Sagging pants is all about fashion for teens and twenty-somethings, but sometimes fashion hurts. Could this be a trend that comes back and bite wearers in the butt when they get older?
"Sagging pants, I think it looks foolish," said E.J. Agoyo of Sacramento. "There's no positives to sagging pants."
Champagne McKee disagreed. "My boyfriend, he sags and honestly I think it is attractive," she said.
Whether making a fashion statement or getting girls is the motivation, few who sag may expect to end up needing an orthopedic surgeon. A St. Louis Chiropractor believed this is a real possibility.
"These young men who are walking around with their pants sagging, you can rest assured there's going to be an epidemic of hip replacements because of the way they have to alter their gait to swing those legs to keep those pants up, they are wearing the hip joints out," Dr. Michael Gerdine told the St. Louis American.
"It is not a natural way that we are supposed to be walking, so to walk like that all the time there has to be some type of repercussion," said Agoyo.
Nicholas Commander nearly lost his pants while walking down K Street in Downtown Sacramento.
"That's why I have back up one's," he said.
Commander says he has been sagging his pants for years and it is all he knows. "I have back problems for sure," said Commander. "I don't feel comfortable when I' m not."
Dr. Robert Jamieson, a hip and knee specialist isn't convinced sagging pants will lead to a boom in his business.
"They sag their pants and that throws off their normal gait cycle. The question is, do they do that long enough for it to cause long term effects. My guess would be no," said Dr. Jamieson.
But he didn't dismiss the pain that saggers like Nicholas Commander feel. "In the short term, what you can do is throw of your mechanics enough that you definitely could have more tendonitis and low back problems," he explained.
Former sagger, Michael Bennett experienced enough pain, he decided to break from the trend.
"I had pain in my legs and foot just because of how I was sagging. I just changed it up, started wearing a belt, pulled up my pants. My mom didn't like it anyway," said Bennett.
Dr. Jamieson said someone would have to alter your gait for a long period of time for life long damage. Since most teens eventually outgrow sagging, they will likely not do any permanent damage.
