Cargo shorts are the summer-utility-classic of modern times, only bested by creations like Camelback hydration systems and backpack beach chairs.
If you’ve been around for more than two decades, you’ve witnessed the rise and fall of cargo shorts’ popularity more than once.
What you may not have noticed, unless you read fashion magazines, is that there has been something of a backlash against the venerable shorts fashion. In fairness, disdain for the thigh-pocket trend has been a long time coming, like since the late 1990s.
Those of us in the apparel industry were surprised it took this long for this debate to heat up. But, those of us in the workwear apparel industry know of a few hardworking folks who will never let go of their cargos.
The snobby rank and file of the fashion industry will have to pry these rugged shorts from the cold dead hands of laborers for one straightforward reason: cargo shorts are awesome.
They’re darn convenient shorts, not to mention comfortable, and rugged.
As long as humans are behind every construction project, factory line, hospitality business, and labor force, cargo shorts will remain an apparel standard, worn like a badge of honor.
Cargos tell us something about the person wearing them. They aren’t a fashion faux pas. They’re something like a soldiers’ uniform.
Cargo shorts have always been convenient
To the best of our knowledge, cargo shorts burst onto the military scene around the time of the Second World War, around the early 1940s for non-history buffs.
As a means to carry and have access to munitions and other supplies, military personnel in a number of positions found pockets on the thighs superior to wearing utility belts.
As technologies tested on the battlefield are wont to do, cargo pockets made their way to the civilian populations. It turns out, what’s good for GI Joe is also good for the average Joe.
For men, especially, the prospect of carrying a shoulder bag [read: purse] was at one time inferior to stuffing neat stuff in their respective pockets.
For most working men, either the Red Kap blended or 100 percent cotton twill cargo shorts will provide all the convenience they’ll need.
Flying in the face of the current fashion trend for shorts to fit more tightly, and closer to the belt line, both of Red Kap’s cargo shorts sit at or just below the knees, packed with six pockets for storing stuff.
The cargo pockets of said half-dozen pockets have expandable darts so you can stuff them until they’re full. The great thing about this convenience is that when worn off the worksite, these cargo pockets ride close to the leg, giving the wearer a slimmer silhouette.
Red Cap is my favorite brand of work wear. Let me see those shorts.
You can’t find more comfort in a pair of shorts
The other problem with most of today’s fashion shorts is the comfort. A tight fitting short might wear well trolling the beach or shopping at the mall, but on the worksite, a tight fit is the quickest route to an embarrassing blowout.
It happens to the best of us. You bend down to scoop up some rebar when a loud pop of seams explodes somewhere behind you. That’s when the roar of applause and laughter from your teammates seals the moment for all time.
We’ll come back to the problem of ruggedness in a second, but the other key aspect with comfort is room to move.
Venerable companies like Dickies and Carhartt have been returning to the drawing board year after year for the last century to come up with designs that not only take on tasks like picking up rebar, they also wear comfortably all day long.
For some of us, our workwear has to stay comfortable from bell to bell. We don’t have time for a blowout.
Dickies makes two versions of their loose fit cargo short, one in a 10-inch length, and another that drops below the knee more in a 13-inch length.
Both are baggier shorts, crafted from 100 percent cotton twill, loose enough to house Dickie’s longstanding reputation for excellence. That means they’re comfy in all the right ways.
If you don’t come home too dirty from work, you could jump on your couch and watch some TV in total comfort wearing these shorts.
Loose is good. Dickies is my brand. I have to have these shorts.
As many like to compare Dickies to the slightly more venerable brand, Carhartt, some would prefer to shell out the extra ten to fifteen bucks for the Carhartt version.
The Force Tappen cargos from Carhartt come in a knee-length design, carved from ripstop fabric. Their almost apples to Dickie’s oranges, as the fabric is totally synthetic, but feels as comfortable if not more comfortable than a traditional twill.
Lightweight with Carhartt doesn’t mean cheap, though. Whereas synthetic fabrics in work environments won’t generally stand up to the daily grind, you’ll be hard-pressed to rip these bad boys.
They nearly fit more with the next section of this blog…
Carhartt and ripstop sounds awesome. Take me to Force Tappen shorts.
Forget weak shorts; cargos are rugged
If you work in a profession that allows you to wear shorts, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Most working folks spend every day in pants, making that green in soaring heat or not.
Obviously, shorts leave a large part of the leg exposed. That’s not good when working with rough or hot materials. Even if your work allows you to wear shorts, said shorts still need to be rugged.
Say, for example, you work in hospitality, serving drinks on the beach. First of all, lucky, lucky, LUCKY.
Second, those work shorts have to make it through long days, squatting, standing, brushing against the bar, the kitchen, and whatever else the catering team left in your way.
Retail shorts, even the cargo variety [if you can find them in this hostile, anti-cargo world] can’t take this kind of grinding. They fall apart.
Carhartt literally branded their cargo shorts with the word “rugged.”
They make two styles of their rugged cargos, both of which we carry, forged from ring-spun canvas. You know canvas, the stuff artists have been painting on forever?
If artists can trust their precious art to last through the ages on canvas, you know it has to be strong.
Of course, they’re not painting on ring-spun canvas, the softer more pliable cousin of painting canvas. It’s the best of both worlds, rugged, and soft.
The two pairs from Carhartt speak to both the ruggedness and the comfortability of cargo shorts. They’re the reason working men — and women to some extent — will not unhand their cargo shorts because someone in a fashion magazine has shamed them.
I must have Carhartt’s Rugged cargo shorts. Take me there now.
Cargos work for execs too
Some would say executives get to wear the most fashionable clothes. Perhaps, but when it comes to cargo shorts, execs have the same needs as their frontline team members.
A clean-cut cargo short is an ideal way, for all the reasons already explained, to fit in with the overall look of the rest of the team.
The brand leading the way in this category, if none of the examples above work, is Edwards. They produce three chino-styled cargo shorts with pockets like the first pairs we covered, the Red Kap cargos.
Edward’s chinos sit a little tighter than brands like Dickies and Carhartt, making them ideal for someone who works both behind a drawing board, and in the field.
We carry two lengths of their blended, flat-front cargo shorts, 9-inch inseam and an 11-inch inseam for those who like their knees covered.
Maybe it’s better than the general public cease wearing cargos, leaving them for only the hard-working folks to don.
That way, when you see someone wearing what you’ve been told is an outdated fashion, you can imagine that person may be the calloused hands behind the construction of your home or business space.
He or she may have built your Starbucks. That cargo-wearing, hard-worker deserves our respect, not our jeers.
Carry on, cargo fans, carry on.
About the Author
Nick Warrick
Nick Warrick is the Sales Manager at All Seasons Uniforms. With over 15 years of experience in the work uniform business, he has worked with hundreds of clients across 20 different industries. Holding bachelor’s degrees in both Business Administration and Information Technology, Nick revamped the company’s online presence, offering its customers a new uniform shopping experience.