The Foreign Trade black athletic shorts sit in a crowded corner of the agent catalogues: a plain, factory-source polyester short priced at $7.46 USD against a listed original of $8.51, sold in white, black, orange and green from M to 3XL. The listing describes a straight-leg, mid-thigh cut with a drawstring waist, slight stretch, and script lettering across the front with small patch details on the lower legs. We ordered one pair to see whether a sub-$8 short holds up on the bench.
What we ordered and how we tested it
Our testing team placed a single order for the black colourway in size L through our agent route, at the listed price, with the item marked in stock. One pair arrived, bagged, with no size tag beyond a printed neck label and no care label with fibre content in English. We handled the pair before washing: waistband construction, drawstring hardware, seam type at the inseam, hem finish and the placement of the lettering and patches.
Then we taped it flat on the bench. Every figure below is from our own tape, not from the seller. The listing carries no numeric size chart, so there was nothing published to compare against — a variance check we usually run was simply not possible here. Instead we compared the flat waist against an 84 cm tape-measured reference short and treated the difference as our baseline for fit.
Flat measurements, size L black
| Measurement (flat, size L) | Our tape |
|---|---|
| Waistband, relaxed | 36.0 cm |
| Waistband, fully stretched | 52.0 cm |
| Hip, widest point | 54.0 cm |
| Front rise, waistband top to crotch seam | 30.0 cm |
| Inseam | 14.5 cm |
| Outseam, waistband top to hem | 43.0 cm |
| Leg opening, flat | 29.5 cm |
| Garment weight, whole pair | 168 g |
Fabric weight and what the label says
We cut a 100 mm × 100 mm swatch from the inside of the left leg and weighed it on the 0.1 g scale: 1.7 g, which works out at roughly 170 g/m². The hand feel matches that number — a light, dry polyester with a slight mechanical give rather than a knit stretch. The listing's own spec sheet names polyester as the main fibre and notes slight stretch, and it also names a factory brand, Chensida, that does not appear in the product title. Worth knowing if you are matching this to anything else from the same source.
We also noticed the spec sheet carries two different summer seasons, 2025 and 2024, in adjacent fields. That is a normal artefact of recycled factory listings and it tells you the listing text is not maintained line by line. Treat the description as a rough guide and the tape as the truth.
Wash test
The pair went through one cold machine wash at 30°C and was air dried flat — no tumble dryer. Re-taped afterwards: the outseam had moved from 43.0 cm to 42.5 cm and the relaxed waistband from 36.0 cm to 35.6 cm, both under 1.5% and inside the tolerance we would expect from a polyester short. No pilling on the seat panel, no colour bleed into the white test cloth, no seam separation at the inseam. The drawstring cord stayed intact through the wash and did not fray at the cut ends.
How it wears
Fourteen days of wear in Rotterdam summer weather, mostly 18°C to 24°C, with two days above 26°C. The five-point cut is real: a 14.5 cm inseam puts the hem clearly above the knee, and the 29.5 cm leg opening keeps the short away from the thigh in motion. At 168 g the pair disappears in the hand, and the fabric dries fast after a warm walk. The straight leg shape means zero taper, so it reads as a plain sport short rather than a fitted running short.
Two things we would flag. First, the fabric is thin enough that the horizontal crease above the hem shows in photos, and it presses back in after a wash only partly. Second, the script lettering across the front and the lower-leg patches arrived matching the catalogue photography we had seen — but placement and print quality are the details most likely to shift between colourways and batches, so if the exact graphic matters to you, ask for a photo of the colour you are buying before ordering. We did not verify the lettering against any retail original, and we cannot confirm it.
Ordering and sizing cautions
This is a single-source listing with no independent buyer claims attached to it. Nothing on the page publishes waist, hip or inseam figures, so our size L numbers above are the only flat data available for the short, and they describe one pair in one colourway — not the whole M–3XL run. If you are between sizes or buying 2XL and up, message the seller for flat waist, hip and inseam measurements for the size you intend to buy and compare them against a pair you already own. The title names the black colourway specifically while the listing offers four, so confirm your colour choice too.
At $7.46 the maths is easy: you are buying a light polyester mid-thigh short and not much else. On our bench it measured honestly and washed with minimal shrinkage, which is more than a lot of this price band manages.