Bike Shorts: The Style Trend That Won't Quit
the price of a full-length legging for half the material
Do you ever see a new style trend, like leather pants or choker necklaces, and you are so sure that the trend will not catch on? You don’t even consider purchasing the item because you believe so deeply that there is no way people would wear it for longer than a season. Either the items are too uncomfortable, cost too much, or just require too much effort to know what to wear with them. “People are reasonable,” you say to yourself as you walk through the stores, “they won’t buy this. People love function, comfort. There’s no way.”
I’ve been wrong quite a few times, but my most notable fashion miscalculation was bike shorts and it still haunts me to this day.
I believed - or more accurately, hoped — that bike shorts would be another short-lived fashion trend that I could watch pass by with the comforting knowledge that I was on the right side of history for not participating in the trend. Alas…
Bike shorts became popular during the summer of 2021. I mean who doesn’t love to pay the price of a full-length legging for half of the material?
If you’ve ever done any serious biking, you know that bike shorts have been around a lot longer than hot girl summer 2021. I was wearing bike shorts as I biked across Iowa in the summer of 2012. I still have a very light mid-thigh tan to prove it.
Maybe I was so flustered by the new bike shorts trend because I couldn’t separate the trauma of teen biking from mid-thigh leggings. I couldn’t understand why people would voluntarily wear something that I spent so many years trying not to wear. When we’d go out for our family bike rides, I was mortified if I ran into anyone I knew because I didn’t want them to see me in bike shorts. Bike shorts, the kind with the pad in the crotch, are a purely functional garment. I don’t think anyone in the biking community would die on a hill that bike shorts should be a fashion trend. And yet, bike shorts, the non-padded kind, caught on and here we are.
When the bike shorts trend began, it didn’t even occur to me that it would persist past summer 2021 or that it would extend past an item designed for thigh-gap people. It was in these early months of the trend that I ruled myself out. No bike shorts for Mal.
But slowly, very slowly, I began to see bike shorts expand to more markets and subsets of people. It was alarming. To be honest, the diet-culture-minded part of me was blown away that people wanted to wear shorts that squeezed their thighs into two separate masses. Having worn spandex back in the day, I knew the horror of having shorts hit you at your most vulnerable thigh spot.
I ignored the bike shorts trend for a full year. But it got to the point where I couldn’t walk down Wilson Boulevard in Arlington without at least 80% of the women wearing bike shorts. Deep down I started to wonder if people actually liked wearing them? It was hard to believe, but would this many people really wear something so often if it wasn’t comfortable?
The first time I genuinely started to consider purchasing bike shorts was in the middle of this D.C. summer. My inner-thigh chafing had gotten next-level bad. The humidity was causing any outfit that wasn’t pants or a jumpsuit to just rip apart my inner-thigh skin and leave red welts for days.
I voiced these concerns to my friend Deekshita, a very reasonable and functionality-minded human being, and she recommended bike shorts. Bike shorts!!! I couldn’t believe it.
I did go home, however, and purchase a pair of beige-colored spandex for underneath my dresses. But I still was not emotionally ready to ever wear bike shorts on their own, in the light of day.
The push that sent me over the edge was my friend Jessi’s wedding. She had all of her bridesmaids wear black bike shorts on the bottom while we were getting our hair and makeup done. I couldn’t believe that I made it THIS far in the bike shorts trend and now I had to give in and buy a pair.
I reluctantly took a trip to Athleta and asked the saleswoman for her bike shorts recommendations. The embarrassment I felt even admitting that I was there to purchase bike shorts was unreal. I didn’t realize how much resentment I had built up towards bike shorts and people who wore them. I couldn’t believe I was now part of it. I would be another schmuck who spent way too much money on two feet of fabric.
I tried on a few different pairs and legitimately teared up in the dressing room because I was horrified at how I looked in them. Body dysmorphia is super fun. I felt nauseous at the thought of spending $40+ on a pair of black bike shorts that I couldn’t stand to see myself in. I ended up buying the least athletic of the styles because it was soft and would be ok for underneath dresses.
But I still couldn’t stomach the thought of wearing bike shorts outside of the dressing room. I was so deeply convinced that I looked terrible in them. The narrative in my head kept cycling through “how does everyone else look passable in these but me?” and “My body must not be built for bike shorts.”
I got home and showed Ryan my purchase. I told him how ugly I felt in them and how nervous I was to wear them. He responded in his typical Ryan way that I was overreacting and looked fine in them. You may read that as him minimizing my feelings, but that’s not how it feels. His responses serve as a reminder that whatever I’m feeling is being skewed by my own perceptions.
Jessi’s wedding came and I wore the black bike shorts. I avoided mirrors all day so I wouldn’t have to look at my legs. But my takeaway was that — contrary to my deep desire — they were pretty damn comfortable. No chafing. Functional. Soft. A surprising 8/10.
I still didn’t like how the bike shorts looked on me, but I realized that maybe that was something I needed to get over. I started wearing them around my apartment and the more I wore them the less I thought about how my legs looked in them. I even had a few moments where I liked how my butt looked.
Finally, I got up the courage to wear bike shorts to the climbing gym (albeit at the quietest time of day) and it went so well! They were comfy and great, though I did end up with a lot of knee cuts.
I still have that one pair of bike shorts. But I’m *open* to buying more. I still feel conflicted about liking them. I’m really trying to distinguish where my resentment towards bike shorts comes from. Is it because I’m a contrarian who despises relishing in the latest fashion trend? Is it because they make me feel insecure about my legs? Is it because I spent so many years of high school trying to hide the fact that I wore bike shorts? Is it because in my head I think they were made for thigh-gap people?
I think it is probably a mix of all of those questions plus a general skepticism towards athleisure fashion trends (looking at you, NoBull shoes). But I think bike shorts have presented me an opportunity to dig into my insecurities, my internalized fatphobia, and my fear of what other people think of my body.
The grand irony of this whole saga is that bike shorts are functional and comfy, my top two priorities in clothing. My feelings towards bike shorts are rooted in insecurity rather than style, as hard as that is to admit.
Are bike shorts here to stay? I have a nagging feeling that they are. While I’m always going to be a slut for joggers, I’ll give bike shorts a chance, after a year of refusing to even consider them.
But I swear to god if the next athleisure fashion trend are the bikini spandex that track runners wear I will NOT be participating. That is a bridge too far. And with that, I bid you adieu. Hope your week is chafe-free!
That was a really fun read on a very unexpected subject!