The long and short of college basketball attire: How NCAA players choose hoops hemlines
At the beginning of his freshman year, Isaiah Evans wasn’t too concerned about the length of his shorts. He was happy to be wearing a Duke basketball uniform at all. But as the season wore on, and his playing time started to increase, he decided his shorts were too short.
He also wasn’t comfortable asking to go longer, not as a freshman. Nor were there other options readily available to him, stashed in his locker. Just the game shorts he was issued.
Then, late in the season, just before the ACC tournament, he spilled some tart cherry juice on his shorts. Problem inadvertently solved.
“Once you switch, they’ll just keep you in the same ones,” Evans said. “So I changed to a longer set. Just an inch or two, but it’s noticeable. I just got tired of seeing my mid-thigh jogging up the court.“
In a world where even the wristbands have the logos of a team’s shoe sponsor, and where some players have their own apparel deals, it would seem like something as closely tied to personal fashion and basketball trends as the length of a player’s shorts would fall under the player’s control.
Limited options
With rare exceptions, though, players wear what they’re given. They may have the option to go up or down a couple inches, depending on what that team’s equipment manager has ordered, and they may get to try on next year’s uniforms when they’re ordered six to nine months ahead of the season and offer an opinion then, but that’s the extent of their influence over their hemlines.
Want to go baggy retro like Allen Iverson? Show a little thigh like John Stockton? Only if everyone else does.
And even then, maybe not.
“In 2005 with Sean (May) and Raymond (Felton), the shorts couldn’t be long enough,” said Eric Hoots, North Carolina director of basketball operations. “Like, I remember they were below the knees. And Coach (Roy) Williams was like no, they have to be above the knee. So we had to order a new set.”
Even at the biggest schools, with the biggest apparel deals, options are limited. Even North Carolina, with its longstanding relationship with Nike and Jordan Brand, has only two choices: regular and minus-2 inches. There’s no secret room in the Smith Center full of different lengths of shorts, although N.C. State equipment manager Kirk Brown is famous for stocking multiple options. (Brown declined an interview request.)
At UNC, some players aren’t even sure what length they’re wearing: “I didn’t really have a choice,” freshman Drake Powell said. They’re just shorts.
Some players routinely roll over the waistband to shorten them, and also for the look, which is especially popular in women’s basketball. Seth Trimble, though, goes back and forth constantly, from game to game. He likes to change up his shorts the same way he changes up his hair.
“Y’all see it every day,” Trimble said. “Every game, I’m messing with my shorts, going back and forth between the short length and the regular length. I’m all over the place.”
Early decision
The process starts well in advance of the season, when equipment manufacturers send out samples of next year’s uniforms. These are typically templates based on NBA trends, known in the business as a chassis, so the shorts are of a standard length based on what’s hot in the pros. Lately, things have been going upward, with the standard inseam of an Adidas short going from 8 inches last season to 7 inches this season.
Current players often get to try on the samples to get sized for the next season, so equipment managers know what to order. (North Carolina does it with recruits on their official visit.) Players also get to weigh in on the length of shorts, and veteran equipment managers often make tweaks of their own.
Jon Sedgwick has been Iowa State’s basketball equipment manager since 2021. When Nike offered Iowa State a 7-inch short before this season, Sedgwick tacked on an inch to make it 8. But if a player really wanted something special?
“I mean, I could,” Sedgwick said. “I can make that happen. It would just be, like, another special order from Nike. But I just order the one size, the one length, and guys can kind of roll them if they need to. Because if I start doing like, minus-2 inches and minus-3 and minus-1, I’d have so many extra shorts just sitting there.”
Transfers ‘just have to get lucky’
Transfers, who typically change schools after fitting sessions, are at the mercy of their predecessors. Andrew Carr has been on both sides of that dynamic. His first year after transferring from Delaware to Wake Forest, he wore whatever was around. The next year, he got to pick his gear. Then he transferred to Kentucky, where he was happy to find someone on John Calipari’s last team had similar fashion sense.
Carr has been around long enough that he grew up in the most recent short-shorts era, including some high school fashion decisions he has come to regret. Now, he’d prefer his shorts a little longer, but it’s rarely been up to him.
“You just have to get lucky,” Carr said. “I’m trying to get XL tall, something like that, and you just hope that the team before had enough people that want them like that. At Wake, the second year I got to get my own stuff. Everything extra long.”
Going from Arkansas State to Miami (both Adidas) to Baylor (Nike), Norchad Omier learned to go with the flow as well.
“Different brands like Nike and Adidas, they fit different,” Omier said. “Adidas, I like my shorts pretty short. But they always got me the right answer. If it’s not the length I want, I’d probably just roll it. I don’t want to be a burden. If they don’t have something, I won’t ask if I can figure it out.”
Style is forever evolving
Omier’s verbal shrug, though, belies the importance of the issue. Players care deeply about how they look on the basketball court, and basketball fashion can be as trendy as the runway. The right fit is as important as wearing the right shoes, even if more importance is placed on the latter.
Over the course of a long career, tastes can even evolve, sometimes even come full circle. North Carolina’s R.J. Davis had five years with the Tar Heels to get it right, and never quite did.
“Mine are regular length,” Davis said. “My freshman year, it was minus-2 because I was a little scrawny, so the shorts looked a little bit too big on me. But now it’s like, if I get minus-2, it looks too tight. So I get the regular length.”
At the next locker over, Jalen Washington had a little smile. Moments earlier, Washington had said he was of the opinion Davis’ shorts were perhaps a smidge too short. And now Davis was apprised of that information.
“That’s what he said?” Davis turned to Washington: “Is that what we’re doing now?”
Washington pleaded his innocence. Davis shrugged.
“I’ll get the OGs that hang over my knees, then. I actually asked for plus-2 this year, wanted to go a little baggy, but they said they don’t make them. They said nah.”
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