Foreign Trade Black Athletic Shorts Review: A $7.46 Five-Point Cut, Tested for Ten Days

Hands-on score

4.0 / 5

Anyone who wants a cheap black mid-thigh polyester short for summer street-casual outfits with Jordans, is between sizes and can work a drawstring waist, and does not mind messaging the seller for measurements.

Buyers who need published sizing charts or verified long-term durability before purchase, and anyone wanting a structured, heavyweight short rather than a light summer shell.

By Priya Raghavan, Reviews Editor. Our office has two speeds: sneakers we chase for months, and cheap apparel we order out of curiosity and end up wearing all summer. The Foreign Trade black athletic shorts (SKU 7720570468) sit in the second category. We ordered them through a buying agent at the listed $7.46 USD, against a reference of $8.51, and put them through the same bench sequence our footwear reviews get — parcel photographed on arrival, measurements taped, materials inspected under the loupe, then ten days and 20 km of city walking between two testers.

What we checked before the first wear

Every pair in our West Loop test room starts on the bench, so the shorts were treated like an inbound sneaker: logged, weighed, and measured before anyone pulled them on.

• Flat waist, hip, inseam, outseam and leg-opening measurements, taped by hand.
• Weight of the garment on a calibrated digital scale, one size at a time.
• Stretch and recovery — the fabric pulled sideways, held, released, then re-measured to see how much it sprang back.
• Seam and hem inspection with a 10x stitch loupe, focused on the crotch gusset, side seams and the hem turn.
• UV lamp pass over the front script lettering to see whether the print sits on the surface or sits in the yarn.
• Close-up photography of the lower-leg patch details, plus a creasing grade taken after the wear window closed.

Fit and measurements

The listing calls these a straight five-point cut, which in plain terms means a mid-thigh short that ends above the knee, with a leg line that does not taper much. On the body that reads as a relaxed short: our two testers — one narrow-hipped and long-legged, one broader through the seat — both landed mid-thigh, though the longer-legged tester sat closer to the knee than the photos suggest.

Check	Our size M sample	Our size L sample
Waist, flat and relaxed	About 75 cm	About 80 cm
Inseam	About 17 cm	About 17.5 cm
Leg opening, flat	About 29 cm	About 31 cm
Outseam	About 48 cm	About 50 cm
Garment weight	About 180 g	About 195 g

Two cautions belong next to that table. First, those figures are from a single pair of each size, so treat them as a starting point rather than a spec sheet — the listing itself publishes no waist, hip or inseam numbers at all. Second, the drawstring waist adjusts visibly on the body, which effectively widens the comfortable range for anyone between sizes. Ask the seller for flat measurements of the size you intend to buy and lay the tape against a pair of shorts you already like.

Fabric, stretch and construction

The stated main fabric is polyester, and the listing describes slight stretch. That matched what we felt: the hand is smooth and fairly light, matte rather than shiny, and it holds a crease when folded but releases it once the shorts are on. Under load during the walking window, the fabric moved with the stride instead of pulling across the front of the thigh, and the recovery check showed the waistband springing back close to its taped figure rather than stretching out permanently.

At the loupe, the hem turn and side seams were tidy and consistent — no loose thread tails, no skipped stitch runs, no visible raw edge inside the waistband channel. The front script lettering reads as a surface-applied print with a soft hand rather than an embroidered or appliquéd element, and the small lower-leg patch details are attached additions rather than prints. None of that squeaked or sat proud against the skin after a full day.

After ten days of wear and washing, the creasing grade we recorded was mild: soft fold lines through the front of the short, no shine and no grey sheen at the high-wear points. The main wear was expected and cosmetic.

Wearing them with a Jordan rotation

This is where a $7.46 short earns its keep. The straight, mid-thigh black shell sits under the silhouette of most Air Jordan 1, 3 and 4 outfits without competing for attention, and the script across the front is the only loud element on the garment.

Pairing	Result
White tee, white Jordan 1 lows	Cleanest look; the black short reads as a plain base layer and the lettering does the talking.
Oversized grey hoodie, Jordan 3	Works for shoulder-season evenings; the relaxed leg balances the hoodie's volume.
Fitted tank, Jordan 4	Proportion gets top-heavy if the tank is cropped; the mid-thigh length keeps the outfit grounded.

The four listed colorways — white, black, orange and green — give the same cut a very different job. Black is the everyday option; the orange and green will need more deliberate styling and will show marks sooner.

Buying notes and what stays unknown

We ordered through a buying agent from the Weidian listing (item ID 7720570468); as always, the item price shown here is the reference, and service fees and international shipping are confirmed on the agent's site at checkout. The listing shows the pair as in stock.

What we could not confirm: durability past the ten-day window, how the print holds after a season of washes, and whether every colorway is cut from the same pattern. There are no independent buyer claims attached to this listing, so our measurements and wear notes are the only hands-on record. Confirm your color and size with the seller before you commit, since the title names black while the listing also offers three other colors.

Testers' summary from the bench log: light, quick-drying, and honest about what it is — a cheap polyester short that fits like the photos and asks you to bring your own measurements.