BKTSQD Multicolor Shorts Collection Review: Eight Wash Cycles on a $10.15 Quick-Dry Print Short

We ordered the BKTSQD multicolor shorts collection, SKU 7720535002, at $10.15 USD against a $12.07 original price, and it arrived in stock as listed. Two pairs came in: an aurora motif and a flame motif, both size L. Everything else on this page comes from what we did with those two pairs over the following five weeks, not from the product description.

The reason we chose a laundering test over a wear test is simple. A printed polyester short at this price lives or dies on two things the catalog cannot show you: whether the print holds after a few trips through a machine, and whether the garment still measures what it measured on day one. Everything else, including the quick-dry claim, is a claim we can only grade next to a reference garment.

The listing, as shipped

Why eight washes, and what we put in the drum

Our bench runs warm in summer, with eleven tanks pushing humidity through a converted spare room, so shorts get worn hard and washed often here. We ran eight cycles at 30°C on a delicate program with a mild detergent and no softener, then line-dried indoors at roughly 21°C. Each load included the same white cotton control swatch, which is the cheapest way to catch dye transfer that a photograph would hide.

Colour was recorded against a grey card before the first wash and again after cycles one, four and eight, with the camera on a fixed tripod position. Hem stitching went under a 10x loupe at every checkpoint, and we retaped the outseam, relaxed waist and stretched waist after the final cycle.

Colour: no bleed, a small amount of dulling

The white control swatch came out of all eight loads clean. That is the headline result for a $10.15 printed short, and it is the outcome most likely to go wrong on cheap pigment prints. There was no pink or grey blush on the cotton at any checkpoint.

The shell itself is a different story, though a mild one. Side by side with our first-day grey-card photographs, the flame and geometric panels lost a step of saturation — visible in a direct comparison, invisible when the shorts are being worn. The light base fabric stayed the same tone throughout. If you are buying one of these because of how the print looks in the listing photography, budget for a slightly softer finish after a couple of months of regular washing.

Print edges, hems and the drawstring channel

Under the loupe, the print edges stayed clean. We looked specifically for the fine crazing that shows up when pigment sits on top of a fibre rather than in it, and found none after eight cycles. The printed surface never went tacky against the inner panel, which is a good sign for anyone who hangs these to dry in a humid room.

Stitching is competent rather than exceptional. The hems are a single-needle lockstitch, roughly four stitches per centimetre, with an overlocked raw edge inside. One unit developed a 6 mm loose thread tail at the inner hem after wash five; nothing separated, and the seam did not pucker. Two other things we noted: there is no visible bar tack at the drawstring channel openings, which is where cheap shorts usually fail first, and the cord ends are simply cut rather than heat-sealed, so they will fray over time unless you knot or melt them yourself.

The drawstring itself is flat-braided with a decent hand feel. It grips when tied and releases without snagging the channel, and the cord pulled smoothly through the eyelets on both units after every wash.

Fit after washing

Our size-L pair measured 48 cm at the outseam before the first wash and 47.5 cm after the eighth, a half-centimetre of movement that sits comfortably inside the 1–3 cm tolerance the listing quotes. The relaxed waist measured 38 cm on arrival; stretched, it reached 54 cm comfortably, and it returned to 39.5 cm after a five-minute rest. That is a normal elastic recovery rather than a generous waistband, so a wearer sitting near the top of a size bracket should size up.

The loose straight-leg shape is genuinely loose. There is no taper below the hip and no binding across the front of the thigh in a squat, which is what you want from something aimed at running and gym use. Because there are no pockets, the silhouette stays flat — but that also means keys, a phone or a card have nowhere to go.

The attached inner layer is the real trade-off

The catalog says polyester shell and polyester lining, then says no inner liner. Both statements survive contact with the product. There is no brief or compression short inside. There is, however, a lightweight knit polyester panel attached at the waistband seam that runs the length of the shell, and it changes how the shorts behave when wet.

Saturated and hung in a 24°C room with a fan, our units took about 55 minutes to reach dry-to-touch. Our single-layer polyester reference short, tested in the same conditions, came back in 40 minutes. The shell sheds water quickly; the attached inner layer holds it. That is the whole story behind the quick-dry claim — true enough for sweat during a summer run, optimistic if you are expecting the short to be bone dry minutes after a rinse.

Eight washes, one loose thread and half a centimetre of outseam movement. For $10.15, the printed shell is the part that earns its price, and the sewn-in inner layer is the part that costs you drying time.

What we could not confirm

The listing carries no buyer claims, so our read on fit and durability is a two-unit picture and nothing more. The spec sheet also skips pockets entirely, while the brand's own flagship retail pages describe deep side pockets on other shorts — we could not verify whether that feature belongs to this listing, so treat pockets as absent until a seller confirms otherwise. And as always, the $10.15 figure is the item price; agent service fees and international shipping are confirmed only at checkout, which is the number worth comparing against a local equivalent.