80sfashion.info: November 2014

Just about every young lad had a sports bag of some kind during their school days back in the 70s and 80s. My Adidas bag was pretty well-used and, more often than not, contained items not relating to any kind of sport whatsoever. On some days my bag was crammed full of tupperware containing an array of ingredients for my cookery lesson, leaving little room for exercise books, stationary and my lunch box. However, I dreaded the day that P.E. lessons would take place on the same day as cookery class. Somehow, I had to cram in my football kit as well, leaving the zipper on the bulging bag almost impossible to close-up!

Retro style sports bags are a pretty cool item to own, and the first one featured here (by Adidas, obviously!) looks very much like one of the bags I owned back in the day. I actually went through many different sports bags and they took quite a battering let me tell you!

Looking at this picture reminds me that I would have put all of my exercise books in the side pocket, well out of the way of my mud-covered football boots. That is, unless I was in a rush to get home from school. Then I would, no doubt, just cram everything into the main section of the bag as quickly as possible, leaving my once pristine exercise books with dog-eared pages and covered in half the playing field.

The bag featured here is available in three colours; red, blue and black with metallic gold lettering. There were a good many red and white bags around, I remember, due to the popularity of football teams such as Liverpool, Man United and Arsenal. I was an Aston Villa supporter, but claret and blue was, unfortunately, exceedingly difficult to come by.

Apple Green Gola Retro Sports Bag

The Gola brand was also very popular and this authentic-looking shoulder bag featured here is available in no less than 20 different colours. It's ideal not just for sports, of course, but also air travel, work and school. Apparently, these bags are all the rage with youngsters at the moment. Here are a couple more examples of the colours available;

This is just a small example of the number of designs available. The zebra print and neon coloured bags are very 80s, and I particularly like the fourth bag which features an iconic design that was very popular in the 1970s and is also available in black and white.

If you want to own an ultra cool retro bag then, it seems, Adidas and Gola are the most popular choice right now, and these are certainly two brands I remember the most from my own childhood.

View all Gola bags
View all Adidas bags

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 80s Shoulder Bag

If you want your bag to really stand out from the crowd then this uber-cool bag featuring a ZX Spectrum keyboard design should fit the bill. It looks fantastic and is certainly a head-turner. For those of you too young to remember, the "speccy" as it was known was a British-built 8-bit computer that became hugely popular during the 1980s, selling around five million units in total.

Danger Mouse 80s Cartoon Sports Bag

Danger Mouse was a truly British cartoon that was broadcast between 1982 and 1992 on ITV. I certainly remember watching it after a hard day at school, and it became one of my favourite cartoons. Unbelievably, at its peak 21 million viewers tuned in - that's phenomenal for a cartoon! No doubt, the voices of David Jason and Terry Scott helped to fuel its success.

There are actually several designs of bag available, some of which feature Dangermouse's sidekick Penfold, and they are available as wash bags and flight bags, too.