What's this with men and shorts during winter?

[bakedpotatoforlunch]

Light-hearted but genuine question. Why are there so many men wearing shorts in the depths of winter this year? Out and about I'm seeing several every day. Their legs must be freezing!

Is it a fashion thing at the moment? I mean shorts would be the last thing I'd want to wear right now. It just looks a bit daft to me. I'm truly mystified! 🤔

I don’t know where you are but it was 13degs here today so it’s not cold?

I have no idea! Teen DS wears shorts all year round, and I'd assumed this was some kind of 'fashion statement' and that it was cool - but have now started seeing men in their 40s doing the same. Mid life crisis?

I think it looks ridiculous too. Shorts are for the gym or the summer. Even worse are the flip flops or sliders when the temperature is in single figures.

It's not properly cold though. We had 13 degrees here today and even I didn't need a coat. Don't think I'd wear shorts though, I rarely ever do.

My son is like this. He just doesn't feel the cold. I'll be all bundled up in a big coat and he's in a t shirt and shorts.

Shorts are more practical in the rain. Legs dry. Trousers don’t. That’s why posties wear shorts all year round. My kids do too.

DS 22 wears shorts a lot in all weather and has done so since he was small. He told me the other day that he's in training to wear them every single day. For him its a signature thing, he's the boy who always wears shorts

I think they are just more comfy than trews if you don't feel the cold.

It might be a bit milder today (I'm in the NE) but I've noticed it throughout the coldest, iciest weeks of winter, even with snow on the ground. I'm genuinely mystified that's all. Is this a new fashion thing?

My husband doesn’t always wear shorts but often does. He just doesn’t seem to get as cold as I do. Also for dog walking, boots and shorts is more practical.

DH wears shorts year round 🤷🏻‍♀️ he doesn't feel the cold and they're super comfy for him. I'm blind to it now!

My adult DS wears shorts all year round, he works outdoors and doesn't feel the cold in the same way as lots of other people do. I can't remember the last time I saw him wear a coat, he was probably under the age of 12. He doesn't do it because he thinks it's trendy or cool, he does it because it's practical for him.

Our postie told me that his legs dry quicker as the awful material of the trousers they have as uniform gets soggy and chaffs in the rain. Makes sense.

Lower legs don’t really get cold if you’re in a coat. And soggy jeans are colder.

I do think boys/ men run hotter. It's a standing joke that my dad is always in shorts (and he is!), even on the coldest, iciest day. DH is like a furnace - rarely cold. And now my sons are the same! Ds1 in particular never ever feels cold. The other day all the kids at the school gate were in coats, hats, gloves, scarves etc. I was battling to keep DS's coat done up, much less anything else, and to be fair when I touched his hands and cheeks he was warm! So it's either a male thing or a my family thing!

It isn't a new thing. I have a 60 year old cousin who has worn shorts all the year round since he was a teenager. He refuses to wear trousers. No idea why. He even missed his sister's wedding in 1983 because she told him he couldn't attend unless he wore trousers.

My DH is a postman so shorts are kind of expected, but he also wears them out of work.

People just have different tolerances and I think it depends on age too - I used to wear flip-flops in the snow in minus degrees, now I can barely take my Oodie off for a work call

Beats me. There's two of them in the pub tonight as I make this post. They must think they're aged under 16 during WW2. Crackers.

There has clearly been a tipping point in the confidence to do it, from one person to another, with folks now knowing it's not harmful, and because they are not alone unembarrassed to try it out, and discovering that they too like it.
"Sensory issues" are known to science for a generation now, connected to adhd autism tourettes and high metabolic rate. Physical sensitivities to textures fabric pressures and heat. That's where it comes from for me.
Want to say how heartbroken envious I am of Oneblindmouse's cousin. I was twenties, and would prefer to be teens, because there is an awful tragedy that can happen to us if we have not got access to world info on other folks doing it. Meaning it could still happen where poverty or IT troubles or parental oversupervision means not having web access, but it's more a thing from the time before the web. Nasally irritating climates. South Wales's damp air climate from the Bristol Channel's tides causes respiratory irritation like a persistent cold. Before the web and when there were no other kids in school deciding to do it, I had no means to find out that year round shorts is not harmful and to make you catch cold. It robbed my childhood of this identity.
Except, it took another piece of terrible luck to miss a means of finding out all because I hated football ! When I expressed interest in cubs, my grandma, from local knowledge but not from cubs themselves, warned that they did football a lot and persuaded us that meant cubs was not suitable for me. That happened without us knowing they had a shorts uniform then. Living in a city we never saw them around, like you would at community events in a small town or focal village. It was and remains devastating to discover that loss years later, and it's so angering how cubs fell between 2 stools. By idealising the physical and team sports, they catered for exactly the rougher type of kids who would disdain and mock both scouting's moral ideals and the shorts, and failed to suit the softer more sensitive type like me who would like both.
At 14 I was not woken up to it in a CAMHS adolescent unit, when a girl experimenting in autumn herself guessed I might like shorts. A medical institution and part of the health service, the unit did not tell us year round shorts was safely doable. Was it misled by the local climate too, or was it simply withholding it from us because it was conformist ?
Even teenage is later to wake up than the kids in the numerous primary schools whose uniform lists online have now started saying some kids like to wear shorts all year round, and accommodating it for them as a wellbeing choice. Tipping point social breakthrough of it again, needs sociology done on the causes.

It's def a thing here in Canada. 🤷‍♀️

Am laughing OP as DH and I are a bit obsessed with this and can't figure out what's going on. To me it seems like a new phenomenon.

You never see women wearing shorts in winter, unless they're very young and it's a fashion thing, or they're going to the gym. I like wearing them because they're comfy, but only when it's 18+ degrees!
There does seem to be a lot of men and boys of all ages who like to wear shorts no matter how cold it is. Maybe it's like women who wear thick tights in hot summer weather

I wear shorts all year round, even when going out shopping etc. I'm almost a pensioner.
They're just really comfortable as well as being quick to wash and dry.

Better shorts than a frock I say.

@Coolblur I do wear shorts occasionally in winter. I turned up to help do the flowers for Christmas at church in them once and everyone was astounded. They are thick sweatshirt material longer ones to the knees almost.