Buzz
Picture this: It’s the 1990s. You’re a rad teenager mastering skateboard tricks, sipping on Ecto-Cooler, and vibing with your crew at the skatepark. Suddenly, an adult shows up and asks you to remove your pants. Do you get confused and tell your parents something strange is going on? Nah, because that’s actually a marketing exec for JNCO jeans, doing some old-school grassroots promotion. JNCO jeans are the hottest fashion trend right now. Everyone’s rocking them—and he’s got a bunch of samples to hand out.
These extra-wide jeans might seem outlandish to Millennials (Gen Z might feel differently). However, back in the day, JNCOs were the pants that not only rebelled against authority, but also flouted logic and defied the dress codes of many schools.
Styled for Success
Haim Revah, born in Morocco and raised in France, developed an early fascination with America during the 1970s. As a kid, Haim, who later adopted the name Milo, was captivated by American TV shows like Starsky and Hutch and Charlie’s Angels. To Milo, America was a land filled with strikingly handsome police officers wearing denim. But it wasn’t just these TV characters that sparked his interest in fashion. His father worked in the denim sales business, so when Milo and his younger brother Yaakov (or Jacques) moved to Los Angeles, getting into the apparel industry felt like a natural progression. By day, they studied the business, and by night, they took English lessons with a tutor.
Breaking into fashion isn’t easy. It’s a highly competitive, ruthless industry. So how did the Revah brothers manage it? In 1985, with $200,000 in savings, they founded Revatex. Their strategy was simple yet effective: most companies that ordered private-label clothing had to wait months for manufacturers overseas to complete their orders. But the Revahs owned a factory right in Los Angeles, allowing them to fulfill orders in just 8 weeks. This speed allowed their clients to quickly adjust their orders based on what was selling, making Revatex an essential business partner.
The Revahs spent years creating clothing that carried another brand’s name. They were successful, but eventually, they wanted to create something truly their own. For inspiration, Milo turned to the Latino community in East Los Angeles, a culture he had long admired. It was there that he noticed young men wearing a distinctive style of jeans, wider at the ankle and sitting low on the waist. In an era dominated by Levi’s straightforward designs, Milo saw an opportunity to create a mass-market design that would cater to a group of teens looking for something different from the classic 501s.
Revatex had a unique style, but they needed a hook to market it. To capture the urban feel of the jeans, they enlisted Los Angeles graffiti artist Joseph Montalvo, aka Nuke, to design a logo. They decided on the name JNCO, though the meaning behind the letters was never clarified. Some claimed it stood for Judge None, Choose One, others believed it represented Journey of the Chosen Ones, and some simply thought it was Jeans Company. The Revahs never explained the name, preferring to let the product speak for itself and avoid the commercial side of the business as they focused on making JNCO a major trend. And it became one, but in a way no one anticipated.
Bagging It Up
JNCO jeans first appeared in 1993, but for a while, they didn’t cause much of a stir. The jeans found steady sales in niche markets and were carried by the popular mall chain Merry-Go-Round, thanks to the Revahs' established relationships with buyers. These stores were able to target the trendy teen audience JNCOs needed to thrive. However, by the early 1990s, Merry-Go-Round expanded too quickly, growing to over 1500 locations across the country and ultimately becoming a victim of its own success. After losing $46 million in 1993, the chain filed for bankruptcy. By 1996, they were liquidating stores and offering significant discounts on unsold inventory, including JNCO jeans.
The loss of their major retail partner turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Revatex. The discounted JNCOs were quickly snapped up by boutique shops, who resold them at full price, introducing the jeans to a fresh market.
At the same time, the Revahs brought in marketing expert Steven Sternberg, who had helped make B.U.M. Equipment a household name. Sternberg didn’t mince words when assessing JNCOs. He told the Revahs they needed to focus more on the suburban market if they were going to grow the brand. To test this theory, he turned to the ultimate symbols of suburban counter-culture: surfers and skateboarders. If they thought JNCOs were cool, other teens would follow. Sternberg attended a surf trade show in Orlando, where he set up a JNCO booth at a nearby hotel. He took $120,000 worth of orders from surf and skate shops. JNCO jeans were about to hit fitting rooms across the country.
Off the Cuff: The Rise of JNCO
After Merry-Go-Round’s collapse, JNCOs started appearing in trendy mall stores everywhere, from Ron Jon Surf Shop to Pacific Sunwear to Hot Topic. These stores often didn’t carry traditional brands like Levi’s or Wranglers. Instead, they specialized in underground brands like Menace, offering an alternative to mainstream fashion. Shoppers were now confronted with jeans that rejected the standard tapered leg or acid-washed look. These jeans featured logos, racing stripes, and bold, clean silhouettes.
JNCO jeans weren’t designed for adults; they were made for teenagers who wanted to push back against the norms of adulthood. And in the 1990s, there were plenty of rebellious teens. With 31 million teens shopping an average of 54 times a year and buying 8 to 12 pairs of jeans annually, it was the perfect time to dive into the teen denim market.
The key to JNCO’s appeal was the wide leg. Typical jeans had cuffs around 16 inches in circumference with pockets 6 inches deep. JNCO’s most popular style featured a 23-inch cuff, with some options stretching beyond 40 inches. At one point, they even sold jeans with a 69-inch opening, essentially creating two skirts attached at the knees. Some pockets were a massive 17 inches deep. A JNCO leg was so wide and low-hanging that it could completely obscure shoes and even pick up stray gum from the sidewalk.
While many teens bought JNCO jeans to make a statement of rebellion, their comfort factor was another big draw. The absence of tight ankle cuffs made them feel almost like wearing shorts. A 1998 survey by Teenage Research Unlimited found that teens ranked JNCOs the 12th coolest brand, placing them just behind Nike and Tommy Hilfiger, but ahead of brands like Calvin Klein and Mountain Dew.
However, the true reason JNCOs took over may be more about savvy marketing than anything else. Revatex hired graffiti artists to spray tags near high school cafeterias in California, providing students with a dose of rebellious advertising alongside their school lunches. Employees also frequented skate parks to hand out free samples. Revatex sponsored extreme sports events and athletes like BMX rider Todd “Wild Man” Lyons and street luge star Sean Mallard. JNCO ads began to appear in skateboarding mags like Thrasher. The jeans found a place in the rave scene, where breakdancing teams performed as brand ambassadors, and DJs received free pairs. Even the members of Limp Bizkit got on board with the brand.
By 1995, JNCO jeans were bringing in around $36 million in sales. By 1998, that number had skyrocketed to $186.9 million. At one point, JNCOs accounted for 10 percent of all sales at Pacific Sunwear. But as success grew, the seams of this denim empire began to show.
Dirty Laundry: The Backlash Against JNCOs
As with any teenage craze, adults weren’t exactly fond of JNCO jeans. In fact, some schools even tried to ban them altogether.
The wide-legged design of JNCOs presented some concerns for school administrators. Students might trip over their oversized cuffs, and those cuffs tended to wear out quickly, which some teachers found unsightly. Some officials in Orange County even feared students could hide weapons in the expansive cuffs, although there were never any confirmed incidents of students using their JNCOs to conceal anything.
When students broke the dress code, they were typically asked to change into gym uniforms or call their parents to bring them a new outfit. One student told The Los Angeles Times that a friend had been forced to remove their rave pants and put on a pair so tight they couldn’t even kick a football.
With success came another issue for Revatex: imitation. Competitors like KikWear launched their own wide-leg jeans, snagging a portion of the emerging market. Even established brands like Lee tried their hand at wider legs, though none could match the dramatic proportions of JNCO’s designs.
At least the attempts at imitation were legal. However, when Revatex executives arrived in Chicago for meetings with retailers, they discovered some stores were already offering what was supposed to be genuine Revatex apparel—but it turned out to be counterfeit. Despite hiring private investigation firms to track down the offenders, the counterfeiters had already taken a significant chunk of their business.
Yet counterfeiting wasn’t the biggest issue Revatex faced. Soon, JNCOs would find themselves under threat from the very forces that had fueled their initial success—the shifting tastes of teen trendsetters.
Faded Glory: The Decline of JNCO
Revatex had their best year ever in 1998, nearing $200 million in sales. However, by the following year, sales dropped to $100 million. A part of the decline was due to the company struggling to keep up with demand, resulting in some retailers receiving crucial back-to-school stock too late. To avoid alienating their partners, Revatex ended up buying back some of that inventory.
But the real issue was that JNCOs were experiencing what every trend inevitably faces: the moment when something becomes so popular that it loses its cool factor.
As JNCOs achieved widespread success across major mall chains, the brand's counter-culture edge, which it was initially built on, began to fade. Jeans that once had the backing of extreme athletes and were seen at raves were now being sold at J.C. Penney—where, ironically, they became bestsellers. As more kids embraced JNCOs, a growing number of others started to reject them.
In an effort to avoid the inevitable ebb of trends, Revatex expanded its offerings to include khakis—which might have skirted around some school dress codes on a technicality—and ventured into shoes and tops. They also began targeting teenage girls, which hadn’t been their initial focus. However, the teen market was already moving away from the baggy-jeans craze. Loose-fitting jeans were out, while cargo pants and drawstring trousers became the new trend. Pacific Sunwear was one of the stores that had to slash prices to clear out JNCO inventory, with jeans originally priced between $48 and $58 now going for $29.99. The once-popular skate aesthetic was overshadowed by brands like Polo and Tommy Hilfiger.
The final blow came from Cindy Levitt, a merchandise manager at Hot Topic, who revealed that the chain grew increasingly concerned when JNCOs began appearing in other stores. In Levitt's words, the brand had become 'uncool,' a statement that likely stung JNCO fans deeply.
By 2001, Revatex had shut down its large 10,000-square-foot factory in Los Angeles, transitioning production to local contractors. By 2003, the Revahs had distanced themselves from JNCOs, leaving other licensees to keep the brand alive sporadically over the years. However, in 2019, Milo Revah returned to the brand, relaunching it with the help of his daughter, Camilla, and introduced a line of jeans with a classic 50-inch leg, hoping to tap into a nostalgic, older customer base.
But what made JNCOs so appealing in the first place? They had a functional purpose—especially for skateboarders. The wide legs easily accommodated kneepads or Rollerblades, allowing wearers to skate in stealth mode. For most kids, though, there was no hidden gear; they simply wanted to embrace what they perceived as the style of those on the fringes of society—or at least the safe, fun side of the fringe that resonated with suburban teens. The more adults complained, the more kids gravitated toward them. JNCOs were just another fashion statement in a long line of trends—from bobby socks to bell bottoms—that allowed kids to express their identity and assert their independence. While vintage JNCOs might seem ridiculous to some, that's precisely what made them feel so right to others in the '90s.
This story has been adapted from an episode of Throwback on YouTube.
