Long live Lisa Frank! Gen Z, 40-year-olds and even babies are channeling a '90s revival

In elementary school, Christina Martin loved the bright colors and whimsical animals of artist-entrepreneur Lisa Frank.

There were leopard prints and animals with big eyes, dolphins jumping out of a teal or purple ocean. As a self-described "weird kid," Martin was drawn to the fantasy of it all. But while her classmates toted binders with the iconic characters, Martin's mother couldn't afford to buy her any. (A friend eventually gave Martin her hand-me-down Lisa Frank things when she got new ones.)

So about 30 years later, when Martin, now 40, saw an ad on her Facebook feed for Lisa Frank Crocs, she knew she had to have them — even though she had vowed she'd never wear those round rubber shoes. Her sister bought them for her as a birthday gift, and she's worn them every day since they arrived.

"It's so silly, they're just shoes but just, the nostalgia bone," Martin, a Rosamond, Calif., resident, said with a laugh. "That's where they get you."

The '90s are back, and brands that, Caboodles plastic cases and more — are now banking on their old customers wanting to relive their childhoods.