How Long Should Your Shorts Be? A Visual Guide to Men's Shorts Length

How long should men's shorts be? Should they be nine inches or seven inches? What about five inches? Should your shorts go past your knees or stop above your knee? And how short is too short. In this video, I'm going to show you what shorts with different inseam lengths look like and I'll tell you what I think is the sweet spot for most guys. We'll also talk about an often overlooked aspect of men's shorts, which is the width of the leg or the leg opening. In fact, I think it's more important th

an length and we'll go over that later in the video. As examples, I'm going to use chino shorts from Amazon Essentials and Bonobos. Is it Bonobos or Bonobos? Let me know what you think down to the comments. I'll also show a couple pairs of shorts from other brands. And of course I'll link to all of the shorts that you see in this video down below in the description. For reference, I'm about 5'6" with shoes on. I usually wear a 28-inch waist. My actual waist is about 28 1/2 inches, and I pretty m

uch always go for either slim fit or skinny fit as my legs are pretty thin. And by the way, before we get into it, the topic of men's shorts, for some reason, makes some guys a bit uncomfortable. I've written about this topic before and some of the comments that I get under these articles make it really clear to me that there are a lot of men out there who are pretty insecure about their own body and their own masculinity. So they feel the need to make comments like, "Short shorts are for women

and real men don't wear short shorts." These are typically the kind of guys who wear baggy cargo shorts and oversized t-shirts with ketchup stains on them and their opinions should be flatly ignored. So if I see any comments that are mean-spirited or unhelpful or bigoted on this video, I will promptly delete them and these people will lose their privilege to comment on future videos. So with that bit of housekeeping out of the way, let's talk about shorts length. Men's shorts typically come in 5

, 7, 9, and 11-inch inseams. Regardless of length, you can always find shorts available in a classic cut or slim fit. You can even find skinny fit shorts from brands like ASOS and right, now wide leg shorts are kind of in style but in my opinion, these don't really look good on anybody. Here's what a pair of 11-inch slim fit shorts looks like on me. These are from Amazon's Goodthreads brand, which is a slightly nicer and more contemporary version of Amazon Essentials. It's akin to like Target's

Goodfellow brand. Now, most 11-inch shorts are gonna hit your kneecaps or go past your knees entirely. Some guys like this look, but in my opinion, 11 inches is a bit too long unless you have really long legs. In general, you're gonna look a little better if your shorts don't go past your knees. But remember, if your shorts are too long, you can get them hemmed just like you get your pants hemmed, it's very cheap, very easy to do or you can just cuff them like you'd cuff a pair of chinos. I actu

ally really like the cuffed look. It tends to shorten and it taper your shorts at the same time and it adds a little bit of structure and weight to the hem. Moving on, let's look at a pair of 9-inch slim fit shorts. These ones are from Bonobos. 9-inch shorts are gonna hit right at the top of the kneecap or just above the knee on most men. This is a safe, if not a little bit conservative length. It's gonna look good on pretty much everybody. With a 9-inch inseam, it's important to focus on overal

l fit because these shorts will end at sort of a slim part of your leg so you wanna stay away from shorts that are too wide. Often, you'll find that a pair of regular or classic fit 9-inch shorts has a leg opening that's a little too wide for you unless you have really big quads. And remember that not all slim fit shorts are created equal. If you look at these 9-inch slim fit shorts from Bonobos compared to the same thing from Amazon Essentials, you'll see what I'm talking about. The Bonobo shor

ts are noticeably slimmer all around, including the waist, through the hips and all the way down to the leg opening. You know, there aren't any universal standards for descriptors like slim fit or classic fit, so it varies widely from one brand to the next. My advice is to try shorts on, look in the mirror and focus on the actual fit and feel not what the label says. Next up, we have some 7-inch slim fit chino shorts from Bonobos and in my opinion, 7-inch slim fit shorts is the sweet spot. 7-inc

h shorts hit a few inches above the knee and your leg is a little bit thicker here so the shorts are gonna hug your leg a little more. They're gonna look a little bit more tapered and therefore, make your legs look a bit more muscular. If you are used to wearing longer shorts like 11-inch or 9-inch, 7 might feel a little bit short. You might feel a little bit exposed, but I promise you'll get used to it in no time and its actually a very comfortable functional length. Again, fit is going to vary

by brand. So if you look at this stack of shorts, starting with Lululemon's classic fit 7-inch inseam, and then Amazon Essentials' slim fit in 7 inches, Bonobo's slim fit in 7 inches, and then Ash & Erie's slim fit. So these are all 7-inch shorts, but you can see that the actual cut varies a lot from one brand to the next. And finally, let's look at some 5-inch slim fit shorts from Bonobos. Now, 5-inch shorts are gonna hit right around mid thigh on most guys. This is a bold, somewhat traditiona

l or preppy look. It requires a bit of confidence to pull off. Just like 7-inch shorts, one benefit of 5-inch shorts is that they stop around a thicker part of your leg. In fact, 5-inch shorts stop around one of the thickest parts of your leg so it is gonna make you look a bit more defined even if you have kind of slim legs. I actually love the way 5-inch shorts look on a lot of guys, myself included. But I prefer 7 inches because 5 inches to me, when I sit down, becomes a little too short. So s

horts are just like pants, they ride up a little bit when you sit down and since I wear boxer briefs, 5-inch shorts sometimes right up to the point of exposing my boxer briefs. So if you do wear 5-inch shorts, you're gonna wanna wear like traditional briefs like high-cut underwear. With that said, I have nothing but respect for guys who wear shorter shorts like 5-inch inseam shorts. I think it broadcasts a lot of confidence and comfort with your masculinity and with your body. With that said, fo

r me, a slim fit 7-inch chino shorts checks all the right boxes and I also like wearing 9-inch shorts cuffed a couple of times, so this basically shortens them to like 7 or 8 inches or even 6 inches, depending on how many times you cuff them. And it adds just an interesting detail to your shorts and it tends to taper the leg a little bit. So if you do have shorts that are a little too long before you get them hemmed, just try cuffing them. And this is also nice because you can choose the exact l

ength so you can cuff them to like 8 inches or 6 1/2 inches. And if you find the perfect length but you don't wanna cuff your shorts, just go get them tailored. Again, it's like 5 or 10 bucks, super easy like any alterations that's money well spent. So I hope this video helps you decide which shorts length is right for you. And if you have been wearing longer shorts that go past your knees for your whole life, I challenge you, try a pair of 9-inch, 7-inch slim fit shorts and just see how it feel

s. Again, I'll link to the shorts that you saw in this video down below in the description. If you have any questions for me, leave them in the comment section. Thank you as always for watching and until next time. Stay stylish. [music]