One day, as you’re walking around the Cal Poly Campus, it finally hits you. You look down and see Birks to your left, Patagonia jackets to your right and Lululemon leggings on practically everyone. You start to panic – looking down at your normal flip flops, random jacket you got at a thrift store, and Target-brand leggings – asking yourself, DO I EVEN BELONG HERE?
Okay so, maybe you haven’t come to such an extreme realization as this, but it truly does seem like Birkenstocks, Patagonia, and Lululemon are the holy trinity of Cal Poly trends. Although this may be the norm, there’s definitely another avenue to fitting in without the famous trio. Whether they just don’t really suit your personal style, or you simply don’t have the funds, here are a couple other trends that Cal Poly students are a fan of.
First off, we love carrying around things covered in stickers. Thats right, they’re back in the game, and our 5-year-old selves are very excited. It seems to be the new type of art here to see how many stickers you can pile onto your laptop while still keeping that aesthetic appeal. Want your laptop to have a pop of color? Stickers. Want to be able to tell your hydro-flask apart from the rest? Stickers. Want to personalize something even though you can barely even draw stick figures? STICKERS. We like to think of them as tattoos for your things, and they’re very addicting.
This next trend is one that is truly a friend to all of us: dad hats. Not saying you should invade your dad’s closet and pick up on his golfing hats or anything, but really, these things are great. With these hats as the common thing around here, no one knows if you’re actually having a bad hair day or if you’re just trendin’ hard (it’s best to keep them wondering). Trying to get to class without everyone you know seeing you? A slight head tilt down and that hat is covering your whole face, in only a slightly less amazing way than the cloak of invisibility.
The best part is that you can buy hats everywhere, whether you want to represent our school, your favorite team, or you just found a cool hat online. We bet these are going to be popping up even more as we move into sunnier days.
Besides these other material trends on our campus, there is an even more important commonality between students across the board. The number one trend on our campus is a smile (I know, how cliché). But seriously, we live in the “happiest place in America,” and that definitely shows on the faces of our Mustangs.
How can you blame us? We live surrounded by beautiful mountains, we are just minutes from the beach, and c’mon, have you seen our campus during the sunset? Although most trends are constantly changing, and others are too expensive, this one is in it for the long run.