Most men treat swim shorts as an afterthought and it shows. You are on a beach, or by a pool, wearing essentially nothing else, and the shorts are doing all the work. Length matters more than most people realise. Too long and you look like you borrowed them from someone’s dad. Too short and you are making a statement you may not have intended. The sweet spot is mid thigh, with a fabric that dries quickly, sits flat when wet, and does not go see through in the water. We have also been paying attention to waistband construction because a drawstring that disintegrates after two holidays is not something we have time for. The shorts in here are the ones that look considered without being loud, that work going from the water to lunch without a second thought, and that will still be in rotation three summers from now. That last part is rarer than it should be.