Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Thanks Mike

 Back in the day, men would wear shorts that resembled Daisy Dukes.
No, not just Richard Simmons and his Dolphin shorts - but almost all men.
 But then Mike came along.
Mike favored a longer short, shorter socks and even made being bald cool (No, not Yul Brynner (The Pharaoh in The Ten Commandments) nor Telly Savalas (The guy who played Kojak)).
Bad influence on Tiger Woods aside - Thanks Mike for bringing men's fashion forward.

12 comments:

DF said...

Hey Mike was the one on TV but I tell you a young Freeman wasn't wearing short shorts before MJ got drafted.

I think MJ made it mainstream but like everything else it came from the streets.

uglyblackjohn said...

Yeah... but before mike it was hard to find long shorts

brotherbrown said...

Actually, the Fab Five Freshmen of Michigan brought the long shorts into national consciousness. When they first went pro, the NBA had not adjusted the length of shorts, and players would wear compression shorts that would extend below the bottom of the basketball shorts.

I played HS ball in the 70s, when men weren't ashamed of their thighs and women liked them, too. In the early 90s, it all changed.

brohammas said...

I remember going to high school games and our school, the poorer one, wore previous years uni's and as everyone else's shorts got longer we looked more and more stupid. The day our team rolled onto the court in new knee length shorts we were kings of the world.

John Kurman said...

I think the trend has gone too far the other way. The shorts are almost pants now. Are we charting mens' version of hemlines now?

And the bald thing, I think it works better for black men. Most white guys, it just looks like they are undergoing chemo, or planning a killing spree.

amanda said...

I saw a group of young men on the train last week who were wearing very short tight shorts and they weren't gay. I suspect there is a new fashion in shorts for men about to hit with a return to the seventies.

uglyblackjohn said...

@ brotherbrown - I used to wear Daisy Duke-type shorts as well.
I won "best Legs" back in high school.
But having ones... ummm... meat fall out while running was uncomfortable.

@ brohammas - You wore Larry Bird shorts back then too?
Thank the Fab Five.

@ JK - Too long and it gets hard to run.
Something about the hem on the knee.
But yeah... some shorts are almost Gauchos or Pedal Pushers these days.

@ MissAJ - I'll pass on that trend - something bad about wearing 'ball busters'.

brotherbrown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
brotherbrown said...

Real men had long hair and short shorts

uglyblackjohn said...

brotherbrown - You went to and played for "The Shaw"
Respect.

amanda said...

Sitting around a campfire with my sons this week I mentioned the extremely short shorts to them and asked if they were fashionable. They nodded their heads and then said that they wouldn't be wearing them but they would wear shorts that were a bit shorter than the ones they currently own. I shall be waiting with bated breath for next summer and the delights of male anatomy to come on show.

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