Entry · catalog no. 0678
gators
/ /ˈɡeɪtərz/ /GAY-terz
noun (plural) · Nationwide; strongholds in the South and Midwest · 1990s
✓ Verified
1.
Alligator-skin dress shoes — the summit of clean in Black church, entertainment, and player fashion. Worn to be seen, named to be praised.
“Easter Sunday, first pew: new suit, new hat, gators to match.”
Origin & Attribution
Black sharp-dressing tradition running from jazz-era performers through the pulpit and the players' circuit. The clipped name was standard in the ghetto-fabulous 1990s revival of alligator-skin shoes documented across hip-hop fashion histories, and Big Tymers' "Still Fly" (2002) opened with them — gator boots, pimped-out Gucci suit — as the very definition of broke-but-fly.
1990s
Ghetto-fabulous era re-crowns alligator-skin shoes as gators
2002
Big Tymers open Still Fly with gator boots
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
Nationwide; strongholds in the South and Midwest · 1990s
Spoken by
Churchmen, entertainers, players
$GATORSThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady24 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
60/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2002
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Big Tymers, Still Fly, Cash Money Records
2002
■
+ Cite a sourceHip-hop fashion histories documenting 1990s alligator-shoe revival
1990s
See also