The game on the pitch at Super Bowl on Sunday night was only half the story. As the Philadelphia Eagles led 24-0 over the Kansas City Chiefs, a pair of jeans worn by the American rapper and Pulitzer prize winner Kendrick Lamar for his half-time performance commanded their own crowd online.

Variously identified as bootcut, flared and bell-bottomed, the pair of blue-wash jeans were the object of derision and lust. “Kendrick wearing bootcut jeans was so special,” said the writer and comedian Sophia Benoit on social media. “I could not take my eyes off his hems,” said another user.

As one TikTok user wrote: “Anyone know the brand of these jeans? The fit? Amazing. The flare? Immaculate. About to order them. Best ad for jeans I’ve seen in a while.”

They were also, in some commenters’ eyes, a noteworthy and moment-enhancing choice for a performance that was hailed as history-making: Samuel L Jackson was dressed in homage to Uncle Sam; backing dancers wore red, white and blue and stood in an American flag formation, and Serena Williams crip walked.

The performance, which went out to the 65,000 fans in the Superdome in New Orleans, including Donald Trump, and millions more at home, was also seen as a victory in his feud with the Canadian rapper Drake. As the cultural critic Hunter Harris wrote online: “And he did all that in KICK FLARES!”

The jeans, which pooled around a pair of Nike Air Max 96s, were the work of luxury fashion label Celine and were originally designed as part of the womenswear spring/summer 2024 collection. Low-rise, made in Japan and costing £830, they also come with a “raw hem” on the back, which gives the impression of a too-long jean that has been scuffed as it is trodden on – a look that teenagers in the noughties will be all too familiar with.

While Dylan Kelly, an editor at Hypebeast, a magazine for men’s contemporary fashion and streetwear, said he personally enjoyed a bootcut jean, he didn’t think the average American was ready to see their favourite rapper in them. “And the discourse surrounding his outfit is proof of that,” he said.

Whether the sight of these jeans on such a historic world stage will galvanise a moment for bootcut jeans depends on who you talk to. Arguably for some they are already there: trends in denim are divisive, labyrinthine, constantly evolving and, as with so many things, generational. Gen Z are finding a lot to love 2000s styles and pop culture, including the cut of the era’s jeans. On the other hand, those who perhaps wore them first time around, accessorised with a trucker cap, seem less likely to have been enamoured.

On the men’s catwalks, things have been pivoting back to more “indie sleaze” inspired skinny jeans. But bootcut styles are for the moment reportedly still popular with luxury shoppers: on menswear site Mr Porter, customer searches for bootcut jeans have increased by 346% in the past six months. On secondhand resale site Depop, popular with younger generations, “the popularity of the bootcut jean has been quietly bubbling under the radar over the last few months”, according to a spokesperson. Searches have increased by 47% since December, with Diesel and Levi’s particularly popular brands, “but this super high-profile endorsement looks to accelerate it back to centre-stage once again”.

Plus, they are already proving popular in womenswear, with Vogue recently sounding the bootcut klaxon. While Gap doesn’t currently have any men’s bootcut jeans, it is, according to its head of buying Sapna Brooks, “seeing the trend and sales grow immensely across women’s and girls, which indicates that they are a style a lot of people are after at the moment”.

If anyone was on the fence about flared, bootcut jeans before, the sight of Lamar wearing them for such a momentous event made a compelling case. Given the chatter around the return of skinny jeans, Kelly is feeling positive about what has been a divisive fashion moment: “Whether or not you’re a fan of his look, I think we should all be thankful that Kendrick turned the tides toward a bootcut instead.”