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Crazy, huh? That it’s been twenty years. Twenty years since five brash, talented freshmen stepped foot on Michigan’s campus and turned the basketball world upside down. The Fab Five—Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Chris Webber, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson—rocked baggy shorts, threw alley-oops, intimidated opponents, scared the crap out of Midwestern housewives and generaly just didn’t give a damn. The Fab Five became a social phenomenon, and now, K1X is ready to immortalize their attitude in a clothing line. Introducing the “Freshmen Swagger” pack. The genesis, straight from our friends at K1X:
Never before had a freshmen collective dominated the NCAA so spectacularly. And never before had hip hop culture left such an obvious footprint in the clean and wholesome world of college sports. The Fab Five demonstrated unbridled confidence and an aggressive in-your-face attitude. They invented the extra baggy shorts, sported black socks and bald heads, while talking more trash than Middle America could take. Adding alley-oops and impressive winning streaks for extra flavor, these freshmen were making headlines left and right.
You either loved these guys—or hated them. As you may guess, K1X (est. in 1993) loved them for personifying “swagger” to perfection. And K1X was very much inspired by this early blend of basketball and hip hop, a mixture which remains a main ingredient of most K1X designs to this day. In 1992, the Michigan Wolverines lost the NCAA championship game vs. the Duke Blue Devils. In 2012, those Blue Devils are a mere statistic. But the Fab Five will forever remain icons. K1X’s “Freshmen Swagger” pack is a heartfelt tribute to Michigan’s Fab Five.
