精打細算的妹子有時候可能會犯嘀咕：為什麼短褲往往和長褲一樣貴，小孩的衣服和大人的衣服一樣貴，甚至更貴？沒道理啊，明明用的布料少那麼多！難道是商家故意宰客嗎？非也。今天我們就來講講這種定價背後的道理。
Shorts may feel nice and breezy on your legs on a warm summer’s day, but they’re not so gentle on your wallet. In general, a pair of shorts isn’t any cheaper than a pair of pants, despite one obviously using less fabric than the other. So what gives?在溫暖的夏日，穿短褲感覺舒服又涼快，但是對你的錢包卻不是那麼友好。一般來說，一條短褲不會比長褲便宜到哪去，儘管用的布料明顯更少。這是怎麼回事呢？
It turns out clothing retailers aren’t trying to rip you off; they’re just pricing shorts according to what it costs to produce them. Extra material does go into a full pair of pants but not as much as you may think. As Esquire explains, shorts that don’t fall past your knees may contain just a fifth less fabric than ankle-length trousers. This is because most of the cloth in these items is sewn into the top half.事實上，服裝零售商並不是要宰你，他們是根據生產成本來給短褲定價的。長褲確實要用掉比短褲更多的布料，但沒有你想像的那麼多。據《時尚先生》雜誌解釋，長度不超過膝蓋的短褲所用的布料比長度到腳踝的長褲只少了五分之一。這是因為褲子的大多數布料都用在上半部分。
Those same details that end up accounting for most of the material—flies, pockets, belt loops, waist bands—also require the most human labor to make. This is where the true cost of a garment is determined. The physical cotton in blue jeans accounts for just a small fraction of its price tag. Most of that money goes to pay the people stitching it together, and they put in roughly the same amount of time whether they’re working on a pair of boot cut jeans or some Daisy Dukes.那些用去多數布料的細節——開口、口袋、褲絆、腰頭——也需要花費最多人力。這裡才是決定一件衣服真實成本的地方。藍色牛仔褲所用的棉布成本只佔價格標籤上的一小部分。大多數錢都是用於支付那些縫紉工人的工錢，他們加工一條靴型牛仔褲和一條單寧小短褲所用的時間是差不多的。
This price trend crops up across the fashion spectrum, but it’s most apparent in pants and shorts. For example, short-sleeved shirts cost roughly the same as long-sleeved shirts, but complicated stitching in shirt cuffs that you don’t see in pant legs can throw this dynamic off. There are also numerous invisible factors that make some shorts more expensive than nearly identical pairs, like where they were made, marketing costs, and the brand on the label. If that doesn’t make spending $40 on something that covers just a sliver of leg any easier to swallow, maybe check to see what you have in your closet before going on your next shopping spree.這種價格趨勢在時尚產業廣泛存在，但是在短褲和長褲上表現得最明顯。舉例來說，短袖襯衫和長袖襯衫的價格大致相當，但你在襯衫袖口上能看到褲腿上看不到的複雜工藝，所以也就沒有這種心理落差。還有很多隱性因素導致一些短褲比款式相近的其他短褲更貴，比如它們的產地、營銷成本，還有標籤上的品牌。如果這些因素都無法讓你甘願花40美元買一條短褲，也許你可以在下次血拼之前先看看你的衣櫃裡還有沒有能穿的。
英文來源：Mental Floss翻譯&編輯：丹妮