Over the last few years I’ve noticed that the usual generic cotton shorts girls will wear for practices in volleyball, basketball, etc. and just general gym classes are worn inside out. Why? I mean, why do they choose to show the side with the unsightly seams, elastic and tag hanging out the back? It isn’t just a one-school or one-group thing, everyone does it. There doesn’t seem to be any advantage in breathability or anything.
These women are atheletes no? They wear the shorts right-side-out for one practice, then inside-out for a second practice. Thus they only wash them half as often.
That is what atheletes do.
What the girls at my high school did was wear them right but flip the waistband down so they only would contact the regular fabric. It made their short gym shorts an inch shorter which was fine by me.
That’s what I’ve seen as well. The shorts are not inside out, but the waistband is rolled down. Don’t ask me why. It might have something to do with the popularity of “low rider” jeans that sit below the waistline. Rolling down the waistband makes gym shorts look more like those jeans (as well as shortening the length, as riker pointed out). It’s a way to make school-issued gear look more like modern fashion.
The other point of the rolled down waistband is that you avoid having elastic marks around the midriff - which is (I’m told) very important in a bare midriff fashion sort of way.
Rhubarb - father of two recently post-teen daughters.
I was thinking of the female version of shirts vs. skins
Back in my day (and you can really appreciate this if you went to parochial school) . . .
The girls turned down the waistband on their skirts to make them shorter. They left home in the morning with a perfectly modest skirt and then turned the waistband to make them shorter and convey more sex appeal.
That’s high school girls. Turn on the sex appeal. It works every time. The gym shorts are just the modern day version of the old skirt trick.
I tend to roll down the waistband of shorts and pajama bottoms because if I don’t, the elastic is either really high on my waist or the bottom of the crotch is halfway down my thighs. (This is less of a problem since the low-rise trend, which has really gotten out of hand, but is still an improvement comfort-wise on high-waisted pants.) I am also pretty short, so on pants it helps keep the bottoms off the floor.
Could they turn them inside-out to prevent chafing? That’s pretty much the reasoning behind rashies.
Speaking as a coach of high school girls, they do it for the low rider effect. No one wants the waistband anywhere near the belly button. (and I actually agree, I do the same thing to make them more comfortable.)
You’re noticing it a lot now 'cause those thin cotton short with the wide elastic wiastband (and often words wirtten on the butt) have been newly popular for the last several years so it’s really obvious when they’re rolled down. But the girls have been rolling down all types of shorts for years.
It’s now so expected that you’ll roll the waistband down, shorts are even designed with stitching to be displayed when the waistband is rolled. But, it actually looks like the trend has peaked and I think the look will start disappearing.
I’ve never seen just the waistband rolled down - the entire garment is inside-out. But maybe the elastic chafing is the reason! Thanks, everyone 
Yeah, I vote for chafing- at least for the first girl who started wearing it like this… High end sports catalogues are full of expensive seamless underclothes and sports clothing. This is the low-cost version. I’m known to wear my thermal undies inside out for the same reason- no tags or seams means comfy comfy.
Chances are it caught on from a few peple doing it for practical reasons. Fads and teenage girls are old friends.