Various people have been making this point in various ways, but once upon a time nerd stuff - like Star Trek - was for nerds. Admitting you liked that stuff was begging for a wedgie. Even video games were, for a long time, nerd stuff. Now basically everything is nerd stuff, and we even understand that sports fandom is actually just a different kind of nerd stuff. Those football jerseys are just cosplay of another kind.
I'd guess the X-Files started making it cool, or at least not totally uncool, to like nerd stuff.
