Foreign Trade Red Casual Shorts Review: A $4.93 Drawstring Summer Short, Bench-Checked

Hands-on score

4.0 / 54.0 / 5

Editor verdict

A thin, cheap summer short that behaves like the price suggests: light, mildly stretchy, and fast to wash. Sizing is the gamble, because the seller publishes no measurements and describes stretch two different ways.

Anyone after a light, inexpensive drawstring short for hot weather who will message the seller for flat waist and inseam measurements first.

Buyers who need belt loops, a stated inseam, published measurements, or independent fit feedback before spending.

Most of what crosses our bench is lamps and bulbs, so we keep a short list of checks that travel: photograph the packaging, time the order from checkout to doorstep, measure what the seller does not, and read colour with the spectrometer instead of trusting a phone screen. The Foreign Trade red casual short, SKU 7717539167, gave us plenty to measure — mainly because the listing supplies almost nothing to go on.

What we ordered and how we tested

We ordered the red colorway in size L through our usual agent and kept the packaging in the state it arrived, as we do with everything else. Agent timing was logged from checkout to doorstep. Because this is apparel, the lighting-specific sets did not apply: no lux grid at 1 m and 2 m, no flicker capture at 120 fps and 240 fps, and no four-dimmer sweep, since there is nothing here to dim. The checks that did transfer were fabric weight on our scale, seam and hem straightness, a flat waistband and inseam measurement on our sample, colour readings with the spectrometer in daylight and under our 2700K and 4000K desk lamps, and two hand washes.

Fabric, weight, and the stretch contradiction

The listing calls the main fibre polyester and names the fabric as spandex cloth, describing it as thin and breathable. Our sample matched the thin part: it is a light, slightly slick knit that moves air and dries fast, which is the point of a summer short at this price. Blend percentages are not published, so we can only report how it behaves, not what ratio produced that behaviour.

Stretch is the one place the listing argues with itself. The material-function field says high stretch; the elasticity field says slight stretch. Our sample sat closer to the second claim — a mild give across the leg opening and waistband rather than a compression-fabric feel. If you are buying specifically because "high stretch" was promised, ask the seller which field to trust, because a single sample cannot settle a listing that contradicts itself.

Construction is what $5 buys: clean enough straight hem, a simple seam run with no obvious loose threads, a drawstring at the fly instead of a zip, and side pockets set flat. No belt loops, and none are listed.

The red colorway under our lamps

Red is the hardest colour to buy blind, because cheap phone photos and low-CRI room lighting both push it toward orange. Read under the spectrometer in daylight, our sample landed close to the product photos rather than to a bright cherry or a brick tone, and it held that read under our 4000K fixture. Under 2700K warm light it warmed noticeably, which is normal behaviour for a dyed polyester and worth knowing if you plan to wear these in a warm-lit room and expect the same red you saw on screen.

Fit, sizing, and the missing numbers

Sizes run M to 4XL in a mid-rise, straight-leg cut. The seller publishes no waist, hip, or inseam figures at all, and the catalog copy pulls in two directions on length — a mid-thigh short in one field, a long-tube cut in another. On our size L sample we recorded the flat waistband and inseam ourselves, but treat those numbers as one garment rather than a size chart, since nothing suggests the seller has standardised them. The honest summary is that this is a garment you size by message, not by dropdown.

Washing and week-one wear

Two hand washes in cool water with a mild detergent, air dried flat. The thin knit dried quickly, the drawstring stayed put in its channel, and the hem kept its line after both cycles. We did not see the kind of pilling that usually shows up on cheap polyester this early, but two washes is two washes — a thin fabric's real durability question is answered at wash fifteen, not wash two.

Value against the $4.93 asking price

At $4.93 with a listed original of $5.82, the bar is low enough that a light, comfortable, fast-drying short clears it. The risk here is not quality so much as fit: a garment with no published measurements, no buyer record, and a self-contradicting length description can cost you a return or a re-order. Factor that friction into the value call before you compare it with a locally bought short that lists an inseam.

Confirm before you order

• Ask for flat waistband and inseam measurements for your target size, not a body-size table.
• Ask which stretch description applies — high stretch or slight stretch.
• Ask for the finished leg length, since the listing implies both a mid-thigh short and a long-tube cut.
• Request pocket depth if you plan to carry a phone or keys.
• Confirm blend percentages if you care about the polyester-to-spandex ratio.