Adrian Northrup

Bum buddy, butt bag, belt bag, waist pack, belly bag.

What do all these terms have in common? They are all nicknames for the fanny pack, of course.

The craze of the fanny pack started in the early 1990s. A fanny pack is a small pouch worn around the waist with one or more zippered pockets. The packs were worn either in the front of the body or slung back over the butt.

The origin of the trend is somewhat impossible to pinpoint. However, while researching, two possible options surfaced.

Writer Doris Goldstein claimed the bag actually transformed from a chatelaine. A chatelaine is a waist-like pouch that Roman women wore around with their house keys in them. Goldstein claims the pouch then formed into the purse, then into the fanny pack. Moving on.

New York Times fashion writer Ann-Marie Schiro said Helmut Lang redesigned the waist pack. Lang is a New York fashion designer responsible for ’90s fads like those sexy clingy T-shirts you used to wear. Yes, he is still working.

Today, fanny packs are used for a variety of health and business reasons, as well as by a few fashion-daring individuals.

According to Thad Holle, a sales representative from Baggear.com, casinos often buy fanny packs for their card dealers to place money into.

Industrial companies also purchase the bags, but out of clear fabric, for safety issues, he said.

Holle said Baggear.com sells about 500 waist packs a year, with about 100 sold for personal use.

Senior Jon Radcliffe is one of the few fashion-brave individuals that wear the accessory.

Radcliffe started using his royal-purple-with-black-accents pack this summer, while he was traveling around eastern Europe.

“The convenience was striking,” he said.

His fanny pack contains everything his pockets normally do, Radcliffe said. Before switching to the pack, Radcliffe said he lost things out of his pockets, including money and his driver’s license.

“I haven’t lost anything since (using the fanny pack),” he said.

Radcliffe said he also wears the pack when he goes out on the weekends.

“People love it,” he said. “They’re definitely coming back.”

Other personal uses for the bag are emergency kits, gun concealers and hiking packs. According to one Web site, if a police officer sees a fanny pack, they assume a gun is inside.

Writer Cate Corcoran also claims that, as of 2004, the bags are making their way back. She noted designer Wendy Mullin and the Urban Outfitters Web site as the fashion forwarders. The current Urban Outfitters site does not have any fanny packs.

Gucci also has their own version of fanny packs that can be found on Ebay.

So if you’re walking across campus and view one of the ’90s-trend fanny packs or see one in your favorite store at the mall, don’t panic. They may actually be coming back.

Editor’s Note: While researching this article, the writer found zero credible Web sites, but found 67 Facebook groups with none in Eau Claire. Just saying.