Trapstar Shorts

What You Actually Get in a Trapstar Short

Shorts are where a lot of brands cut corners, because nobody expects much from them. Trapstar builds them on the same cotton jersey used across the tracksuit bottoms rather than dropping to a thinner summer weight.

That matters more than it sounds. Heavier jersey hangs straight from the waist instead of clinging to your thigh, and it keeps its shape after being sat in all day. Thin shorts ride up and crease. These do not.

The cut lands at or just above the knee with a relaxed leg, a drawcord waist and proper side pockets. Graphics run the same as the rest of the brand, which means chenille on some pairs and print on others. Chenille gives depth and needs more care. Print survives frequent washing, which matters on a garment worn through summer.

Most Popular Trapstar Shorts

Six lines cover the standalone range.

Trapstar Shooters Shorts

Shooters is the graphic people come to this category for. The Trapstar Shooters Shorts in black and red give the sharpest contrast in the line, red lettering against a dark leg. Grey with red does the same on a lighter base. For something cooler, black with blue and grey with blue both exist, and there is a blue with grey that reverses the pairing. The Arch Shooters versions curve the wordmark instead of running it straight, in grey and black. If you own the Shooters tracksuit, these are the summer half of it.

Trapstar Irongate Shorts

The gate mark sits smaller on shorts than it does on a hoodie, which suits the garment. The Trapstar Irongate Shorts in black are the plainest thing in the collection and the pair most people reach for when the top half is doing the work. Blue is the brighter alternative, and a black with grey adds a second tone down the leg. There is also a chenille arch version in black, which brings the tufted lettering onto a summer weight where you would not usually expect it.

Trapstar Irongate Arch 2.0 Shorts

The 2.0 is a revised build rather than a new graphic, with the fit and the arch proportions reworked. The Irongate Arch 2.0 Shorts in black are the everyday pick. Grey shows the arch more clearly, which is the reason to choose it over black. The black candy colourway is the loudest short in the whole collection, pairing a dark leg with a pink accent that reads bright in sunlight. A separate black edition runs the same shape with different detailing.

Trapstar Greece Shorts

The Greece line appears across tracksuits and windbreakers, and the Trapstar Greece Shorts in white are the standout here because white shorts are genuinely rare from this brand. Against a dark tee they do something no black pair can. Blue is the middle option and black keeps it conventional. White needs more care through a summer, but it is the pair that actually looks like summer rather than a tracksuit with the legs cut off.

Trapstar T Logo Shorts

The Trapstar T Logo Shorts in grey strip it back to the single T mark on the leg, no lettering and no arch. Grey marl gives the logo enough contrast to read without the short becoming a graphic piece. This is the pair to wear when the rest of the fit is already busy, or when you want something you can put on for the gym and the shop without thinking about it.

Trapstar Foundation Shorts

Foundation is the brand's understated line, closer to what Trapstar made before the graphics grew. The mark sits small on the thigh rather than across the leg, which makes it the easiest pair to wear under something loud. It suits anyone who wants the cut and the jersey weight without the branding leading. Foundation pieces arrive in smaller runs than the Shooters and Irongate lines and tend not to hang around once a size sells through.

Buying Shorts on Their Own or as a Set

Roughly as many people search for a Trapstar short set as for the shorts alone, and it is worth knowing which you want before you start.

Buy shorts on their own if you already own tees you like, or if you want to mix a graphic short with a plain top. It is the cheaper route and gives you more freedom in how you wear them.

Buy the pair together if you want the colours matched properly. Trapstar produces sets as a unit, so the tone on the tee and the short are the same batch. Chasing that match across two separate purchases rarely works. The full range sits in Trapstar short sets.

Grey, Black or Something Brighter?

Grey edges black in this category, which is unusual for the brand. On shorts the leg is a small canvas, so marl grey gives a graphic the contrast it needs to read from a distance. It also looks less like tracksuit bottoms cut short, which black sometimes does.

Black remains the pair that goes with everything and hides a summer's wear. Blue appears across the Irongate, Greece and Shooters lines and is the most stocked colour after those two.

Past that, the black candy pink accent is the brightest thing here, red appears on the Shooters pairings, and white on the Greece shorts is the only genuinely light option. Brighter colourways run in smaller numbers each season.

Do Trapstar Shorts Fit True to Size?

They do. The leg runs relaxed rather than slim and the length sits at or just above the knee, which is the intended shape rather than a short cut.

The drawcord waist does most of the work, so the waist measurement is forgiving in a way tracksuit bottoms with a fixed band are not. Take your usual size. Size up only if you want a longer, looser leg rather than because the waist feels tight.

Sizing is unisex across the range, so a mens Trapstar short and a womens Trapstar short are the same garment. Women wanting a looser fit through the leg often go up one.

How to Wash Trapstar Shorts

Shorts get washed more often than anything else in summer, so the routine matters more here than on a hoodie you wear twice a week.

• Inside out at 30 degrees: Frequent washing is what fades leg graphics. Turning them protects the print and the chenille from the drum.
• No softener on chenille pairs: It flattens the tufted fibres. On a garment washed weekly, that damage adds up fast.
• Tie the drawcord first: A loose cord pulls into the waistband channel in the machine and is a nuisance to thread back through.
• Air dry, never tumble: Heat shrinks the leg length first, and on a short that is the measurement you notice immediately.
• Wash whites separately: The Greece shorts in white pick up grey from a dark load quickly and never fully recover.
• Fold flat: Hanging shorts by the waistband with clips leaves dents that show once you put them on.