actually I wash all my shorts before I wear them for the first time. I have such sensitive chemical allergies I figure wash-and-be-safe-rather-than-wear-and-hope-to-luck. When I talked to PI they told me it couldn't possibly be their shorts that it had to be something else. To make a short story long (too late) between my LBS and PI I got the shorts returned and used the credit to buy a different brand. I was just so disappointed by my reception from their cust service dept I sent an email and the reponse I got to that?.....sorry about the problems but that I probably just misunderstood what the guy was trying to say?? *shaking head*...........which part of "it couldn't possibly be our shorts" did I seem to misunderstand? Anyway, yes that was exactly my reaction: very raw, very red, swollen, itchy, very uncomfortable for several days until the reaction calmed down. and it happened the first time I wore them.