Sears' Toughskins - Jeans from Hell

My parents would spray my Toughskins, an oversized Army jacket from a garage sale, some red flannel lined brown knit jersey gloves with Scotchguard and make me go skiing. The first tumble I took would leave me soaked from head to toe with my cracked reinforced knee Toughskins rubbing my knees like a cheese grater until they were shiny and raw. If that's not child abuse I don't know what is!! Gortex and other exotic space aged fibers have pussified Americans kids. We were the last tough generation... We were legally able to stand 30 yards apart from another 12 year old and throw sharpened metal spikes at each other while attempting to get a bullseye in the now banned LawnJarts game!!! Now they're made of Nerf material... Wimps.

Posted on 05/01/2009 at 8:05:08 PM

I wore Tough Skin jeans in the early seventies. Man those things were indeed indestructable. The heavy, built in pre-patched knees insured logevity. As I grew in height but maintained my waist size they eventually became the dreaded " HIGHWATETRS" oh my god!! Even after letting the hem out, I still out grew them, height wise. Indestructable, yes they were. Through countless bicycle accidents, dirt claud war-fare, and back yard football games the suckers held together. Arggggghhhhh!!!!

Posted on 12/07/2008 at 8:12:40 AM

I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, before the advent of Sears Toughskins, but their appearance, features and characteristics reminded me of the Billy The Kid Texans and Farah Gold Strikes jeans I wore as a kid. These, too, featured those infernal, unyielding polyglas-belted reinforced knees and the fabric--a blend of cotton and nylon--in a similar manner as Toughskins' tri-blend, did not breathe. As a result, they were hot, sweaty and stuffy and chafed badly. But if that wasn't bad enough in warm weather, my mother also dressed my brother and me in the red plaid flannel lined BTK Texans in winter so we could suffer year round. Of course, I should mention, too, that Sears' 1950s-60s forebear to Toughskins, was a brand of boys jeans called Circle-S which, like the BTK Texans and Farah Gold Strikes, were made of a cotton-nylon blend. I never recall having had a pair of the Circle-S jeans, but they were just as hideous looking as their counterparts, all of them sporting silver rivets and

Posted on 11/15/2008 at 6:11:51 AM

Gosh what memories! I used to wear them most every day through grade school, middle school and early high school (75-85). Sears stopped making them new around '83 or so but then mom would get them at thrift stores or I would get hand me downs. I think I wore nearly all the colors. A blackish indigo was the staple, but I recall a more bluish indigo, bright blue, sky blue, forest green, chocolate brown, bright red and other colors to school and plaid ones on Sundays for church. I had the jackets too. Kids at school would tease me about the jeans, particularly in middle school would call me "Toughskins boy". I remember one girl in 8th grade asking me if my mom still dressed me. Very embarrassing. But the truth was I kind of liked them because they were rugged and got soft when you got used to them. In spite of the name they weren't so tough in the rear though, seemed like whenever I got spanked in them, they were no protection at all!

Posted on 11/02/2008 at 12:11:41 PM

This is hillarious. My husband and I both wore tough skins, I got the hand me downs from my older brother. And boy do they hold up. I was talking with my 13 year old son about them, he actually wants to try a pair. I dont know if Sears still sells them. Im glad there are other people out there who had to wear these funny pants.

Posted on 10/27/2008 at 10:10:11 AM

My denim jacket that I have worn over a thousand times in over a decade still looks exactly as it did when I got it. Dark denim and no damn holes! Unfortunately, I lost it, otherwise I would have worn it to my grave

Posted on 10/02/2008 at 10:10:03 PM

EXACTLY, I bought my son 6 pears of levis last year and 5 of them had holes in them in the 1st month. AND SEARS will replace these if they get holes in them, I think they look alot better these days too with the carpenter cut

Posted on 08/01/2008 at 7:08:54 AM

Toughskins made my knees sweat, which inevitably led to horrible rashes. Thank you Sears, for a childhood without shorts.

Posted on 06/09/2008 at 9:06:03 PM

Funny as hell, I was also a "husky" wearer of those dreaded toughskins..I hated them, especially when I would wear holes in the double tough knees then my mom being the thrifty person she was would iron on a miscolored patch over the knees...if you thought the jeans were bad to begin with, try being an overweight "husky" pre-teen wearing awful colored jeans with different colored patches on both knees..I was pathetic...

Posted on 12/17/2007 at 4:12:12 PM

This just cracks me up. I will tell you how tough those pants were. My brother, who was a husky wearer (LMAO) got shot in the butt with a BB gun and it did not even hurt him!!!

Posted on 10/27/2007 at 3:10:00 PM