Also known as bike shorts or cycling shorts, spats are a modern pair of tight-fitting shorts made from stretchy material, typically a mix of nylon and spandex. They are designed as athletic wear for physical activities
like sports and exercise. Spats are unisex garments, although you'll find that more women than men wear them because their sleek and form-fitting nature accentuates the curves around their bottoms. There are different colours available, but the most common is black, and the shorts can be either
solid or
shiny depending on the material used. Spats are
popular with
girls who are either physically active or have a tomboyish sense of fashion.
Spats can also alternatively be worn as
panties by wearing them without underwear underneath, and then worn with either a
skirt or another pair of shorts over them. In media such as anime and video games, they are used as a way to skirt around the problem of unwanted panty shots which is especially prevalent in female characters who frequently perform high
kicks in fight scenes. However, there is a sizeable group of people who find black spandex shorts more arousing than your standard pantsu, thus ironically defeating the point of such modest garments similar to the way people find pantyhose sexy.
While the two are similar, spats should not be confused with booty shorts, which sometimes come in
loose variants. Also not to be confused with the
short form of spatterdashes, a type of footwear accessory worn mostly by men
"If a
girl is wearing spats without panties underneath and you see her spats, that technically counts as a panty
shot! Are spats for sporty
girls, or exhibitionists?!"
-- Flavor text for Speedy Sporty Spats , Yandere Simulator
