The Evolution Of Gym Shorts Length Is Fascinating

I was scrolling on my phone this morning when I came across a tweet that caught my eye in a different way. It was about former NBA point guard Darren Collison and how he is coaching high schoolers during quarantine. 

I thought "oh good for Darren Collison". Former Pacer - always seemed like a good dude. But then I noticed in the second picture the length of high school players' shorts length. The one on the far right is fairly normal, but the two players on the left seem to be taking pride and putting a lot of purpose into their shorts being particularly high. 

Nothing wrong with it, but it hit me like PFT has been squatting on for a while - "Holy shit, we've really come full circle with how we wear our gym shorts." 

We started with the "grape smugglers" that were worn by the likes of Magic, Kareem, Larry, and John Stockton. Then we somehow made the transition to thinking this was a good idea in the early to mid-2000's. 

Hysterical. I mean not only do the length and bagginess of these shorts look hysterical especially now, but what's even funnier is the thought that players actually were OK with playing in a real game with shorts these long and we all just accepted it for an era. 

I'm totally guilty of this. That's what's so interesting to me is the ol' "what goes around comes around" with fashion. When I was in middle school and high school if gym shorts even touched my knee and didn't go below them, I couldn't wear them. They were no-go for me. It was the equivalent of having something hanging from your nose or a giant zit in the middle of your forehead. At least that's what it felt like. 

That's my personal belief as to why cargo shorts ever existed. 

They were the only pair of non-gym shorts that would come close to being the proper length. Looking back now I thank god those days are over. 

Somehow we've returned to the 70's and 80's with the acceptable length of men's shorts and I'm perfectly OK with it because damn they're so much more comfortable than wearing baggier capris.