Corduroy pants can keep you warm, sure, but as a short they’re as breezy as cotton. There’s a reason why surfers and skaters of the ’70s and ’80s preferred the rows of ribbed yarns, called wales, of ...

Of all of the fabrics in your typical shorts rotation—nylon, linen, plain old cotton—corduroy feels like a bit of an outlier. After all, the plush cold-weather fabric is more closely associated with ...