EVERETT — No matter how cold it gets, there’s always that one guy showing off his legs.
What’s up with that?
You know the type. It’s 20 degrees, the windchill biting at 10, and yet there he is, strolling through Costco in shorts and sandals. Or walking the dog in plaid shorts and Crocs.
You want to ask: Dude, why? Just why?
“I’m dedicated to the shorts lifestyle,” said Christopher Bragg, 50, a man with leg tattoos designed to grab attention.
For Bragg, shorts are freeing, even when it’s freezing.
“I’ve had jobs where I was expected to wear pants, and I hated it,” he said. “A couple of days ago, I had to wear pants for a few hours and when I took them off I realized how oppressed I was.”
Bragg often gets asked, “Aren’t you cold? How do you stand it?”
His legs are fine, but his hands and ears sometimes feel the chill. “You might see me in gloves and a hat,” he said.
You might also see him in only shorts and a tank top coming in and out of the YMCA, where he is a water fitness instructor.
“Just yesterday I was leaving the Y, and a woman practically mummified in puffy jacket materials said, ‘I’m cold just looking at you,’” he said.
Jake Myers, 42, has been a shorts-all-year guy since boyhood.
“I didn’t really start wearing pants until I went into the military,” said Myers, an Air Force veteran who lives in Marysville. “I just burn hot. When it’s cold out, I thrive.”
On the day this photo was taken at Grand Avenue Park in Everett, a bundled-up couple stopped to remark, “You’re dressed like it’s summer! You are a brave individual.”
When Myers lived in Ohio, he’d wear shorts and a T-shirt to shovel 8 inches of snow on the ground.
“My neighbors thought I was insane,” he said.
His children tell him he isn’t dressed properly for cold weather.
Myers, a maintenance supervisor at Royell Manufacturing in Everett, is required to wear pants to work — and when taking his wife out for a fancy dinner.
Sen. John Fetterman didn’t let presidential pomp stand in his way of baring his calves.
The Pennsylvania Democrat wore gym shorts, sneakers and a Carhartt hoodie to the recent Trump inauguration, a lone wolf in the buttoned-up crowd.
Fetterman sports his signature look around the Capitol but can’t on the Senate floor due to a formal dress code adopted in 2023 because of his fashion faux pas.
These year-round shorts guys are global. The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. explored the phenomenon, with one Brit noting, “The best part is the wind whistling around your parts.”
Angus Young, Australian co-founder of AC/DC, made schoolboy shorts his branded look in the 1970s. Fifty years later, the lead guitarist was still rocking shorts on the band’s 2024 tour.
My Facebook post seeking winter shorts wearers drew responses from women.
Whidbey Island resident Sharen Heath had this to say: “Back in the day, when we women wore SKIRTS (what are they?), we’d go bare-legged all year long. So, WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL??!!!”
Good point, Sharen. I remember being forced to wear dresses to school in the 1960s. Now I think: How dare they!
Don’t get me started on those horrid pantyhose of the next two decades. That’s a column for another day.
A blog on SeamApparel.com details 24 types of men’s shorts, from running and hiking styles to pleated “Dad” shorts and thigh-exposing Daisy Dukes cutoffs.
Mail carriers and delivery drivers have long favored shorts for their practicality when jumping in and out of vehicles.
Bill Pedigo, a retired Daily Herald copy editor, reported to work in cargo shorts, hiking shoes, a sweatshirt and a beanie.
“It’s pretty much my go-to look. It doesn’t matter if it’s a funeral or a wedding,” Pedigo said.
He said for older dudes like him, wearing shorts is about comfort with a side of rebellion against aging. “It’s our way of trying to look younger than we really are,” he joked.
My husband, Max, is one of those guys, pruning bushes in shorts and ankle socks, even during a blizzard.
A neighbor asked, “Are you cold or just hardy?”
Another asked, “Do you even own any long pants?”
When I ran into an acquaintance at the store, she gave me the look — like she’d caught my husband in a compromising position — and whispered, “I saw your husband… in shorts… in the snow.”
Yep, that’s him. Should I be proud or embarrassed? Haven’t figured that one out yet.
Got a story for “What’s Up With That?” Hit me up at reporterbrown@gmail.com or 425-422-7598.
From the “What’s Up” mailbag
This is from reader Angela Pride in response to the Jan. 28 column, “Hello, Everett! No escape when your name is the same as the town,” about 15-year-old Everett Pterodactyl Fog:
“I love hearing how parents come up with names for their children,” Pride wrote. “My children’s names have meaning. Our firstborn was named Raven Wiley: Raven for my favorite bird and Wiley for Wiley Creek where my husband and I had our first date up in Vermont. Our son sadly passed away, however a year later we were blessed with a daughter. Poetry Phoenix, her first name is in honor of her grandfather, who has been a poet all his life, and her middle name is in honor of her brother before her, out of the ashes the bird is reborn. My other child’s name is Stellerjay Sonnet, the first name is another bird I love and the second name another form of poetry.”
Like Everett P. Fog, Poetry P. Pride is also 15 and attends Everett High School.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
Gallery
