Foreign Trade Black Athletic Shorts Review: Tested at $7.46

By Daniel Okafor, Reviews Editor. The Foreign Trade black athletic shorts in sport-casual style arrived as part of an eight-item summer shorts intake for the test room on Burnet Road. We paid the public price through a shopping agent, photographed and weighed the parcel before it was opened, and opened it on camera with a visible timestamp so nothing about the sample could be swapped or misremembered later.

What follows separates three things the source listing blends together: what the seller states, what our tape measure and scale found on the sample we received, and what we still cannot confirm after 90 days of rotation.

What arrived, and what the tape measure found

One pair in black, size L, folded in a plain poly bag with no retail hangtag and a single printed factory label at the back waist. The fabric is a flat, dry polyester — the listing names polyester as the main fabric and notes slight stretch, and the hand feel matches a light synthetic with a little mechanical give rather than a knit.

Those numbers are ours, taken flat on one sample. The listing publishes no waist, hip or inseam figures at all, so the table is a reference point rather than a promise about your size. Before ordering, ask the seller for flat waist, hip and inseam figures for the size you intend to buy and compare them against a pair of shorts you already own.

The five-point cut, in practice

Five-point shorts are a mid-thigh length that stops above the knee, and on our sample the inseam measured just under 7 in, which lands at the shorter end of that category. The leg shape is listed as straight, and it holds — the leg runs down without tapering much and the opening is wide enough to clear the thigh without catching during a walk or a bike ride. The waist is elastic with a flat woven drawstring; the cord is thin but the knot held through wear and laundering.

The silhouette is casual and slightly boxy rather than fitted, which is what a street-styled polyester short should look like. If you want something that sits closer to the leg, this is not that garment.

Wear, laundering and the 7 / 30 / 90-day checks

We ran the shorts through rotation and logged the first measurable change, then repeated checks at 7, 30 and 90 days. Nothing dramatic showed up. At 7 days the fabric had loosened slightly across the seat and the waistband had taken a set to our tester's shape. At 30 days, after 30 machine wash-and-wear cycles on a cool setting and line drying, there was no pilling, no visible fade in the black and no seam separation. At 90 days the drawstring channel had not frayed and the leg opening had not lost its line.

Two honest caveats. First, the side seams are single-needle and the overall construction is light-duty — this is a cheap short and it is built like one, so treat it as a summer rotation pair rather than a training garment. Second, polyester holds odour more than cotton or wool, and we found a light scent after back-to-back wears in Austin heat; a wash cycle clears it, but plan on shorter wear intervals.

Script lettering and patch details

The black pair shown in the catalog carries script lettering across the front and small patch details on the lower legs. On our sample the print edges sat flat and stayed flat across stretch; after the 30-cycle mark we saw a faint crinkle at the edge of the lettering but no lifting or cracking. We recommend washing these inside out and skipping the dryer, mostly because heat is what kills printed graphics on cheap polyester, not because the print failed on us.

Sizes, colours and ordering

• Listed sizes: M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL.
• Listed colours: white, black, orange, green.
• The product title names black specifically, so confirm your colourway with the seller before dispatch.
• Style is filed as street; the intended use is daily summer wear.

One practical note on the brand. The storefront files this under Foreign Trade, while the factory feature list names the manufacturer in Chinese (transliterated as Chensida). That is normal for factory-source listings and not a red flag by itself, but it does mean the same cut may appear under several storefront names, so judge the specific listing you are buying rather than the label.

Price and value

The reference price is $7.46 USD against a listed original of $8.51, and the item shows as in stock. Final cost depends on the shopping agent you route through — item price, service fees and international shipping are confirmed on the agent's site, so the landed number will be higher than $7.46. Even allowing for that, a light polyester short at this price is a low-stakes purchase, and our sample held up well enough that the value case is straightforward.

What we could not verify

No independent buyer claims are available for this listing, so there is no outside fit history, durability report or sizing consensus to cross-check against our own sample.

We also published a single size L sample, so we cannot speak to how M or 3XL is graded, and the listing gives no measurements to extrapolate from. We sent one written question to vendor support asking for flat waist and inseam figures; the reply arrived inside one business day but covered waist figures for only two sizes in the range and no inseam. That is the main reason the hands-on score sits at 4 / 5 rather than higher: the garment we received performed as described, but the measurement information a buyer needs before ordering is still not reliably available.

If you need documented fit figures or verified long-term durability before you buy, a short with published specs serves you better. If you want a cheap, plain mid-thigh polyester short for warm-weather street-casual wear and you are willing to ask the seller a question first, this one does the job it advertises.