I find more and more in my life that decisions made by very opinionated "designers" often dominate much more than most people realize, and I honestly think that's a fairly big reason behind why a lot of name brand stores skimp on the pockets. God forbid someone be seen wearing their Women's premium shorts with—gasp—a phone bulge?

It's kind of one of those things where convention follows convention for convention's sake, and likewise with innovations where it's safe for the bottom line. It's really hard to start a fashion brand; it's a really, really oversaturated market. The issue is that if a company makes the "we have pockets!" its whole shtick, that that's a very specific sticking point and doesn't necessarily mean what they make is good.

I also don't think I need to mention the side benefit to clothing brands that less pocket space makes handbags a de-facto requirement and thus another thing to be sold. Again, of course you can buy whichever clothes of which men's will have pockets abound, but like, there's a certain base level of wanting something fashionable that I think is reasonable, and that most men's clothing fails to achieve even for their target gender.

Well, you can buy Patagonia, but the price is not something that you will like