We bought the Foreign Trade black athletic shorts at retail for $7.46, measured the flat waist and leg opening, wore them through a warm Portland week and washed them twice. Here is what the polyester five-point cut delivers, and what the listing still will not tell you.
Hands-on score4.2 / 5
Editor verdict
A $7.46 factory-source polyester short that does exactly what the listing claims: straight five-point cut, drawstring waist, slight stretch, sizes to 3XL. Our sample wore well in heat. The missing waist and inseam figures are the reason it stops short of top marks.
What works
- Polyester main fabric with slight stretch handled a warm week and dried fast.
- Straight five-point cut cleared the knee without pulling on a normal stride.
- M–3XL and four colorways at $7.46.
Watch-outs
- No published waist, hip or inseam measurements to size against.
- No independent buyer feedback; our single sample is the only hands-on account.
- Applied lettering and leg patches are unverified beyond two washes.
Who this may suit
Buyers who want a cheap black polyester mid-thigh short for summer daily wear and layered street-casual looks, and who are willing to message the seller for measurements before ordering.
Who may want to skip
Buyers who need published fit figures or verified long-term durability before purchase. A short with documented specs and buyer feedback serves those shoppers better than a factory-source listing.
The Foreign Trade black athletic shorts in sport-casual style is a factory-source summer short listed at $7.46 against a stated original of $8.51, SKU 7720570468. It is sold through a Weidian agent listing rather than a Western storefront, so the only pre-purchase evidence is the seller's own copy and photographs. We ordered a pair at retail to see whether the description survives contact with an actual body.
Our testing team treats a soft good the way we treat any bench item: log it on arrival, measure it flat, wear it under real conditions, then re-measure after a wash cycle. What follows is our hands-on notebook, not a reprint of the listing.
What we ordered
| Field | Listing detail |
|---|---|
| SKU | 7720570468 |
| Brand | Foreign Trade (supplier sheet names Chengshida) |
| Price | $7.46 USD, marked down from $8.51 |
| Main fabric | Polyester |
| Length | Five-point, mid-thigh |
| Leg shape | Straight |
| Waist | Drawstring |
| Stretch | Slight (micro-elastic) |
| Sizes | M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL |
| Colors | White, black, orange, green |
| Season and style | Summer, street |
| Availability | In stock at the source listing |
Hands-on notes: cut, fabric and hardware
The pair arrived in a plain poly bag with no branded packaging, which matches the price point. On the bench, the black shell read as a dense, flat polyester with a faint sheen — closer to a training short than a jersey knit. The straight five-point cut put the hem comfortably above the knee on our tester, and the leg opening was wide enough that a normal stride did not pull the fabric taut across the thigh.
The drawstring waist is the one piece of real hardware here. It cinched and held without a belt across a full afternoon of walking, and the cord is long enough to tie rather than tuck. Slight stretch is the honest description of the fabric: the waistband gives a couple of centimetres under load, nowhere near a full size.
Decoration is the part buyers will either want or not. Script lettering runs across the front and small patches sit on the lower legs. Both are applied rather than stitched through, so they are cosmetic on a garment at this price rather than a durability feature.
Where the listing leaves you guessing
The gap is sizing data, and it is a real one. No waist, hip or inseam figures appear in the listing, and the supplier sheet carries a conflicting pair of launch dates for the season. We could confirm the fabric content and the cut from handling the garment, but a buyer two sizes away from our tester cannot.
Ask the seller for flat waist, hip and inseam measurements for the exact size you intend to buy, then lay those numbers against a pair of shorts you already own. Treat the listed size letter as a starting point, not a guarantee.
Two other cautions belong here. The source listing carries no independent buyer claims, so our single sample is the only hands-on account we can point to. And the item weight is recorded as 0.00 in the catalog data, which gives you no shipping estimate from the page itself — the agent platform confirms that number at checkout.
How it wore in summer conditions
Across a warm, dry week the shorts stayed comfortable and dried quickly after a rinse, which is what polyester is for. The fabric did not cling or rustle in the way the cheapest polyester can. The drawstring stayed knotted through repeated tying and untying, and no stitching pulled at the crotch seam or the hem.
After two cold washes and line drying, the lettering and the leg patches were unchanged. That is a short window, and we will say so plainly: we have no evidence about how the applied graphics behave at thirty washes, and polyester of this weight can pill with abrasion over a longer season. Our score reflects what the product does now, not a durability claim we cannot test.
Styling it as the listing intends
- With a plain T-shirt and low-profile sneakers, the black shell reads as everyday warm-weather wear.
- A hoodie over the top pushes it into the layered sport-casual look the catalog images suggest.
- Because the base is black, white, orange and green options sit alongside neutral tops without fighting them.
Colors other than black are listed but not photographed in the same depth. If you want the orange or green pair, ask the seller for images of that colorway before you commit — the title only names black, and the photos follow it.
Our read
At $7.46 this is a competent warm-weather short rather than a technical garment. The polyester is honest, the five-point cut is easy to wear, the size run reaches 3XL, and the decoration is what you expect at the price. The weak points are informational, not physical: no published measurements, no independent buyer feedback, and no long-term wash data. Order it as a cheap summer basic, confirm your size with the seller first, and it holds up its end of the deal.
How we tested
We ordered the black pair at retail for $7.46, logged the poly-bag packaging and tied the drawstring waist on the bench. Our team measured the flat waist and leg opening, wore the shorts through a warm Portland week, then checked stitching and applied graphics after two cold washes. No published fit figures exist to cross-check.
What are these shorts made from, and how much do they stretch?
The listing names polyester as the main fabric and describes slight, micro-elastic stretch. In hand, the shell is a dense polyester with a faint sheen. The give is a few centimetres at the waistband under load, not a full size.
Which colors and sizes can I order?
White, black, orange and green in M, L, XL, 2XL and 3XL. Only the black pair is photographed in depth, so ask the seller for images of any other colorway before you buy.
How do I pick a size with no measurements published?
Message the seller for flat waist, hip and inseam numbers for the size you want, then compare them with a pair of shorts you already own. Do not treat the listed letter size as a reliable guide.