In the UK a fashion started for printed cotton boxer shorts instead of brief underwear. The boxer shorts were actually longer than the then current football (soccer) shorts then in use by pro, am, and school teams. The result was ghastly; smart, short, shiny nylon shorts with cotton underwear hanging out below the leg seams.
Some soccer players pulled their shorts down far enough to hide their boxer shorts and the next batch of soccer shorts were made longer to match.
Another fashion started to wear the new longer soccer shorts for swimming, white long shorts were chosen over black speedos so the speedos could be seen through the transparent wet fabric. The clothing manufacturers matched this with long white swim shorts with dark panels mimicking speedos around the loins. The white areas soon became infested with large ugly flowers and other designs.
In October 1986 Childline began in the UK. Child protection became an issue, children were increasingly kept in or supervised outside. Boys doing sport were discouraged from wearing briefer sportswear as it encouraged child abusers, while adults wearing brief sportswear were suspected of being child abusers or gay.
Various churches jumped on the gravy train making the wearing of brief sportswear indecent and a sin.
The consequence of these social changes was an increasingly overweight population that spent their time playing video games in preference to outdoor sport, who suffered vitamin D deficiency (hence the return of rickets in the UK), who wore big baggy shorts that made it difficult to run or swim properly when they tried to.
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