Foreign Trade Black Athletic Shorts Review: The Drawstring Waist Through a Seated Workday

We ordered the Foreign Trade black athletic shorts at the listed $7.46, one pair, size L, through an agent, and put them on the fit panel for two weeks. The listing frames them as a sport-casual, street-leaning five-point short in polyester with slight stretch, sized M to 3XL. Because the waist is the only adjustment on the garment, that is where we spent the most time: four full wear days per panel member, including one full seated working day, plus a cold wash and a hang dry.

What arrived, and what the listing left blank

The parcel contained one black pair in a plain poly bag, drawstring already threaded. No hangtag, no fibre-content label, no care label, and nothing resembling a size chart. That matters more than usual here, because the listing itself leaves gaps:

• The shipping weight field reads 0.00; our postage scale put the size L pair at 196 g.
• The spec sheet names a Chinese factory brand (Chensida) while the listing sells it under Foreign Trade.
• Two different summer launch dates appear in the same sheet, 2024 and 2025.
• Four colourways are listed — white, black, orange, green — but the photographs show the black pair only.

None of that is unusual for a factory-source listing, and none of it changes the garment in your hands. It does mean the photographs are your only colour reference, and our pair matched the black in them closely: a flat, slightly matte black that reads closer to charcoal under warm indoor light.

The waistband: elastic, cord and a seated workday

Construction is a 1.5-inch covered elastic waistband with a flat woven drawstring through two front eyelets. The cord ends are dipped rather than metal-tipped, and they fray a little after the first wash. Flat, the size L waist measured 15.5 inches relaxed and 18.5 inches pulled taut — roughly 31 to 37 inches of circumference, which is honest for a labelled size L but not generous.

Seated is where a drawstring short usually gives itself away. Across a full desk day, the front of the waistband folded over once at the eyelet line after about two hours, and we re-flattened it by hand. The back stayed put once the cord was tied; there was no gaping at the lumbar when sitting forward. The knot slipped twice on the first day, both times with a single bow — a double knot solved it and stayed tied for the rest of the test. Elastic recovery was the pleasant surprise: after five hours of seated wear, the waistband returned to its flat measurement within 20 minutes of standing.

Measured flat before wear and after one cold wash

With no published figures to check against, these numbers are our own, taken on the size L pair with the garment smoothed flat and the drawstring relaxed.

Measurement	Before first wear	After cold wash, hang dry
Waist, relaxed	15.5 in	15.25 in
Waist, stretched	18.5 in	18.25 in
Front rise	11.5 in	11.4 in
Inseam	6.75 in	6.6 in
Outseam	19.25 in	19.0 in
Leg opening, flat	11.75 in	11.6 in
Weight, size L	196 g	194 g

The wash was cold, gentle, and hung to dry, because there was no care label to follow. Shrinkage stayed under a quarter inch at every point, which is about what a polyester short should do. We did not tumble dry a second pair, and would not: the print is the piece most likely to suffer from heat.

Three bodies, one straight block

The straight-leg, five-point cut ends two to three inches above the knee on our panel. A 5 ft 8 in tester in a 32-inch waist wore the M with the waistband comfortably stretched; a 5 ft 11 in tester in a 34-inch waist wore the L; a 6 ft 1 in tester in a 36-inch waist wore the XL, where the same cut sits noticeably higher on the thigh. The leg opening clears the knee when seated and does not ride up on a walk, but the roomy opening means the short swings rather than grips.

The side-seam pockets are the weakest detail. The opening measured about 6.25 inches deep and a phone slid forward against the thigh whenever our seated tester crossed their legs. For a short styled as everyday wear rather than training kit, that is a small daily annoyance rather than a fault.

Print, patches and the fabric in hand

Script lettering runs across the front of one leg, with a small patch detail low on the leg. The lettering is a surface application with a slightly stiff edge you can feel through the fabric; it stayed flat and unlifted through the wash and the two-week window, though one wash is not a durability verdict. Treat heat as the enemy and it should hold.

The polyester hand-feel is dry and a little papery at first, softening after the first wash. The "slight stretch" in the description is real but modest, and the fibre content lists polyester alone — if there is elastane in the blend, the listing does not say so. Do not expect a technical short: there is no lining, no mesh, no zip pocket.

How we would order it

1. Measure a pair of shorts you already like flat at the waist, rise and inseam, then match those figures, not the M–3XL letters.
2. Ask the agent for flat waist, hip and inseam measurements of the exact size before it ships; the listing publishes none.
3. Ask for a photograph of the orange or green pair if you want anything other than black.
4. Budget beyond $7.46. The listed original price is $8.51, and agent fees plus international shipping will outweigh the garment on a single-pair order, so this is a sensible add-on rather than a stand-alone purchase.

On outfit terms, the black pair does the work a plain short should: it takes a grey tee and a low sneaker without effort, layers under an open hoodie for a sport-casual look, and keeps the script print as the only loud element. We would not stack it with another printed piece — the lettering is large enough that it sets the tone for everything above it.