Size letters on loose trousers are close to meaningless. They are inherited from whichever factory chart the garment came from, and they are not consistent between two products sitting next to each other in the same collection. Shinbo is a good example of why you should ignore the letter and read the centimetres.
The figure that decides your size
It is the hip. Not the waist, which is elasticated with a drawstring and therefore forgiving in one direction, and not the length, which only tells you where the hem lands.
The hip is fixed at each size. Nothing stretches it, and if it is too small the dropped rise stops doing the thing it exists to do, which is hold fabric below the seat instead of across it. Get the hip right and the rest of the trouser follows.
What the chart covers
The supplier table runs from M to 5XL:
- M 65 cm waist, 116 cm hip, 97 cm length
- L 67.5 cm waist, 118.5 cm hip, 98 cm length
- XL 70 cm waist, 121 cm hip, 99 cm length
- XXL 72.5 cm waist, 123.5 cm hip, 100 cm length
- XXXL 75 cm waist, 126 cm hip, 102 cm length
- 4XL 77.5 cm waist, 128.5 cm hip, 103 cm length
- 5XL 80 cm waist, 131 cm hip, 104 cm length
Each step adds roughly 2.5 cm at the waist and 2.5 cm at the hip, which is a fine gradient by the standards of loose trousers. It means being between sizes matters less here than it does on something cut close.
One gap worth knowing about
Shinbo is sold in eight sizes, S through 5XL, but the supplier chart only covers seven of them. Size S has no measurements listed.
We have not filled that row in, because the only honest ways to do it would be to measure a garment ourselves, which we do not do, or to extrapolate from the gradient, which would be a guess presented as a fact. Both are worse than an empty cell. If you are close to the small end, size M is the first row with real numbers behind it, and how we measure explains where all of these figures come from.
The weight band, and why it is only a hint
The chart carries a recommended weight for each size, from 50 to 60 kg at M up to 110 to 115 kg at 5XL. The original supplier table gives these in jin, a Chinese unit worth half a kilogram, and they are converted here.
Treat that column as a rough sanity check rather than an instruction. Two people at the same weight can differ by 15 cm at the hip depending on where they carry it, and the hip is what the garment actually has to accommodate. If the weight band and the hip figure disagree, follow the hip.
How to measure yourself in thirty seconds
You need one number and a tape.
- Stand normally, feet together, without holding your breath or bracing.
- Run the tape around the fullest part of your seat, usually about 20 cm below the natural waist.
- Keep it level all the way round. A tape that rides up at the back reads several centimetres small.
- Take the number, then find the first size in the chart at or above it.
No tape to hand? Lay a trouser you already like flat, measure across the hip at the widest point, and double it. That gives a circumference you can compare directly against the chart.
Two questions that come up
Do they run large? Against a normal trouser in the same letter, yes, noticeably. That is the cut rather than an error in the labelling, and it is why the hip figure is the only reliable way to choose.
Will the length work if I am short? The hem is designed to sit slightly above the ankle. At 97 cm on size M it clears the shoe on most frames under about 175 cm. Taller than that and it lands closer to the ankle bone, which still works, just with less crop than the photographs suggest.
Between two sizes
Go down rather than up. The waist is elastic with a drawstring, so a slightly smaller waist adjusts comfortably, but nothing will give you more hip if you have overshot. Sizing up on a garment already cut this loose tends to produce a trouser that looks borrowed rather than roomy.
The exception is height. Length runs from 97 cm at M to 104 cm at 5XL, so if you are tall the length may push you up a size even when the hip does not. Check both figures and let whichever runs out first decide.
How Shinbo compares with the others
Useful context, because the letters will not tell you this.
At the size each chart calls M, Shinbo's hip is 116 cm. Sokai is 104 cm at its M, so Shinbo is meaningfully roomier through the seat at the same letter. Gelyu reads 100 cm at M, though it climbs to 136.7 cm at its top size, further than Shinbo's 131 cm.
The honest summary is that Shinbo is not the widest trouser we sell, it is the one with the most sizes. Eight of them, and a chart that keeps producing real numbers all the way up rather than stopping at 3XL like most of this category does.
When the weight band and the hip disagree
They will, for plenty of people, and the hip wins every time.
Two examples. Someone at 95 kg who carries it around the middle may measure 118 cm at the hip, which is a size L even though the weight column points at XXXL. Someone at 75 kg with a wider frame may measure 124 cm and need XXL despite the weight column suggesting XL.
The garment has to fit around your hip. It has no opinion about your weight.
Living with them
Shinbo is a 30% linen blend, hand wash cold and line dry. The linen content is what makes it work in heat, and it is also why the machine is not an option. Worth knowing before you buy rather than after.
It comes in seven colours including a creamy white, and at the time of writing it is the deepest size range in this collection at eight sizes.
If you need the range rather than the fit detail, plus size harem pants covers what reaches 5XL, and harem pants for tall men deals with length. If the hip figures here read larger than you want, Sokai is the narrower midweight cut. For the shape itself, what baggy pants actually mean explains the dropped rise, and the rest of the family is in sarouel and harem pants.