ZK: I have yet to pay full price for Prana Stretch Zion items. Even used they aren’t cheap, but $30-50 for Amazon returns and ~$25-30 for used on ebay isn’t too bad. The fact that they attract tons of bidders on ebay when other more famous “designer” items don’t tells you something.

I will probably in the end bite the bullet and pay full retail for the Prana items when I stop losing weight.

If you want to try out the NylonHikingShortsLifeStyle without spending much ($17), I suggest these:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wrangler-Men-s-Outdoor-Performance-Zip-Cargo-Short/898069635

I got a couple pairs in the mail today actually, and am wearing one now. Not as good as the $80 ones, but still nylon and very cool. They are about as thin as running shorts, but not low cut and tight, so you can wear them in public. I also like they have cargo pockets, but you barely notice them so you don’t have the sloppy cargo shorts look.

WalMart items are often way oversized, but these fit true to size.

Scaredy: In my journey on the way to nylon, I also tried silk and linen. The silk shorts, by Tommy Bahama, isn’t soft and thin like a silk shirt, and is fairly nice. Linen shorts are also kind of nice, they have a beachy Cuban feel to them. However, both of them wrinkle and stain more than nylon. Finally I tried hemp shorts, which are very close to linen.

Update: I am 80% nylon items now for underwear, shorts, and pants.

Nylon doesn’t work well for socks or shirts. Socks become too sweaty and don’t provide enough soft barrier between foot and shoe. Shirts are actually quite comfortable, but they have a nipple outlining effect. So they are reserved for bike rides and yard work, and I won’t buy more. The shirts aren’t even tight or thin, size L is kind of baggy but still has the effect.

I now have a third laundry basket for nylon clothing. It washes perfectly in cold water on quick cycle and dries in 15 minutes on the “very low – delicates” setting. Meanwhile cotton clothing needs 40 minutes on high to dry.

I hide this basket from my maid who normally does the laundry. I enjoy doing just this quick task every 10 days or so, and don’t feel like having a long conversation in Spanish with her about doing the quick cycle and low dry where I illustrate things on our wonderful but overly complicated Samsung washer and dryer. She seems stressed out lately and I don’t want to add to it.