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How to make board shorts last: salt, sunscreen and washing
A good pair of board shorts should outlast several summers, and whether they do comes down less to the price tag and more to a handful of habits. And the good news is that none of them are hard, half of them are literally things you stop doing rather than start.
So here's what actually wears shorts out, and the routine that prevents it.
What actually kills board shorts?
Three things, in order of damage done.
The first being salt. Salt water dries into crystals, and crystals are abrasive, they sit in the weave, in the stitching and inside the zip slider, grinding away every time the fabric moves. Salt is also what corrodes metal hardware, and we've covered that whole saga properly in why board shorts zips break.
The second being sunscreen. Some sunscreen ingredients oxidise into yellow and orange stains, and once they've been through a hot wash or a dryer they're heat set and pretty much permanent. That mysterious orange tinge on the waistband of your old shorts is not rust and it's not mould, it's last January's SPF 50+.
The third being heat. Dryers, car dashboards, black asphalt, radiators. Heat breaks down the fibres and the water repellent finish, sets every stain you missed, and slowly kills the elastic in shorts that have it. And quick dry fabric doesn't need help drying, that's the whole point of it.
Do you need to wash board shorts after every wear?
No, and honestly, please don't. If they've only seen salt water then a proper fresh water rinse is enough, and a full wash every handful of wears is plenty, because over washing wears fabric out faster than wearing it does. The bloke we named the brand after gets a frankly heroic number of wears out of his before they beg for a machine, and his are fine.
The one non-negotiable is the rinse. Salt never gets to sit in the fabric overnight.
How should you wash board shorts?
The routine, in full:
- Rinse in fresh water after every swim. Shower with them on, dunk them in the laundry sink, whatever works, it's thirty seconds and it's the single habit that matters most.
- Machine wash cold on a gentle cycle every few wears, or when they've earnt it. Zip done up and clasp closed, so the hardware doesn't chew on other clothes or itself.
- No fabric softener. It coats the fibres and ruins the quick dry behaviour.
- Hang them in the shade. Quick dry fabric line dries in under an hour, and direct summer sun fades prints, so the shade costs you nothing.
- Deal with sunscreen the same day. A bit of liquid detergent rubbed into the mark before a cold wash gets most of it out, but once it's been heat dried you're naming the stain rather than removing it.
Can you put board shorts in the dryer?
You can, once you've decided you don't like them anymore. Heat degrades the fibres, sets the stains, and warps whatever's inside the waistband, so every dryer cycle is trading months of the shorts' life for forty minutes of convenience they didn't need, because they'd have air dried in the same time hanging off the back of a chair.
What about the stuff you can't wash out?
Prevention is cheap. Don't sit on hot bitumen or the pool edge in them longer than you need to, because abrasion is how prints die. Don't leave them balled up wet in a car boot or a beach bag overnight, because that's how you get mildew, and mildew wins. And put your sunscreen on before the shorts where you can, most of the staining happens right at the waistband where slathered hands grab.
We build for all of this at the spec level, fabric picked for real wear out of the water, hardware that doesn't rust, prints colour checked at press time, but no spec survives a dryer habit. Meet the shorts halfway and The Collective will be around for years.
Frequently asked questions
How do you get sunscreen stains out of board shorts?
Fresh stains, liquid detergent rubbed in, fifteen minutes, cold wash. Set stains, an oxygen based stain soak overnight sometimes lifts them, but anything that's been through a dryer is probably permanent. Speed matters way more than the product you use.
Why do my board shorts smell even after washing?
They were left wet somewhere dark and mildew got in ahead of the wash. A cold wash with a cup of white vinegar in the cycle usually clears it, and the prevention is just drying them the same day they got wet.
Does salt water damage board shorts?
Left in the fabric, yes, dried salt is abrasive and it corrodes metal components. Rinsed out the same day, salt water is basically harmless, which is why the thirty second rinse is the one habit that matters most.
How long should board shorts last?
A well made pair worn regularly and cared for like the above should last 3 to 5 years or more. And if a pair dies in one summer, that was the construction, not you, we've written about why most board shorts feel cheaper than they used to for exactly that reason.
More in this series: why board shorts zips break, what actually matters in board shorts fabric and how should board shorts fit.