How do you feel about men wearing cargo shorts?

[J T]

Great picture.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'm not really big on shorts in general (despite living two feet above hell 3/4 of the year) but, as mentioned, almost all shorts available in stores are cargo shorts, and the other styles don't look anything like what I wear. Everything else looks like somebody just cut pants off at the knee- they don't look like they are designed to be shorts.

Anyways, if women can walk around in those god-awful Nike shorts all the time, I can damn well wear some cargo shorts.

[Exhuminator]

I agree with a lot of what others have said so far.

So here's my spiel...

I live in a really stupidly hot place, deep south Georgia. It's legit hot here, a lot. Like most of the year, it's above 80f routinely, and in the summer usually 95f+. Those temperatures coupled with humidity that's often in the 90s as well, means you're going to be uncomfortable outside if you're wearing tight fitting skinny jeans and button up shirts that don't let your skin breathe. So what do you do? You wear shorts, whenever possible. T-shirts whenever possible. Yes, I have cargo shorts. Actually, I'm wearing cargo shorts right now as I type this. Why do I like cargo shorts? Let us count the ways:

1. Big assed pockets for big assed smartphones, chunky wallets, and huge modern car keys.

2. The pockets themselves serve to help splay the shorts' leg openings wider, allowing more air to circulate underneath the shorts. This is critically important for keeping your uh, special bits from becoming a muggy puddle of man meat.

3. Most cargo shorts, or at least mine, are made of 100% cotton. Cotton breathes well. A lot better than say typical synthetic fabrics or the dreaded spandex.

4. Cargo shorts go below my knees. This is proper. I don't feel comfortable wearing shorts that stop above my knees. To me that looks like stuff my grandparents used to wear. I also think it makes men look like little boys. You know like the little kids who play rugby in England. If I wear a pair of short shorts, I feel like I should be on a stage riding a mechanical bull or doing a lot of drugs in a sleazy Miami nightclub.

5. Fuck anybody who thinks they have the right to tell someone else how to dress. If a woman seeing me wearing cargo shorts default means I wouldn't have a chance with her, that's not someone I would want to be in a relationship with anyway. Unimaginably shallow people judge others on merits such as that.

[J T]

Anyways, if women can walk around in those god-awful Nike shorts all the time, I can damn well wear some cargo shorts.

We really don't have a great deal of room to complain when comparing us to women. Women get far more frequently judged for what they wear, whatever they wear, than do men in cargo shorts. There are a couple articles about cargo shorts as a male fashion faux paux, but there are millions of articles on the do's and don'ts of women's fashion, much of which is full of contradictory advice.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Anyways, if women can walk around in those god-awful Nike shorts all the time, I can damn well wear some cargo shorts.

We really don't have a great deal of room to complain when comparing us to women. Women get far more frequently judged for what they wear, whatever they wear, than do men in cargo shorts. There are a couple articles about cargo shorts as a male fashion faux paux, but there are millions of articles on the do's and don'ts of women's fashion, much of which is full of contradictory advice.

I don't mean that seriously, as if anyone should listen or care. It was just a half assed comparison joke to a piece of clothing I just don't understand.

[dsheinem]

I associate cargo shorts with people under 25 or so and stopped wearing them by the end of college (and never wore them much). I tend to wear khaki-style shorts (in earth tones) that are cotton and 2/3-3/4 or so the length to my knee, which are hardly "short" in any way. I find they look and work just as good with a tshirt while hiking as they do in a meeting while wearing a polo or some such.

[J T]

Sorry Forlorn, I didn't mean to come across as jumping on your case. You just got me thinking about how women have to read this kind of stuff all the time and this is a rare instance where it targets my gender and I find it annoying.

[samsonlonghair]

Gee... I wonder what could possibly be the motivation behind this article...

Sales of cargo shorts have fallen over the past year for the first time in a decade, according to market-research firm NPD Group.

If it's not as profitable, It's not as fashionable anymore.

I take most of my fashion advice from Art of Manliness; they've never steered me wrong yet. Here's what they have to say on shorts in general:
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/05/3 ... to-shorts/

As for me? I wear cargo pants when traveling or hiking for utilitarian purposes. That's about it.

[Xeogred]

Does kind of make me think of awkward porno dudes, but yeah I own a pair and it's my go to shorts wear for the summer. I've gotten away from pants though and jean pants that have all the side line pockets and junk, those definitely do look silly to me on grown adults. So I just wear simple more fit straight jeans. I agree with others though, could careless what other dudes wear.

But men should be banned from wearing sandles.

[marurun]

4. Cargo shorts go below my knees. This is proper. I don't feel comfortable wearing shorts that stop above my knees. To me that looks like stuff my grandparents used to wear. I also think it makes men look like little boys. You know like the little kids who play rugby in England. If I wear a pair of short shorts, I feel like I should be on a stage riding a mechanical bull or doing a lot of drugs in a sleazy Miami nightclub.

Anything above the knees is too short? Those aren't shorts any more if they're past the knees. Cargo shorts that go past the knees are almost capri pants. Now, I'm no fan of too-short shorts; they should go most of the way down the thigh, almost to the knee, but when they go past the knee they need to be called something else, I think. Maybe knorts. Kneerts. Sheets. Needless to say, I shall not be naming this new category.