How to Care for Your Swim Shorts So They Last for Years
A good swim short is built to last years. Most die in two summers anyway, and almost never from swimming. They die in the laundry room, in a hot dryer, or balled up damp at the bottom of a beach bag. The care routine that prevents all of this takes about three minutes.
Rule one: rinse the same day, every time
Salt and chlorine are the two things that actually age a swim short: they break down fibres, dull colour and stiffen fabric. The fix costs nothing, rinse your shorts in cool fresh water the same day you swim, ideally right after. A quick rinse in the shower or a sink is enough. This one habit does more for longevity than everything else combined.
Washing: gentle, cold, rare
Quick-dry technical fabric does not need aggressive washing. A hand wash in cold water with a small amount of mild detergent is ideal; a machine's delicate cycle in a mesh bag works too. Skip fabric softener entirely, it coats technical fibres and ruins the quick-dry behaviour that makes a premium short worth owning in the first place. And there is no need to wash after every wear if you have rinsed; every three or four wears is plenty.
Drying: air only, shade preferred
The dryer is where swim shorts go to die. Heat degrades elastane, warps waistbands and cracks prints. Hang your shorts to air-dry instead, and if you are drying outside, choose shade or indirect light: prolonged direct sun fades printed fabric the same way it fades a parked car's dashboard. Quick-dry fabric will be ready to wear again within the hour regardless.
The habits nobody mentions
Do not sit on rough stone, concrete pool edges or unfinished wood, abrasion pills fabric faster than any wash. Do not leave shorts crumpled wet in a bag overnight, that is how mildew smell becomes permanent. And at the end of the season, store them clean, fully dry and folded flat, not stuffed in a bin with sunscreen bottles.
Care for the towel too
If you travel with a handwoven Turkish towel, like the one in our Escape Set, the rules are similar: cold gentle wash, no softener, air dry. Handwoven cotton actually gets softer and more absorbent with each wash when treated this way.
The bottom line
Rinse same-day, wash cold and rarely, never use the dryer, store dry. That is the whole system, and it is the difference between replacing your shorts every second summer and keeping a piece you love for five. It is also half the argument for buying quality in the first place, the other half is in our breakdown of what separates a premium swim short from a $40 one. Ready to invest in a pair worth caring for? Start with our men's swim shorts collection.
Designed in Montreal, made for everywhere the sun reaches.
