Shorts are a year-round line in Nigeria rather than a summer one, which makes them one of the safer things to carry.

The mistake is treating shorts as one product. Three fabrics dominate and each sells to a different man for a different reason.

The three fabrics

Fabric	What it is	Who buys it
Cotton twill	Woven, structured, holds a shape. The chino short.	Smart casual. Worn out, to a bar, to a relaxed office.
Ripstop	Lighter woven with a reinforcing grid, resists tearing	Practical and outdoor wear, cargo styles, anyone doing something in them
French terry	Knitted, soft loops on the inside. Sweat-short fabric.	Lounging, gym, casual streetwear. The comfort buy.

Carry all three and one consignment serves three customers. Carry only twill and you have a smart short in a market that also wants to be comfortable.

Inseam decides the sale

Nobody asks about this, and it matters more than the fabric does.

The inseam is the inside leg length, and it decides where the short sits relative to the knee. Too short and a large part of the Nigerian market will not wear them out of the house. Too long and they read as three-quarter trousers rather than shorts.

Get the inseam in centimetres per size, in writing. Then check it is graded across the size run rather than fixed, because a fixed inseam on a 4XL sits in a completely different place than it does on a medium.

A consignment with the wrong inseam is not a discount problem. It is stock that does not move at any price.

Construction, briefly

Shorts fail in the same places as trousers and for the same reasons.

The crotch seam takes the strain of sitting and squatting and needs reinforcement. Belt loops need bartacking. Pocket bags need to be substantial enough to carry a phone and keys without tearing.

On cargo styles, the pocket flaps should close properly and the corners should be bartacked.

On french terry, check the waistband elastic specifically, because cheap elastic loses its tension within a few months and the shorts become unwearable while the fabric is still perfect.

Colour and the size curve

Neutrals carry the volume in twill and ripstop. Khaki, black, navy, olive, stone.

French terry sells in grey, black and navy, plus a small allocation of brighter colours for the younger buyer.

On sizing, our men’s casual and cargo shorts run M to 4XL for the same reason our polos do. Foreign size ratios leave a Nigerian retailer with unsold smalls and nothing large by the third week.

Weight the first order to the middle and upper sizes and correct the second against what actually sold.

The womenswear equivalent

If you serve a mixed market, denim shorts are the corresponding womenswear line and they behave differently.

Rise matters as much as inseam there. Stretch and rigid denim sell to different customers. And the crocking test applies exactly as it does to jeans, because dye transferring onto light clothes ends the relationship.

Our women’s stretch and rigid denim shorts run S to 3XL across washes and rises.

Building the order

1,000 pieces across the whole order, with styles, colours and sizes mixed freely rather than per colour.

Shorts pair naturally with t-shirts and polo shirts for a complete menswear consignment, and with jeans to cover the whole lower half of a wardrobe.

They are also one of the better apparel items on freight, since they use less fabric and pack more densely than trousers, which improves your landed cost per piece noticeably.

Tell us the market and the length

Which fabrics your customers buy and how they wear them. We will confirm inseam per size, fabric weight and the reinforcement points with the supplier in writing, sample before the run, and give you the landed cost per piece in naira with every line itemised.

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