Why We Chose The Scott Explorair Light Men’s Shorts: Lightweight, quick-drying, streamlined

With lightweight yet intense running in mind, Scott have created a neatly streamlined pair of shorts here. There’s everything you need for a hardcore day on the trails, including multiple pocket options, an adjustable and secure waistband, and water-resistant/breathable fabrics to keep you nice and dry on your adventures.

Who Is The Scott Explorair Light For?

The Explorair shorts are primarily recommended for trail running and more general long-distance running, though you’d probably get away with a spot of cycling or climbing too. They’re also ideal if you’re looking for running shorts with more storage solutions but without too much added weight or bulkiness. It’s worth noting that these have been designed to pair perfectly with Scott’s Explorair 3L jacket.

Materials and Construction

The Explorair shorts have been designed to be lightweight and stretchy to remain comfortable and move with you over high-milage trail running and fast packing ascents. This free movement is largely thanks to Scott’s four-way stretch fabric, ‘DUROxpand, which is essentially a composite material that gives the shorts impressive amounts of stretch for support, comfort and full range of motion.

When you do, inevitably, begin to work up a sweat on the trail, Scott has built in their very own ‘‘DRYOxcell’ material within the shorts. This material has been designed to wick moisture away from the skin, through select woven yarns. Once moisture is moved away from the skin, it is then spread over a large area on the outside for a speedy dry.

Weather protection has been achieved through Scott’s very own ‘DRYOzone’ DWR which, although temporary, works to repel any light rain showers away from the fabric. This durable water repellency is free from any of those nasty PFCs that can cause damage to both local ecosystems as they are washed away from the fabric. Once you notice the DWR is running out (when the shorts start absorbing water droplets) then you can simply treat them again with an after-market product like Nikwax, which is also free from any PFCs.

Fit

The Explorair shorts have been designed with a relatively long inseam to help provide wind protection to your legs while you’re running high in the mountains. The inseam comes in a length of 28 cm for a size medium and comes in at a weight of 230g. This is perhaps on the heavier side, especially compared to extremely lightweight trail running shorts, but the levels of performance you get from the longer cut justify this increased weight.

Features

Looking at the features you’ve got two zippered hand pockets and another zipped thigh pocket on the shorts to help stash phones, gels, maps and any other bits and pieces you carry with you on the trail. They’re a regular fit too so, coupled with the stretchy fabric, they can accommodate a wide range of motions. 

One of the features the team here at Outdoors Magic were the biggest fans of was the nifty adjustable waist closure system. Rather than closing off the waist belt over the top of the fly via a popper, this system closes off to the side, allowing you to access the fly zipper without having to un-do the waist belt. It may seem like a small feature but it all helps to pull together an extremely streamlined pair of shorts and that, to us, is exactly what you’re after for fast ascents in the mountains.