I wear short shorts. Not gym-bro five-inch shorts. Actual short shorts, the two-inch military kind they call silkies or ranger panties. I train in them, I run in them, and in Costa Rica I wear them to the beach and the river. This is the review of the pair that started it, the Soffe Original Ranger Panty.
This is not a spec sheet. I own these, I live in these, and I have opinions about which version you should actually buy. We will cover what silkies are, the culture they come from, how I ended up wearing barely anything to leg day, and the one detail that decides whether you walk out confident or commit a public indecency.
If you have never heard the term, silkies are short, lightweight nylon running shorts with a roughly two-inch inseam. The military made them famous. Now everyone is catching on. And once you train in a pair, the long baggy shorts start to feel like wearing a pair of jeans to sprint in.
Soffe Original Ranger Panty (Silkies)
The original silkies. Featherweight nylon tricot, 2-inch inseam, brief liner, $18 to $30. My everyday pick for lifting, running, and the river.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission.What Are Silkies (Ranger Panties)?
Silkies are short nylon PT shorts. The name comes from the fabric. The classic Original is 100% nylon tricot, which is light, slick, and quick to dry, so the shorts feel almost silky against the leg. The printed pairs often swap to a slightly heavier polyester, but the feel is the same family. The inseam runs about two inches, there is a built-in brief liner, and there is a small interior key pocket. Soffe has been making them since 1946 and has supplied the military for decades.
The nicknames stack up depending on who is talking. Soldiers call them ranger panties. Marines call them silkies. Some people just call them PT shorts or, less kindly, the shortest shorts on the base. Same shorts, different slang. They earned the reputation by being the gear actual soldiers chose to run and ruck in, because less fabric means more air and more range.
Sky’s Out, Thighs Out: The Silkies Culture
Silkies are not just shorts. They are a whole vibe, and the rallying cry is “sky’s out, thighs out.” What started in the military has spread to runners, lifters, and anyone who decided that covering your legs is overrated.
Here is where it gets fun. The shorts were already barely there. Legend has it that some spouses on a marine base were not thrilled about all the thigh on display during morning PT and let command know about it. Rather than calm things down, that only poured fuel on the fire. The shorter and tighter the silkies got, the louder the statement. They turned into a badge of honor. The official record is tamer than the legend. Around 2011 the Corps standardized its PT uniform to longer soccer-style shorts, so the tiny silkies quietly stopped being regulation for unit workouts. By 2014 Marines were openly petitioning leadership to bring them back. The shorts won the culture war even after losing the uniform memo.
How I Ended Up in Silkies
I did not set out to wear the shortest shorts in the gym. I have big legs, and big legs have a problem. Every time I dropped into a squat or loaded up for a box jump, longer shorts bunched and bound across the top of my thighs. So I did what everyone with quads does. I hiked them up mid-set, over and over, like a nervous tic between reps.
About 15 years ago, I thought: why keep hiking them up when I could just start short. So I went looking for the shortest, lightest shorts I could find that would not turn into a sweaty sail on a humid day. The search kept landing on the same answer. Silkies are both genuinely short and almost weightless. The Soffe Originals were cheap enough to try without a second thought, so I tried them. I never went back.
Why I Actually Wear Them
Mobility for Bigger Legs
This is the whole reason I started. Nothing binds. With a two-inch inseam and a slick liner, there is simply no fabric to catch on the top of a big quad at the bottom of a squat. Deep squats, walking lunges, box jumps, lateral work. It all moves clean. If you have ever fought your own shorts at the bottom of a rep, this fixes it on day one. It pairs perfectly with anything heavy on leg day, where range of motion is the entire point. The liner prevents anything from falling out mid rep.
Running, Stretching, and Everything After
The mobility was the goal. The rest was a bonus I did not see coming. They are a genuinely great running short. The same lack of fabric that frees up a squat frees up your stride, and the nylon breathes far better than the chunky technical shorts that cost three or four times more. Stretching, mobility flows, warm-ups. The shorts disappear and let you move. For most of what I do in a session, less short is more.
The Leg-Day Accountability Trick
Here is the one nobody talks about. Short shorts are positive reinforcement. When your legs are out for the whole gym to see, you cannot skip leg day. Skinny legs under tiny shorts is its own kind of public accountability. The shorts hold you to your squats whether you like it or not. Visibility turns out to be a potent motivator.
Beyond the Gym
Then they crept into the rest of my life. The beach. The river in Costa Rica. Walking around town in the heat. Once you stop overheating in long shorts, going back is silly. The current convention says men should keep their legs covered. I disagree. There is nothing more masculine than peacocking a pair of well-earned tree trunks. #skysoutthighsout
Thin vs Printed: Which Soffe to Buy
This is the decision that matters, and it is the reason most of this review exists. Soffe sells the Originals in a thin solid version and a slightly thicker printed version. They feel similar on the hanger. They are not the same in practice. The difference is VPL. If you know, you know.
The thin solid version is the nylon one. It is the lightest and the coolest, and it is usually the cheaper of the two, but the fabric hides nothing about your anatomy. Acute angles show. The thicker version is usually polyester, and that bit of extra material distributes those lines far better, so you get a similar short with a lot less on display. Some of the thicker pairs are patterned and some are just solid drab colors. Either way the camo prints look good and the coverage is the real reason to reach for them.
The water is where this becomes very relevant. Soaked thin silkies feel like you are wearing nothing at all, and worse (or better), they look it. If your silkies are going anywhere near a beach or a river, get the printed. If you are more zealous about the mantra, feel free to run the nylons.
Whichever you grab, run a size down. I am normally a large and I wear a medium in these, because the tight fit is the whole point. The waistband is elastic enough to facilitate the drop in size.
What About Other Silkies Brands?
I have run a few other brands, and some of them are a riot. The prints get wild and the designs are genuinely funny. One pair I owned has an eagle beak placed dead center, which only enhances the peacocking effect. If you want a conversation piece, the boutique brands deliver.
The catch is they tend to miss on the fundamentals. Sizing usually runs bigger than the Soffe Originals, so you size down and hope. The material is often noticeably thicker, which kills the weightless feel that made me want silkies in the first place. And they cost a lot more for the privilege, usually thirty-five dollars and up against the eighteen to thirty you pay for a pair of Soffes. Fun, but not my daily driver. The Soffe Originals stay the baseline everything else is measured against.
Who Should Buy Silkies?
If you have big legs that fight your shorts at the bottom of a squat, these solve it. If you run in the heat and hate carrying soggy fabric, these solve that too. Lifters, runners, functional athletes, and anyone training somewhere hot and humid will get the most out of them. They run eighteen to thirty dollars on Amazon, nylon at the low end and polyester a little higher, which makes them the cheapest serious range-of-motion short you can buy and a long way under the boutique brands that start at thirty-five. They also last. I keep five or six pairs in rotation and they go for years. My olive drab greens have taken three years of frequent training plus ocean and river water and they are still in the lineup. The only people who should pass are those who simply do not want their legs seen. Everyone else, the math is easy.
The Verdict
The Soffe Original Ranger Panty is the best value in shorts I own. They unlocked my mobility. They turned out to be a great running short. They keep me accountable on leg day. And they have followed me from the squat rack to the river for three years without quitting. Buy the printed version unless you have a specific reason not to. My rating: 9 out of 10. The only knock is how much the thin version reveals about your business, and the printed model fixes even that.
Cellucor C4 Sport Pre-Workout
Frequently Asked Questions
What are ranger panties?
Ranger panties are short nylon PT shorts with a roughly two-inch inseam, made famous by the U.S. military. Soffe’s Original Ranger Panty is the classic example. Soldiers call them ranger panties, Marines call them silkies, and they are the same short either way.
Why are they called silkies?
The nickname comes from the fabric. They are built from lightweight 100% nylon tricot, which feels slick and silky against the leg and dries fast. Hence silkies. They are not to be confused with the breed of chickens of the same name, who most certainly skip leg day.
Were silkies actually banned by the military?
Not the way the story is usually told. There is no order that names and bans silkies. Around 2011 the Marine Corps standardized its PT uniform to longer shorts, so the short silkies stopped qualifying for unit PT. They were never outlawed, and by 2014 Marines were petitioning to bring them back. The dramatic ban is mostly legend.
What is the inseam on Soffe ranger panties?
About two inches, give or take a quarter inch depending on the size. That short inseam is the entire point. It is what gives you the full range of motion and the airflow.
Do you wear underwear with silkies?
No. They have a built-in brief liner, so they are designed to be worn on their own. Adding underwear defeats the lightweight feel and usually shows through anyway.
Are Soffe silkies good for running and lifting?
Yes to both. They started as my lifting shorts because nothing binds at the bottom of a squat, and they turned out to be an excellent hot-weather running short too. At eighteen to thirty dollars they outperform technical shorts that cost far more.
Do Soffe ranger panties run true to size?
Roughly true to size, but I size down on purpose for a tighter fit. I am normally a large and I wear a medium in these. Drop a size if you want the classic short, snug silkies look. Stay true if you want them a touch longer and looser.