ANTHONY FERRARO used to wear khaki shorts that sagged below his knees. It was, said the 24-year-old accountant in New York, a “dark time” in his life, albeit a tragic time that was a mere two months ago. In July, Mr. Ferraro swapped his frumpy calf-kissers for shorts with a five-inch inseam that came to mid-thigh. What spurred this landmark life change? He heeded the call of a snowballing social-media meme promoting the idea that women find men in shorter shorts more attractive than their big-bloomered counterparts. While Mr. Ferraro likes his new abbreviated shorts well enough, he conceded that he’s really “just following the trend wherever it goes.” TikTok made him do it.
Recently, a groundswell of mostly female users on the Gen-Z-favorite social-media platform, known for short-form videos, started posting clips heralding men in tinier trunks. The TikTok videos take many forms—in one, a woman browses a store full of longer shorts while a voice-over scoffs “oh ugly, no kiss for him”; in another, a woman uses montage wizardry to persuade her boyfriend to consider five-inch-inseam designs. The takeaway is always the same, however: Burn your over-the-knee shorts; buy some thigh-displayers instead.
On TikTok, videos with the hashtag #5inchseam have been viewed over 24 million times. The hashtag’s specificity is noteworthy: Most men couldn’t name their shorts’ inseam number and many traditional fashion brands don’t specify inseam length on their shorts tags. It’s telling that outdoor and athletic brands like Patagonia and Nike —both closely associated with this trend—explicitly market their shorts online by inseam in a way everyday clothiers do not.
Previously, Josh Benson, 24, a financial advisor in Tyler, Texas, “had no idea” how long his shorts’ inseams typically ran. Recently a female friend showed him a TikTok of a girl saying, “seven or eight inch inseam shorts are gross but you get the five, five and a half [inch] shorts and you are good looking.” Immediately he searched Amazon for “five inch shorts” and got a pair. Did they instantly make him more pulchritudinous? “I think they look better,” said Mr. Benson, though he wasn’t precisely sure where their allure lies. “I don’t know if the girls are looking at the booty or if it’s the front.”
Abbreviated short-hems have crept into vogue before. In the 1970s, basketball players wore legendarily short shorts and Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir took to the stage in infamous denim Daisy Dukes. Adam Wilson, 21, a recent college graduate in Benton, Ark., referenced 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name” an influential film set in 1983 whose characters laze about in barely there skivvies. The movie, he said, compelled him to eliminate the “too long” shorts he’d owned since his early college years. He now wears shrunken, thigh-length subs and is convinced that “longer shorts make people look shorter.”
Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, a long time short short proponent, showing off his Daisy Dukes in 1987.
Photo: Getty ImagesOver the past decade, the media—including The Wall Street Journal, in 2014—has made the case for going skimpy, but until the past month, inseams as short as 5 inches didn’t achieve mass buzziness. Well poised to capitalize on the TikTok meme is Austin, Texas-based Chubbies, a brand founded in 2011 with a mission to revive the 1970s short-short look. Its bread-and-butter product is a five and a half inch inseam pair. During the week of July 19—coinciding with the first few TikTok videos on the subject—the brand saw a 4,600% surge in search traffic to its site over the week before. That traffic has leveled off, but Chubbies still observed a 1,500% increase in the past five weeks to its five inch shorts compared to the previous five. “We didn’t have anything to do with the spurring of” the viral trend,” said Tom Montgomery, the CTO and co-founder of Chubbies, “but we’re huge fans of it and have definitely seen it come through in the data side.”
But why has “#5inchinseam TikTok” taken off now among younger social-media fiends? Mr. Ferraro’s theory: After being cooped up due to country-wide quarantines, “people are realizing ‘Let’s show off some skin...let’s have some fun.’” Atela Monet, a 22-year-old college student in Los Angeles, offered the much-needed female perspective: When men wear short shorts they’re “going against the norm,” adopting something that’s actually “a little more feminine.” That counterintuitive route conveys confidence, which in Ms. Monet’s words, “is super cute.”
Short shorts also let men show off their thigh muscles. Mr. Montgomery of Chubbies believes a lot of guys were hesitant to do so when he started his label. Nearly a decade later, though, “Body positivity is coming more to the forefront” pushing more men to let their gams visibly flex.
Many recent #5inchinseam TikTok videos have been posted by exceedingly fit men seemingly eager to flash their gym-bolstered quads. The trend surely works in their favor. It should be noted that gay men have been on board with thigh exposure since well before TikTok existed. As one Twitter user said, “What is this tik tok trend where straight men think they invented 5.5 inch inseam shorts?!?!!???”
The phenomenon puts men in a position overly familiar to women: being objectified for what they wear. The meme is a “funny way to flip the script” on decades of societal pressure that compelled women to dress sexy, said Lawrence Schlossman, 33, a men’s fashion podcaster, brand consultant, and long-time champion of short shorts.
Men have more typically been mocked for risible style choices like ill-fitting “dad” jeans and cargo shorts; the mockery begins and ends in pity. The shorter shorts meme goes further by advocating a style upgrade. Yes, these TikTok videos declare, seven-inch and (quelle horreur) nine-inch shorts are bad...but don’t despair, there’s hope in five inch shorts! Mr. Schlossman saw the light more than a handful of years ago and has since been crusading in what he sincerely terms “the inseam wars.” His modest pitch for immodesty: “Maybe try shorter shorts, see if you like it.” And then, should you choose, post about it on TikTok.
Write to Jacob Gallagher at Jacob.Gallagher@wsj.com
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