When my son was born, I joked that it was like giving birth to a marshwiggle — he was all arms and legs.  Now, at three, he’s still pretty lanky.  That length, without accompanying width, makes finding pants to fit a real challenge.  Just Bones Boardwear‘s line of swim trunks takes this into consideration, with the cleverest waistband adjustment I’ve seen!  (Pardon the crazy lighting in our action shots.  You get to envision yourself with us at the indoor pool today, garish lighting and all.)

Just Bones Boardwear Adjustable Waist

There are two major traits that make Just Bones Boardwear stand out.  The most obvious is the patented adjustable waistband.  If you have had kids for long enough, you’ve probably seen adjustable-waist pants before.  They use a strip of elastic with buttonholes hidden inside the waistband, and you pull this elastic as far as necessary before buttoning it to the buttons inside the waist.  They generally work well; there’s just one major problem with these: they’re uncomfortable.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want those buttons digging into my waist.

Just Bones made the simple-but-previously-overlooked change of moving this adjustment to the outside.  There’s a flap at the center of the waistband in the back.

When you lift the flap, you’ll see the adjustment elastic/button.

Not only does this prevent the button’s digging into the wearer’s flesh, it makes it considerably easier to adjust the shorts while they’re being worn.  I was able to put the swim trunks on my little guy, then have him turn around, and adjust them as far as necessary.

Much of the “scrunching” from the adjustment is then also concentrated at the small of the back, where it’s a bit concave, making for still more difference between this method and the more typical one.  (If you look closely, you’ll see the ends of the elastic hanging out because we adjusted ours so much.  You can fold the ends back over and button them onto the button again to hide them, but I wanted to be sure we had the adjustment right first.)

This adjustable waistband is most obviously useful for little boys’ trunks like this, but it’s also a core feature on older boys’ and men’s trunks from Just Bones Boardwear.  This way the fact that you’re slim doesn’t mean you have to wear your trunks short in order to keep them up!  (Readers will also appreciate that the site’s images are quite modest.  Most, if not all, of the men pictured are wearing shirts.  Unlike my son here.  Sorry!)  Shorter women’s-cut shorts are also available, for wearing over swimsuits.

Comfortable Fabric

The other hallmark of Just Bones board shorts is their overall feel.  They’re made of a super-soft, silky-feeling polyester, and they’re unlined.

Now, for some people, this might be a downside, and I imagine if you want the constraint, you could wear a swim team-style suit underneath these.  This was an intentional design feature on the part of the company, though, since the mesh inserts typically included tend to chafe.  (I’ll take their word for it.  I have no personal experience here.)  That mesh is so flimsy it apparently functionally accomplishes little, so the tradeoff of chafing is just not worth it.  This way, the entirety of the shorts (apart from fastenings, etc.) is just soft.  For the little guys, this makes it easy to fit a swim diaper underneath.

I’ll be honest; these are not inexpensive as swim trunks go (particularly for kids).  On the other hand, they’ll last longer before being outgrown, because of the adjustability of the waist.  And the quality is excellent.  Having had the opportunity to try them out in person, I think they’re worth the investment.