Walking down the hall to class, he steals the attention of students. Some giggle, some roll their eyes and some just stare at him.

Enamored with his fancy threads, others look in envy at his style, which no other man has imitated successfully.

And where does he get his power to make others gaze in disbelief?

Two words: pajama pants.

Jeff Plumblee, a senior in electrical engineering, has been wearing pajama pants to class every day since he entered N.C. State as a freshman.

“I started doing this at band camp a week before classes started,” he said. “And it’s been almost perfectly consistent since then.”

Nicknamed “Fancy Pants” by his peers, Plumblee owns a wide range of pajama pants that he has collected for more than three years.

“I’m a sousaphone player in the marching band and everyone in our section traditionally gets a nickname,” he said. “My section gave me ÔFancy Pants.'”

Although Plumblee cannot explain the reasoning for choosing pajama pants as his trademark, he said he wanted to draw attention from his peers in a unique way.

“I knew I wanted to be different and stand out,” he said. “I hadn’t really been a stand-out kind of guy in high school and I wanted to change things. College was a … great new beginning for me.”

Plumblee said his friends loved the new style and urged him to continue. His collection has reached to about 35 pairs of pants. “I did it for several days in a row and everyone around me really loved it … so I kept going,” he said.

He said he wears his pants everywhere except to work, where he might get them dirty, and church.

“I keep one pair of blue jeans here at school for times when I might be required to wear them for something with marching band,” he said. “And that’s about the extent of normal pants that I keep at school.”

Plumblee said his collection ranges in color, material and designs. The designs range from Snoopy to Oscar Meyer wiener to tie-dyed.

“My first pair was green Hawaiian-print palm trees … they’re a little small now,” he said. “I have worn some pants that are more toned down and some that are wilder and crazier.”

Although Plumblee said his favorite pair is orange with banana peels on them, he still follows a rotation so that people don’t think he is wearing dirty pants.

“I try to rotate because people tend to notice when I recycle too frequently,” he said.

Plumblee said students on campus tend to tolerate his style and attribute it to having a good sense of humor. But he said not all people have viewed it in the same lighthearted way.

“I went back to my high school for a football game and I got a lot of strange looks from people that didn’t know me or had never seen me in pajama pants before,” he said. “But anyone who disapproved never said anything to me about it.”

He said his family, especially his mother, hesitated to accept his style.

“She claims that she won’t support it,” he said. “I think my dad prefers to think of me as his son regardless of what I’m wearing.”

“I could’ve had tattoos and a fish hook through my eyebrow,” he said. “At least these I can take off.”

Despite mixed views from family, friends and strangers, Plumblee said his wardrobe has actually benefited him in the classroom.

“I think that it is easier for my professors to remember me,” he said.

Plumblee’s girlfriend Jenna Matino, a senior in electrical engineering, said she doesn’t mind his pants. They have dated for eight months, and Matino said she doesn’t know him any other way.

“Clothes don’t really bother me,” she said. “I don’t wear a normal style; I wear baggy jeans. I’m cool with people having a different style.”

Matino said she likes when he wears a blue pair of pajama pants with different-colored frogs.

But it’s not as easy as picking out what color and pattern to wear. Plumblee has to take weather into consideration. Weather can be a difficult factor when wearing pajama pants every day, according to him. He said he tries to keep the bottom of his pants from getting wet.

“When it is really hot, for a long time I just dealt with it,” Plumblee said. “Some of them had shrunk up too short, so now I have cut-off pajama pants for the heat.”

Plumblee is attached to his pants. He said he won’t stop wearing pajamas until he has to.

“I imagine I’ll graduate and I’ll get a job where I have to dress nice and work in an office where I can’t do this anymore,” he said.

Until that day comes, Plumblee said things will continue as normal.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being called Fancy Pants,” Plumblee said.