Tesla launches ‘S3XY’ short shorts, breaks its website

Elon Musk wasn’t kidding about launching Tesla shorts. 

Over the weekend, the Tesla CEO announced the new product on Twitter: Tesla short shorts with “S3XY” emblazoned on the back. They’ve proven so popular that the website went down at one point (as of publication time, it’s working again). 

“Celebrate summer with Tesla Short Shorts,” says the product description on Tesla’s website. “Run like the wind or entertain like Liberace with our red satin and gold trim design. Relax poolside or lounge indoors year-round with our limited-edition Tesla Short Shorts, featuring our signature Tesla logo in front with “S3XY” across the back. Enjoy exceptional comfort from the closing bell.”

The shorts are part of a long-running joke aimed at Tesla shorters, that is, people who borrow and sell Tesla stock, hoping for a decline in price so they can buy it cheaper and make a profit. People who are short a particular stock are often loudly criticizing the company behind it, and Musk has been waging war against shorters — and the SEC, which he considers somehow complicit in the campaign against Tesla — for years. 

Even the price of the shorts are a joke. They cost $69.420, with the “420” being a reference to both weed and Musk’s now-infamous tweet about taking Tesla private at $420 a share, which has gotten him in a lot of trouble with the SEC. 

In any case, the shorts have apparently proven to be quite popular. Right now, they’re only available in XL, with all other sizes being sold out.