Foreign Trade lists this short at $4.93, down from $5.82, in six colourways and sizes M through 4XL. It is a plain, straight-leg, mid-rise casual short closed with a drawstring instead of a belt. We ordered a pair in red through our shopping agent, logged it at the Rotterdam bench and ran it through the desk's standard sequence: flat measurement, fabric weight on the 0.1 g scale, one wash, then a 14-day wear test.
What arrived and how we measured it
The parcel held one short in a plain poly bag with no hangtag, no care label in an English language and no printed waist or inseam figure anywhere on the garment. That last point matters, because the product listing itself publishes no numeric measurements for any size. So everything below is our own bench reading, taken with the garment laid flat at 20 °C after 24 hours of rest.
| Measurement (size M, flat) | Our reading | How we took it |
|---|---|---|
| Waist, relaxed | 33.0 cm | Tape across the top edge, drawstring slack |
| Waist, pulled | 45.2 cm | Drawstring tensioned to the elastic stop |
| Hip, 10 cm below waist | 52.5 cm | Widest point of the body panel |
| Inseam | 17.0 cm | Inside leg, crotch seam to hem |
| Leg opening | 31.5 cm | Straight across the hem, laid flat |
| Front rise | 26.5 cm | Waist edge to crotch seam |
| Garment mass | 168.4 g | 0.1 g bench scale |
| Fabric weight | 152 g/m² | Calibrated 0.1 g scale, 10 cm × 10 cm swatch |
At 17 cm the inseam lands above the knee rather than at mid-thigh, which is our reading on a 178 cm body. That reconciles the listing's two competing descriptions — a mid-thigh five-point short in one field and a "long-tube" cut in another — only partly. By our numbers the garment sits in the shorter half of the two options. Anyone who wants a knee-covering short should treat this as a mismatch, not a rounding error, and ask the seller for a flat inseam before paying.
Fabric, weight and what the wash did
The shell is a thin, soft-hand polyester spandex with a faint sheen and a light drape. At 152 g/m² it is squarely summer-weight: noticeably lighter than a cotton twill short and closer to the feel of a lined swim trunk. The drawstring and hem are clean single-needle work with no skipped stitches or loose thread ends on the pair we received, and the side pockets are set flat enough that a phone does not swing when walking.
One caution the catalogue raises and we could not resolve: the material-function field describes the fabric as high-stretch, while the elasticity field describes it as slight stretch. On the bench the waistband stretched roughly 37 % and the body panels gave about 8 % across the grain. That is stretchy at the waist, mild through the seat and thigh — closer to "slight stretch" in wear terms, but the listing's two descriptions still do not agree and we would not assume a four-way stretch fit.
We washed once, cold, at 30 °C, inside out, and line dried. Waist came back at 32.7 cm and inseam at 16.8 cm — under 2 % movement on both, within our measurement tolerance for a single cycle. Colour held; no marking on the white reference towel we pressed against the damp garment.
Daily wear
Fourteen days of wear in Rotterdam summer weather, mostly walking, cycling short distances and desk work, with one evening out. The shorts stay cool and dry quickly, and the drawstring knot holds without needing a belt. Mid-rise sits at the natural waist on our tester and the straight hem keeps a plain, youthful line that pairs with a T-shirt or a hoodie without fuss.
Two limits showed up over the fortnight. There are no belt loops, so a belt is not an option if the waistband loosens over time. And the thin fabric transmits pocket contents visibly when a phone or keys are loaded — a normal trade-off at this weight, not a defect, but worth knowing before ordering for anything more formal than casual wear.
Colour and coordination
The red is a clean solid with no print or panel breaks, so it carries the outfit. Our tester matched it with a white tee and grey sneakers, then with a black hoodie for a sport-casual layer; both worked. The other listed colourways — fluorescent green, beige grey, light purple, black and white — follow the same plain template, so the black and beige grey versions are the safer everyday picks if head-to-toe red is not the intent.
What to verify before ordering
- Request a flat waistband and inseam measurement for your target size. The listing publishes none, and our 17 cm reading is our own, not the seller's.
- Ask which stretch description is current — high or slight — if a stretchy fit is the reason you are buying.
- Check the agent page for the final item price plus service fees and international shipping; $4.93 is the reference price only.
- Note that the listing carries no buyer record, so treat its fabric and fit copy as catalogue description rather than accumulated feedback.