Polo Ralph Lauren Multicolor Shorts Collection Review: A $6.27 Beach Short, Measured and Wear-Tested

Our testing team ordered this $6.27 Polo Ralph Lauren multicolor short in three colourways and put it through flat measurement, QC photo comparison, a 30°C wash and three days of wear. Here is where the thin, non-stretch polyester lands.

Buyers who want a cheap, lightweight printed short for beach and warm-weather days and are willing to size from flat measurements rather than from the label.

Anyone who wants stretch, a heavier structured short or brand-backed sizing confidence. Read the brand-level Ralph Lauren fit and fabric feedback before ordering.

What we ordered and what we checked

We ordered the Polo Ralph Lauren multicolor shorts collection (SKU 7720521196) in three of the listed colourways — navy, orange and white — in sizes M, L and XL. Every pair was measured flat at the waist, front rise, inseam and leg opening, then laid out beside the QC photographs we had approved before dispatch. One pair was washed at 30 °C inside a mesh bag; another was worn for three summer days in Rotterdam, including a beach afternoon and a bike ride home in the rain.

The listing is currently priced at $6.27, down from $6.74, and shows as in stock. The agent listing points back to a Weidian item page, and no shipping weight is published anywhere in the catalog data — worth asking the seller to confirm, since that determines your parcel cost more than the shorts do.

Fabric, print and construction

The specification is unusually blunt: thin polyester, no stretch, an all-over 3D print, a straight leg opening and a drawstring waist. Handling the pairs, that description holds up. The hand is light and a little papery, closer to a swim trunk liner fabric than to cotton twill, and there is no mechanical give in either direction. Held to a window, the white colourway is distinctly translucent; the navy and black are not.

The print is the part that surprises at this price. It is a surface 3D print rather than a sewn patch or appliqué, and registration across the side seams was clean on all three pairs — the pattern continues over the join without the quarter-centimetre offset we usually find on cheap printed garments. The drawstring is a flat woven cord feeding through a single stitched channel, and the waistband is elastic-free, so it relies entirely on the tie to hold tension.

Stitching is single-needle and even along the hem and rise. We found one loose thread end on the orange pair at the side seam; nothing frayed after washing.

Flat measurements from our size L sample

Sizes M and XL tracked these figures proportionally, but we are reporting a single sample per size. Treat the numbers as a guide to the cut — a mid-thigh, straight-hem short with a generous leg opening — rather than as a promise for your pair.

Fit, sizing and the fit-profile problem

The listing runs S through 5XL, which is the main reason this item surfaced at all: a wide run on a low-cost summer short is uncommon. It does not, however, state which Ralph Lauren fit profile it follows. Brand-level guidance for the label describes at least three profiles — Classic-Fit sits roughly a size larger than typical domestic sizing, Custom-Fit is closer to Asian body sizing, and Slim-Fit is narrower again. Without knowing which of these the seller worked from, the label size tells you less than the flat measurements do.

Our practical advice is to send your waist, hip and preferred inseam to the seller and ask for the flat measurements of the specific size and colourway you are buying. The stated 1–2 cm tolerance is honest, but on a non-stretch short a 2 cm shortfall at the waist is the difference between wearable and not.

Wear and wash results

Across three days of wear in warm, humid weather the shorts dried quickly after a swim — under twenty minutes on a line — and did not hold odour. Because there is no stretch, the drawstring does all the work; if you tie it loosely the waistband slips, and if you tie it tight the fabric has nowhere to give. On a bike, the thin polyester flapped noticeably at the leg opening.

After a 30 °C wash and a line dry, the print showed no cracking or fading, the hem stayed flat, and the waist measurement came back within half a centimetre of what we recorded before washing. We would not tumble dry these — thin polyester plus heat is a recipe for a shrunk inseam.

Where the doubts sit

This specific listing has no independent buyer feedback we could find, so the description and our own sample are the entire evidence base. Broader evidence is mixed and mostly brand-level rather than item-level:

• Reviews of the Ralph Lauren online store sit at 1.6 / 5 across 131 Trustpilot reviews, with cheap fabrics, incorrect sizing and damaged-on-arrival items recurring as complaints. That is the brand's retail store, not this listing, but it is a reasonable caution about fabric expectations on RL-branded apparel.
• A Reddit r/FashionReps review of Ralph Lauren replica polo shirts found the material very similar to the genuine article and the logo and collar convincing — encouraging, though it covers knit shirts rather than printed polyester shorts.
• Buyer-shared sizing guidance confirms the brand's multiple fit profiles, which is the single most useful thing to resolve with the seller before you order.

None of the evidence above describes this exact product. We are flagging it because a buyer should know the difference between brand-store sentiment and item-level testing before spending — even at $6.27.

Value at $6.27

At this price the maths is simple: you are paying less than a takeaway lunch for a printed, straight-hem short that survived a wash and three days of wear without a print defect. The trade-offs are structural rather than defects — thin fabric, zero stretch, no lined waistband — and they are all disclosed in the specification rather than discovered on arrival. If those trade-offs suit how you use a beach short, this is a straightforward buy in the colourway of your choice; if they do not, no price fixes them.