In our never ending quest to provide all of our readers with relatable, ‘slice of life’ style content, we here at the SoBros Network feel the time to weigh in on social commentary has officially come. It’s once again time for me, Big Natural, to open up the leather-bound parchment pages of the annals of history. Put on your plush robe, light your pipe, start a fire, and get ready for deep contemplation. This is the as-often-as-I-remember-to-write-it column: Forgotten Treasures of Americana. Today, we are going to be reliving the 90s era mall favorite Gadzooks.
With Black Friday coming up, I wanted to take a look at one of my favorite bits of old school mall nostalgia, the clothing store known as Gadzooks. Those were the days – I was born in 1986, so I can remember my own personal heyday of indoor malls being the mid-to-late 1990s. I know plenty of y’all will argue that the 80s had a better indoor mall run, and I won’t argue with that. I can’t. I literally wasn’t around for most of it. For me, nothing beat going to the mall on a Friday night. That was ultimate freedom – school was over, the freakin’ weekend was kicking off, more than likely my parents had taken me to Sir Pizza, and I had a little bit of allowance that was burning a hole in my pocket.
Or, sometimes, we’d go on a Saturday afternoon, and I’d get to hit up the food court for some lunch. Man, I do miss some legitimate mall food court meals. There’s a mall in Freehold, New Jersey that still remains true to the old school indoor mall vibes that I get to go to every time I travel to visit my fiancé’s family up there, and any chance I get to eat at Nathan’s in the food court, it brings back those memories. On rare occasion, we’d go on a random school night and that always felt like a veritable field trip.
I can remember being a younger kid and being fascinated with Gadzooks – they always had the wildest shit in there, but I was so intimidated by the teenagers that hung out in there, that I would never walk in. I couldn’t risk being seen as a little old greenhorn with my mom, but I was certain I would get a wedgie, or *gasp* I might catch some secondhand smoke, if I walked in alone. But, you best believe that young Stoney would peek in those windows every time we walked by. I liked the shiny shirts.
Once I was older, I did grow comfortable going in there and shopping. But, I can remember the clothes being rather pricy. I rarely ever had the money to actually buy something in there, and when I did, it was usually something off the clearance rack. They had all the JNCO stuff, which was huge back then. I guess it’s still technically huge. Pretty sure you could build a 10-person tent out of a pair of JNCOs. And, they had those damn shiny shirts. You have to keep in mind that I was a young wrestling fan at the time – I thought that The Rock and Chris Jericho were the pinnacle of style. Any time I could find a shirt like they would wear on the clearance rack, I’d get it. I’m talking these kinds of shirts:
I couldn’t even wear that shit to school because we had a dress code! I just had these sitting around the closet for when I wanted to go to the mall with my friends and have everyone think I was a ROCK STAR! So, shout out to Gadzooks. I’d put it right up there with KB Toys, Suncoast, and Walden Books as the 90s mall giants in my book.
Eventually, Gadzooks struggled to keep up with trends, sales declined, and it was eventually bought out and all of the stores were closed down. Sad. A quick fun fact before we get out of here, though: they actually recreated Gadzooks for the Fear Street movies that dropped on Netflix earlier this year. Also, if you’re looking for more Black Friday content (lolwhy?), check out this episode of Phone It In that Rooster and I did on Black Friday a year ago.
FORGOTTEN TREASURES OF AMERICANA ARCHIVES
- The 2004 Quiznos Commercial
- 3D Doritos
- 3OH!3
- AIM
- American Gladiators
- The Basilisk
- The Bermuda Triangle
- Braided Belts
- Casey Kasem
- Citizen’s Arrest
- Hammocks In Centennial Park
- Hasbro WWF Action Figures
- Homework
- Mama’s Family
- Micro Machines
- Muppet Treasure Island
- Playing Outside
- Pogs
- Quicksand
- Slamball
- SNICK
- Surge
- That Marilyn Manson rumor…
- The Midnight Snack
- The Super Soaker 50
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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