Yes you can! After thriving in the late 80's/early 90's and then dying a quick death soon after, the Starter jacket is finding it's way back to "cool" status due to the retro resurgence from the past few years. There are a lot of rappers such as The Cool Kids and Retro Kidz that have been rockin' this style for a minute and it's just starting to really catch on everywhere else.
I have to admit that I am ecstatic about this "old is new" style because I can't get rid of shit. I still have t-shirts that I wore when I was 12 even if they don't fit. I am a pack rat to the fullest. Now I can let my Mom know there was a reason why I never got rid of all that shit she tried to get me to throw out!!! It always come back in style!
I'm not completely sure
what happened to Starter but I think the company may have even gone out of business or went bankrupt but maybe they just sucked for a decade or so. I think Nike bought them and didn't really do anything with it and then sold it to Iconix. I do know that Starter apparel
has been available in some bastardized version of there original selves at the local K-Mart and Wal-Mart for the past few years though. The
REAL Starter website currently takes you to
Wal-Mart's website in order to make a purchase of their new line of sportswear but the original home page says "The Season Begins Soon" which makes me think they are ready to drop the retro sweetness in the near future.
I used to rock my
Cowboys pullover and my black hooded UNLV button up like it was my job. Those were my favorite jackets as a kid and still might be because of the memories associated with them. I even had the original Celtics warm up jacket as a wee tike but grew out of it by age 10. I wish I still had that so I could get some duckets on eBay!
The Cowboys jacket got stolen from my locker in high school but I still own the UNLV classic, even if it is getting a bit tight. I still wear it in a snowstorm to shovel and stuff like that. I just can't get rid of it.
I think I got that one because of 2Pac in the "Brenda's Got a Baby" video. I think his may have been red but it's close enough. It looked tight with that matching wool hat. I need to refurbish mine and get it clean enough to break out in public and freak people out with the rare gem! Peep game:
If you want to relive the days of your youth like me, you can cop some of the older styles at
DigitalGravel.com. I'm not sure if these jackets and shirts are official Starter gear or just bootlegs but they are definitely O.G.! They don't have any teams but they have the colors that were hot at the time. The prices are a little bit out of control but you gotta do what you gotta do to take it back to the old school.
I already posted this a few months ago but it seems pretty relevant for this one so here's another look at the Retro Kidz "New Era" video with lots of retro goodness. This has become one of my favorite videos:
UPDATE: Tony Romo has signed the largest endorsement deal in NFL History with a
$10 million contract from Starter. That's crazy! These guys are completely legit and want to get back on the map. I'm not sure Romo is the right guy to do that but he is a huge star and very well known, so it might be a good start. I find it stranger that this is the biggest NFL endorsement deal in history. It's a lot of money but pales in comparison to the NBA, MLB, PGA, etc.
