Introducing... The Miki Shorts

A fresh design for 2022, the Miki Shorts are our take on classic surf shorts. As you’ve probably noticed, these aren’t big and baggy board shorts, and instead they’ve got a slightly more sophisticated shape, influenced by the kind of thing real surfers were wearing whilst revolutionising the sport back in the 1960s.

After spending the first half of the 20th century as an underground subculture, by the 1960s surfing transformed from being a niche interest misunderstood by the masses to a fully-fledged phenomenon.

Thanks to the Beach Boys, fictional surf-girl Gidget and the countless ‘beach party’ films which were churned out throughout the decade, the ‘60s surf boom saw beaches crammed with spectators and surfers catapulted into the limelight. 

Whilst the supposed ‘surf style’ shown on the silver screen was a technicolour aloha-print caricature, the real surfers (like those shown in the 1966 documentary The Endless Summer) were usually a lot more subtle—with a timeless preppy dirtbag style that sat somewhere between Ivy League and the great outdoors. 

 At a time when the nearest thing to a surf clothing industry was the local Hawaiian tailors who would custom-cut shorts, the style was made up from a mix of sportswear, outdoor gear and anything else that did the job—a DIY uniform picked for comfort and function.

Shorts played a big part in this—worn on their own in the water, and with open collar Pendleton shirts, canvas tennis shoes and lightweight windbreakers for the apres-surf bonfire.

That’s where our Miki Shorts fit in. Taking cues from the golden age of surf style, they’re water-friendly shorts that still work on dry land. That lightweight taslan fabric doesn’t hold you back on the board, but thanks to that short and sharp shape, you won't look out of place paired with a button-down or a sweatshirt when you head to the beach bar. And no, you don’t need to know how to surf to wear ‘em.

Shop Miki shorts here.