We’ve been wearing the summer-weight softshell Outdoor Research Ferrosi Shorts (shop now) for over a decade, and the stretchy, durable fabric is a perfect all-purpose outdoor material for warm weather adventures.

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• Weight: 7.6 oz (M) 6.7 (W)
• Price: $79
• Pockets: 2 hand, 2 back, 1 cargo (m’s only)
• Material: 86% ripstop nylon (46% of which is recycled), 14% spandex
• Inseam: 7″ (M), 5″ or 9″ (W)
• Waist: Elastic with internal nylon webbing belt
• Average user review: low sample size
• Pros: Deep pockets. Very stretchy fabric. Durable.
• Cons: Internal belt. Fabric doesn’t have a very soft feel. Women’s is missing cargo pocket.

Features

Made with the famous Outdoor Research Ferrosi Fabric, you get tons of stretch with these shorts. They’re also ripstop and highly durable. Probably the best blend of stretch and durability you’ll find in a pair of hiking shorts. Breathability is solid, but nothing to write home about. While the shorts overall are quite comfortable, the hand feel of this fabric is certainly not the most soft, and the least soft on this list.

As hiking shorts go, the Outdoor Research Ferrosi Shorts have a fairly standard set of pockets. This include two front hand drop-in pockets, and two rear pockets. The rear right on the women’s cut has a zipper. The men’s version have an additional, fifth pocket on the right thigh. This is a small zippered cargo pocket, good for storing small handy items like a tube of sunscreen or lip balm. The hand pockets are very nice and deep, able to store the largest of phones and then some.

All in all, these have an above average quality pocket set, though we definitely wish that the women’s cut had a cargo thigh pocket instead of a rear zipper. Rear zipper pockets are almost categorically bad because they get filled out by the butt, leaving little slack, such that the zipper scrapes the back of your hand every time you reach in.

The Outdoor Research Ferrosi Shorts also feature a fairly complicated waistband, which we’ll admit we aren’t fans of. For starters, it’s an elastic waistband that hold well on its own. That part we love. Where the designers went wrong is adding an internal, static nylon webbing waist belt instead of a drawstring. We dislike internal belts for a number of reasons, mainly because they’re always finicky and frequently slide back into their internal sleeve.  If you cinch it down tight, it protrudes and drapes down awkwardly with nowhere to go and won’t stay in the belt loops. It’s also kind of narrow, half the height of a normal belt, so cinching it tight creates a band of pressure that isn’t as nicely distributed as with a dedicated independent belt.

Verdict

The Outdoor Research Ferrosi Shorts offer excellent stretch, deep pockets, good durability, fun colors, and great versatility. But this comes at the expense of a finicky waistband/integrated belt, and an inferior pocket configuration on the women’s cut.

Compare this model to all of the best hiking shorts of the year.