Summary
- Gym shorts are lightweight, breathable, and perfect for workouts, offering freedom of movement for exercises like squats, lunges, and running.
- Moisture-wicking, anti-chafing materials like nylon and polyester keep you dry and comfortable.
- Aerodynamic designs and perforated fabrics ensure airflow, keeping you cool during intense workouts.
- SQUATWOLF’s Dry Tech Shorts are engineered with a semi-compression fit, moisture-wicking fabric, and reflective details.
Sometimes what holds you back is the improper gym gear in hindsight. Your workout ends up with sweaty fabric, a rash, lost motivation, and failed targets. To counter this, we looked into the most popular gym wear and overhauled it with a 360-degree approach.
We found some touch points that you will love. We focused on them and engineered high-tech training shorts with compression layered for performance.
Popularity
Gym shorts are great for training and workout. They are relatively lighter and allow more airflow on the lower body. It has relatively less fabric which makes you easily perform various exercises, such as squatting, lunging, kicking and of course, running.
Most gym shorts are manufactured with a comforting material – which is usually nylon mix. Whereas, other cotton focused gym shorts are becoming less popular among athletes.
Traditionally worn by men, more women started wearing them for comfort and leisure. Now it has become a billion-dollar industry, where gym wear is worn for leisure and comfort.
7 Essential Ideas of Gym Shorts for Men

Sports brands compete in making the best gear they can. The competition led these brands to become innovation companies. SQUAT WOLF walks the similar road.
However, we asked questions like - what at the end of the day, really benefits an athlete? The essential features, a successful gym short needs excluding the shiny glitter which just makes them pricey.
1. Quality Always Wins
Gym wear is supposed to be used and abused. Better to spend on a decent quality material, which to the least is made from performance fabric. Performance or technical fabric has the sweat-wicking capability.
Most technical gym short is a mix of polyester, nylon, and elastane. The cost will be more than average than cotton wear. However, the quality fabric will let you perform better.
2. Anti-Chafing
Performance fabric doesn’t let moisture stay on your body. The fabric is not damp wet with sweat, after a workout. Unlike cotton, which gets soaking wet.
Any fabric other than high-quality technical fabric will cause a rash or an itch after rubbing against the skin. Most athletes with poor fabric quality and wrong material, get chafing on the inner thighs, which is the utmost discomfort to any athlete.
3. Let the Airflow
It is crucial for shorts to have a venting system on the inner thighs to prevent such discomfort. That is why shorts with aero-dynamics are popular now. This is what allows the moisture to sweep away the sweat.
Some shorts are light and perforated with a pattern to let the air flow keeping the athlete cool and dry. Athletes look for clothes with vent. Despite the compression layer, a well-vented short is crucial.
4. Layered for Performance
Shorts with compression are what athletes are now looking for. It saves them extra purchase and hassle. Some athletes love compression and some don’t care. The ones who care have witnessed an improved performance.
Compression has proven to improve performance on an aerobic level. This study concludes that the compressive shorts maintain power production better over repeated jumps in volleyball players.
5. The Right Length
The length of gym shorts has changed with passing trends and fashion. Till the 1980s, men’s gym shorts were very short. Later, basketball brought longer shorts trend in the sports industry, with Michael Jordan commercials.
However, according to our surveys, we found that the 7-inch length is most preferred shorts for training. Anything smaller than 7 inches reveals too much skin, and anything over; makes you look like an NBA player.
6. Pockets Game
Sports brands have failed to deduce the right kind of pockets in gym shorts. No Pockets, side pockets or zippered pockets, it does depend on preference – however, there has to be a winning design. You don’t want a six-pocket cargo or a cheap design with loose pockets.
In a 7 inch short, three pockets seem to work ideally with one zippered pocket on the side or the back. The shorts need to be fit enough to off put any kind of tremors in your shorts. A zippered pocket is best to keep your phone even if you got a cord passing out.
7. Style Matters
Looking for stylish and trendy clothes matters, even in the fitness industry. After all, people who are in the fitness industry, do want to look good. Shorts with summer and vibrant colors will always keep you trendy.
However, aesthetics and patterns of shorts matter which impact the fit. Fitted shorts are best for athletes which have a decent stretch. When buying a pair, you can check the stretchability with a squat.