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ByLeo Victor

Fanny pack comeback? College students revive the former fashion faux pas

Depending on how old you are, you might roll your eyes or give an enthusiastic thumbs-up once you hear the news. What’s old is new again. Sales of vinyl records and boot-cut jeans are rising … but fanny packs?

Yes, it’s no joke. Utilitarian but laughable, given how you feel about the ’80s and ’90s trend, it’s back with a vengeance around the waists of models as they walk down the runway for designers like Alexander Wang, Rebecca Minkoff and Tory Burch, according to The Huffington Post.

The comeback is also a trend marketers hope to take advantage of by providing branded bags and promotional fanny packs for their customers, according to Advertising Specialty Institute’s website.

Young making the old hip again
Anyone attending a youth-oriented music festival recently could see the proliferation of fanny packs, according to Business Insider, especially at The Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York City. Even actor and rock star Jared Leto was an early adopter of the fanny pack resurgence, The Huffington Post reported. Sarah Jessica Parker and Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas are just two other celebrities bringing back the trend, the Advertising Specialty Institute’s website reported.

Even Gayle King, the editor-at-large for O, Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, wears one in a fall issue of the publication.

And while not exactly trending on Instagram, a search for #fannypack retrieves 110,000 results, according to Business Insider, with the majority of them saying positive things about the accessory.

College students and music festival attendees are trying to make the fanny pack hip again.Fanny packs are making a comeback at music festivals and on college campuses.

However, it’s American college students who are making the waist purse popular and cool once again. More college-aged women are adopting the trend, taking what once was a fashion faux pas and making it hip again but wearing it sideways and lower on the hip. While high-end designers market them in leather, suede and other expensive materials, college women are still taken with inexpensive polyester fanny packs.

“A fanny pack is small enough that it holds the essentials, such as your keys, ID, money, and cell phone, while also being hands free. I got my first fanny pack when I went to college and I absolutely love it,” Elizabeth Coogan, a Wake Forest University sophomore, told Business Insider. “Ever since I got mine, it’s the one thing I consistently bring with me when I go anywhere where I would be worried about losing my purse.”

In fact, Coogan received her fanny pack through her sorority, according to Business Insider.

Sororities and branded bags
The Greek system, especially sororities on America’s college campuses, are driving the craze, according to Business Insider, as they place large orders from promotional item companies for branded T-shirts and promotional apparel on a regular basis already. The Panhellenic societies are adding fanny packs branded with their chapter letters on to their order forms.

Promotional item companies report sales of branded fanny packs are on the rise, especially from sororities as the demand from the 2013-2014 to the 2014-2015 school year increased by 130 percent for one promotional goods firm, Business Insider reported.

Meanwhile, more clothing retailers are stocking the packs and marketing companies find that there’s a strong call for customizing the accessory. Active fanny packs for hiking and biking that hold water bottles to ones sporting screen printed wraparound graphics are merely two styles in demand, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute website.

Revisiting the former trend has some people guessing why it ever stopped in the first place as more people remark on the fanny pack’s convenience. Not only are they great and safe storage to keep your wallet in when you go out to festivals, they’re also perfect for active people, Christine Santori, a sales representative for hipS-sister, told the Advertising Specialty Institute. Santori’s company sells a specially-designed style of fanny pack that’s thinner and less noticeable, which was one O magazine featured.

Santori attributes part of the comeback in fanny packs to people using them in gyms, yoga classes and while out for a jog or run. With younger generations making what was once considered tacky cool again, maybe it’s time everybody embraces the fanny pack comeback?