Figure 2.--Scots around the world, like these Chilean Scouts, still commonly wore short pants in the early 1970s.

The original Scout pants introduced by Baden Powell were short pants. Over time other types of pants have been worn. Scouts all over the world exceot in America wore short pants and keesocks. This was almost universal until well after World War II. American Scouts wore knickers. It was American Scouts who first began wearing long pants with shorts as a Summer ooption. Long pants became increasingly common in Europe beginning in the 1960s.

Kneepants

HBU knows of no Scout groups that adopted kneepants and long stockings as a Scout uniform.

Short Pants

This was an inovative step replacing the kneepants commonly worn by boys at the tun of the 20th Century. Scouts and Cubs in virtually every country for decades wore short pants, even during the winter. America was virtually the only country where Scouts did not commonly wear shorts. American boys except for camp wore knickers. It was not until the 1960s that it became common for American Scouts to wear shorts. By that time many foreign Scouts had begun to wear long pants.

Knickers

American Scouts and Cubs wore mostly knickers into the 1940s. HBU does not know of any other Scout group that commonly wore knickers.

Long Pants

Ameriucan Scouts changed to long pants in the 1940s. The American Scout Association promoted short pants, especially for summer wear, but American Scouts did not commonly begin wearing them until the 1970s. Ironically thisdwas about the time that many foreign Scouts began wearing long pants. The English Scouts changed to long pantts in 1969 and many European Scouts gradually began wearing long pants or jeans in the 1970s and by the 1980s short pants were not commonly worn by European Scouts. Cuns still commonly wore shorts, but even Cubs in the 1990s have begun wearing long pants.

Sweat Pants

Scout groups in the 1970s began adopting sweatpants, initially they were worn as a kind of sports outfit, but some groups adopted them formally in the 1990s. In some cases they were worn by the younger boys.