Article / Opinion Five iconic 90’s streetwear brands ready for a revival.
With the 1990s in full-on-trend at the moment, we look at five streetwear brands that used to be some of the coolest labels around… and are possibly now ripe for a comeback.
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Opinion
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Fashion, Streetwear, Apparel, Retro
26red
Back in the early 90s, this streetwear brand was massive and worn by pretty much every teenager at the time. At 30 million dollars in revenue, this global business was the envy of many fashion entrepreneurs. Fun fact… founder John Bernard came up with the name after listening to a horse race in his car one day.
Image Credit: © 26red
No Fear
Another famous American streetwear brand that was consistent with the 90s grunge and skate scenes. If you’re old enough to remember, their brand logo replete with two angry-looking eyes were bold design statements plastered across tees and caps. A quick search on Google highlighted a collaboration with H&M back in 2021, so perhaps we’re a little too late on this one?
Image Credit: No Fear © SportsDirect.com
Mossimo
If there was ever a uniform for youth at the time, Mossimo was sure to be a major part of it. In your classic entrepreneurial story, Mossimo Giannulli dropped out of university and took a $100,000 loan from his father to launch the brand. In the first year, it hit one million in profits and the year after hit four million. But like all great stories, it also went through a bit of a rough time with a failed IPO. These days, you can find the label on the hangers at Target.
Mambo
Closer to this side of the world… surely everyone can remember Richard Allen's iconic farting dog. Unlike the predecessors in this post, the designs for Mambo from the likes of Reg Mombassa, David McKay and Gerry Wedd were more colourful pieces of art than textile design. Some trendspotters likened Mambo’s aesthetic to an art movement albeit a commercial one… where it even made an appearance on the Australian team uniform worn at the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony. Today, Mambo is one of those brands that constantly reinvents itself.
Image Credit: © Farting Dog Call of the Wild by Richard Allan (1987)
Mooks
Similar to Mossimo (but far cooler in our book), Mooks was positioned towards the upper end of the market with a slightly higher price tag and better quality product. Created by graphic designer Richard Allen and former champion skaters Peter and Stephen Hill, Mooks had huge ambitions to grow beyond these shores. When researching the meaning behind the logo, the description on their Facebook page read “the unique horned light bulb and trident logo stands for devilish wit, creativity and originality. The light bulb represents clever ideas, the horns signify irreverence and not taking life too seriously and the trident is about being ambitious and strong”. That’s definitely a vibe we still dig at Hunter.
Okay, that’s our take on five streetwear brands from the 90s that rocked the world. What’s yours?
