When I was a youngster, the one fad that miserable underlings and “popular” folks alike really could not be without was the Slap Bracelet. A piece of metal covered with fabric, curls into a bracelet shape when you “slap” it on your wrist. Look at mine, they’re all so 80s! They are all from my childhood.
Clearly I am awesome.
Though wearing these never made me any more popular, I felt cool wearing them… and playing with them if class got too boring. I’m surprised they weren’t banned from school.
You can also set up booby traps with these by laying them flat on the floor of a dark room and they will pop up madly if anyone tries to walk across them, which is semi-entertaining.
When they stopped being popular, rumor had they were no longer available for purchase, because kids had taken the wrappers off the metal and used the core to go hold up convenience stores or commit seppuku, or whatever. More than likely they just died out with slouchy sweatshirts and day-glo socks, though.
I have since seen them for purchase, but nothing can top the ones from the 80s.
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Allee Willis
How out of it was I that I never even heard of these? But I was busy being very popular and cool in the ’80’s and had my own style in total rebellion against the big hair, ripped sweatshirts and spandex that ruled the decade.
Thank you for your most informative post. I love the idea of stepping on one of these and having it act like a snapping turtle.
Also love that the ones with the words are song titles. Which is probably why I missed these as none of them bore any of the hits I wrote in the 80’s (unless there’s a license for “Neutron Dance”, “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” or one of the other ones I don’t know about. Which certainly wouldn’t be the first time!)
Nessa
Hmmm… I can’t really speculate, but these may have only been “popular” with the 13-and-under set. They were sold at trendy shops selling items for teen-a-boos at the mall. Every kid in school had one, be it the nerdiest nerd, the jockiest boy, or the girliest girl. Not sure I can think of any other fad that was so overwhelmingly popular across the entire spectrum of students. Though I don’t know if they were equally popular over the whole country.
I’m definitely sure the song titles are unlicensed and used with out permission by the far-off unknown slap-bracelet factory, so you never know!
MyFunCloset
I remember them in the early 90’s. They were madly selling at the flea market…and not cheap for what it was. At some point I heard they were banned from schools because they were “dangerous”.
Nice collection.
Nessa
Hehe, thanks. I remember big gold fish bowls full of them at places like Claire’s and Spencer Gifts.