A Love Letter to Small Shorts

Wearing a pair of shorts that look three sizes too small for you might just be one of the strongest looks of all time. Even more so if they’re khaki and appear to have survived an encounter with a grizzly bear. Sadly, in recent decades, we’ve slowly drifted away from small shorts - but we, for one, would like to pledge our allegiance to the length that ruled supreme in the 1970s.

If you took part in any outdoor activity in the ’70s and weren’t wearing a small pair of shorts, were you even really doing it? Back then, small shorts were the staple uniform of climbers, hikers, and mountain bikers - maybe for the easy mobility, or maybe because duck canvas was expensive, but one thing's certain, they were cool back then, and they're cool now.

This sentiment is why we’ve introduced our new Strolling Shorts, taking direct inspiration from 1970s outdoor legwear. They’re not very short, but they’re definitely not long either. We see them as the perfect introduction to the world of small shorts - a realm that, in some cases, can get pretty extreme. Start short, then go shorter. 

To fully express our love for small shorts, we’ve gathered a few images of backpackers wearing them during the golden era. Enjoy.