As sure as it's winter at Penn State, the snow will fall, the ice will come and students will walk, slip and slide their way to classes.

But winter weather also brings an array of fashion possibilities, and as the Office of Physical Plant (OPP) works to keep campus sidewalks safe for travel, a new style element is creeping up: denim, khaki and sweatpants everywhere. Take a trip, tie-dye. You're old news, stone-washed.

The salt stain is in town for the season. Get used to it.

"It's a weird stain, that salt streak that gets left on clothes," said Linda Bowman, general manager of Balfurd Cleaners, 320 W. Beaver Ave. "It's very common around this time of year to see white marks on the cuffs of pants from all the salt on the sidewalks around campus and in town."

Lloyd Rhoades, OPP manager of central services, said salt is used on campus because it can be a useful agent for melting ice.

"It really depends on the temperature, the conditions of the surfaces and the direction the temperature is going in," Rhoades said. "We may pre-salt in places if it is going to be around freezing, but in a lot of cases, we plow and then put down salt after that. We use salt for most conditions over 20 degrees. It really is the best way to go."

As the salt melts the ice and snow, making it easier to walk around, it also creates the salt stain effect that has become a common addition to many pant legs, stockings and shoes.

"When it's too cold for the salt to melt the snow, I think there are cases where it could crush up and get onto clothing," Rhoades said. "But that effect mostly occurs after it has had some effectiveness and is working to melt the snow."

Some people may find that after a few days of wearing clothing in the snow and salt, the salt patterns that form take on a deeper, more layered effect with some interesting variations in color, height and shape.

This style can usually only be achieved by students who make the walk each day to class, while not so regularly washing their pants.

For the washing-machine challenged, Bowman offers some comfort.

"Salt can ruin clothes, but we get it out usually about 60 percent of the time," he said. "It's common for many students to not wash their pants on a very regular basis, and sometimes the material is actually stiff because it was splashed so much by the salt. But for fabrics like denim, we can usually work on the pants and get it to come out."

Regardless of personal style, road salt unifies the Penn State campus with a common look -- a thin, white layer of winter safety creating undesired custom work at the bottom of pants. But if you wish to avoid this salty addition to winter style, Lou Marrara, owner of Marrara's Cleaners, 324 E. College Ave., offers some advice.

"With the way some young people dress today, walking around with their pants dragging in the snow, clothes can get ruined very easily," Marrara said. "But if people use good common sense, wearing boots, tucking in their pant legs before they go outside and washing some of the stains out with soap and water right away, we really don't usually have a lot of trouble getting [salt] out of clothes."

Bowman said choosing the right fabrics to wear in the snow is also helpful.

"It's more difficult to get salt stains out of fabrics like rayon, silk and wool," she said. "People should avoid wearing fabrics like those in the snow and salt if they can. Anything we can't wash gives us a lot more trouble in removing weather stains."

So take care of your pants, watch your step and embrace this addition to winter wardrobes as you walk through the slush that is the Penn State campus, however bittersweet or salty it may be.