User Contributed Dictionary
Pronunciation
- /d͡ʒæmz/
Noun
jams- Plural of jam
Verb
jams- third-person singular of jam
Extensive Definition
JAMS is one of the lines of clothing produced by
Jams World.
Many baby boomers
remember the wildly popular JAMS shorts of the 1960s and 1980s.
JAMS were closely associated with the California and Hawaii surf
scenes. The JAMS brand still exists, and has grown into today's
Jams World clothing and accessories line.
History
Company founder Dave Rochlen was a legendary surfer, originally in Santa Monica, California, then in Hawaii. Inspired by his own desire to find more comfortable surfing attire, combined with a LIFE Magazine article showing Russians looking comfortable attending the beach in bathrobes, Rochlen bought some brightly-colored floral fabric and asked his wife Keanuenue to make a short, baggy pajama with a sewn-up fly and cut-off at the knee. With this vision, they created the first pair of JAMS on December 25, 1964. Soon, all of Rochlen's surfing buddies wanted a pair of his JAMS.Rochlen quit his job as a systems analyst and
started his new company Surf Line Hawaii, Ltd. to make and sell his
new creation. Soon after his first commercial pairs of JAMS hit the
Makaha Beach in Hawaii, their appeal as a surfing lifestyle item
landed Rochlen and a group of his surfing buddies a two-page spread
in the June 1965 issue of LIFE
Magazine, the magazine that inspired this whole phenomena.
Within no time the JAMS line was picked up and sold in exclusive
shops that included Bloomingdales,
Macy's, and
Lord
& Taylor.
It is widely acknowledged that JAMS were
revolutionary. The JAMS look was baggy and bohemian, and Rochlen took it a
step further by introducing JAMS in wild prints and shocking pinks
and greens. It was a clear departure from the more subtle color
combinations and detailing (basically, stripes) of existing
boardshorts.