Editor’s note: Anyone that knows me knew that this was coming LOL … Let’s get started! (PS: Ya’ll know a whole segment on Bōsōzoku is coming at some point in time too! 👀)
So let’s get one question out of the way first: What the heck does this have to do with Gyaru and why is this under Gyaru History if there are no Gyaru in it? Well, remember hearing about the yankiis that Kogals in their time would hang out with? YUP. Teamers. That’s right: Teamers were basically the original yankiis when Gyaru was starting.
Teamers started forming in the 1980’s but began appearing in Shibuya back in 1989. They’re considered a “Runaway Tribe” in which the Bōsōzoku also are classified under, among others, and these tribes go back to as early as the 1960’s. Teamers were essentially the more fashionable of the lot. The teamer is an individual in the group while team is the term for the entire group. The reason that an individual was called a teamer was because they still did everything in a group. They had many antisocial behaviors like blackmail, theft, and assault, and they spread all over the country as yankiis.
While the runaway tribes of the 70’s wore a special attack suit carrying the national flag, the teamer was said to be fashionable, and it was relatively easy to enter, and it got the attention of Gyaru almost immediately.
Teamer Fashion
Teamer fashion was based on American casual style, where many teamers could be seen with long hair, denim pants, leather jackets and engineer boots. So basically at the time they’re pretty fashionable, and after that, other styles such as surfers and underground hip hop fashions were introduced.
So here’s the thing right? All of these teamers are youth, and by youth I mean high schoolers and university students. There are two origin theories bot having to do with students: Either the “Funkys” (team formed by the Nakano High School students) or the “Winners” (Aoyama Gakuin University students) started teams in which the team would walk around Shibuya Center Gai wearing matching windbreakers and stadium jackets, selling party tickets that Kogals would often buy.
There were quite a few different teams around at the time: Udagawa Guard, Bandit, Alligator, Metamorphosis Club, Koikeya, Upjohn, AMG, Buttbus, PBB, etc. and later some bigger players like TOP-J and KGB.
Center Gai was tough at the time because teams would literally use the place as their hunting ground. Not only would there be conflict between teams but some would often hurt regular people just for the hell of it. Because of this, many establishments lost business or were used as hubs.
Places like McDonalds and Burger King were the most common places where these youth would hang out, where according to store clerks, they were loud to the point of making everyone feel uncomfortable, they smoked cigarettes, and would leave their belongings knowing they could come back and the items would be there, intact. Anyway, these places got so bad that they were basically considered turfs for each team that was located in Center Gai.
It turns out that it was very common to join a teamer back in the day, and celebrities, businessmen, and all used to be in them. Some even share their stories of their time as teamers now that these are basically extinct. Here’s more information on being a teamer from one former teamer in particular that caught my attention:
“Let’s show the strength of a man to the fullest” is the underlying feeling of joining a team.
Sometimes team business became more busy than normal, so many teamers attending school had to drop out. Teamer business usually consisted of wandering around the local city, fighting with other teamer groups, riding a motorcycle around town, and going to a club.
After a while, the amount of teamers would increase steadily, and senior members would became a teamer representing their prefecture and interviewed in various magazines. Just like an ibesa, generations of teamers would graduate (usually by the time they turned 19 years old) and new leaders would be appointed.
To get a better idea of teamers, here’s a video that depicted the hustle and bustle of the cities being occupied at the time: