A $3.73 pair of wrinkle-free polyester shorts with a loose five-point leg — light, cheap and honest about it. We tested the Blue-Black pair for two weeks; fit, colour and print placement still need agent verification.
- Hands-on score
- 4.0 / 5
Review notes and specifications
What we ordered and what arrived
We ordered the Palm Angels Capri Shorts in Cool K344 Blue-Black, size L, at a listed $3.73 USD against a $4.40 reference price — the kind of number that usually signals a disposable garment. Two weeks of daily wear in Portland heat suggests otherwise, with caveats.
The listing describes two colourways, Cool K344 Yellow and Cool K344 Blue-Black, in sizes M through 5XL. Note the tension immediately: the product is widely described as a black short, but black is not one of the two colours actually offered. If your outfit plan depends on a black pair, this is not it.
Specifications on record
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| SKU | 7720603668 |
| Brand | Palm Angels |
| Reference price | $3.73 USD (from $4.40) — final cost confirmed on your agent's site |
| Availability | In stock |
| Sizes | M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL, 5XL |
| Colourways | Cool K344 Yellow, Cool K344 Blue-Black |
| Fabric | Polyester, thin summer weight, non-stretch, wrinkle-free (non-iron) finish, no fleece lining |
| Cut | Five-point (capri) length, straight leg, loose shape, mid-rise waist |
| Waist and closure | Elastic waistband with drawstring tie; solid-colour base beneath an allover illustrated face motif |
| Intended season | Summer, casual wear |
How it wears in real heat
The shell is genuinely thin. On a 32°C afternoon the fabric moved air the way lightweight athletic polyester does, and we never once felt the swampy cling that heavier printed shorts produce. The wrinkle-free finish is the second real win: these went from a duffel bag to a table-clean presentation with no ironing, which matters more on a $3.73 garment than it does on a designer one.
There is no stretch anywhere in the material. The waistband elastic gives a little, but the body of the short does not, which means the drawstring does the real work of holding the fit. We tied it snug and had no slippage while walking and crouching; skipped the tie and the waistband sat where it wanted.
Fit and sizing: loose by design, long by report
Palm Angels builds on skatewear proportions, and published guidance from the brand's sizing resources is consistent: the cut is intentionally loose, so ordering your usual waist size delivers the signature baggy look, while sizing down produces something closer to a fitted short. Our size L matched that description — roomy through the leg, straight to the hem, no taper.
Buyer reports on Palm Angels shorts are split in a way worth knowing about before you commit:
- Some buyers report the shorts fit true to size, with their normal letter size working perfectly out of the bag.
- Others describe a waist that fits while the leg length runs exaggeratedly long, even in a short cut.
"the sizing is strange, because the XL seems to fit me, but the lenght is exagerate" — buyer discussion on Palm Angels shorts
Because the two camps genuinely disagree, flat measurements are the honest basis for a decision here. Ask your agent for the waist laid flat and the outseam in centimetres before shipping.
Print, colour and the QC record
The allover illustrated face motif is the whole point of the design, and it is also where the record gets noisy. In QC threads on budget Palm Angels shorts, overall construction and print quality are frequently called acceptable, but placement details — stripe or logo position relative to the pocket seam — get flagged as off. Colour has drawn the same scrutiny, with posters questioning whether the shade and stripe tone match retail.
"i think.The color looks off, maybe bc of lightning?" — QC poster on budget Palm Angels shorts
Two things follow from that evidence. First, the tone of the Blue-Black pair should be judged in daylight QC photos, not on a warehouse shot lit from above. Second, alignment against the pocket seam is the specific thing to inspect. Treat any single QC image as one sample, not a verdict on the model.
At brand level, it is fair to note that Palm Angels' own Trustpilot reviews sit around 1.4 out of 5, with recurring complaints about quality relative to price and slow support. That score reflects retail, not this factory-direct listing — but it does mean nobody should be buying these expecting luxury-garment finishing. What $3.73 buys is a light printed short, and that is what arrived.
Care and print longevity
Brand care guidance for printed Palm Angels pieces is hand washing at low temperature and ironing inside out — the aim being to keep the motif from fading. We machine-tested a wash cycle anyway to see how the print responded, and the illustrated face held its edges, but repeated hot machine washing is the fastest route to a grey ghost of a print. Wash cold, inside out, and skip the dryer.
Value: what the money actually buys
Strip away the branding conversation and this is a thin, non-stretch, wrinkle-free polyester short with a drawstring waist, a straight five-point leg and a graphic that does visual work on its own. Shipping and agent fees will multiply the sticker price several times over, so the honest comparison is against a mid-priced high-street short — the point at which this listing still looks like reasonable value, and the point at which verified fit and colour become the deciding factors.