Boys' Fashion
Buy and sell boys’ clothes and shoes in Guatemala.
A boy in Huehuetenango and a boy in Mazatenango can be the same age and the same size and still need different wardrobes: one goes to school in a lined jacket on cold mornings, the other lives in T-shirts and shorts all year. Boys’ clothes, shoes and accessories run from the first little-boy sizes up to the early teens, new or pre-owned, and much of it is outgrown long before it wears out. Football runs through a lot of it, from studded boots for a grass field to flat-soled shoes for a concrete court.
Sweatshirts, school trousers and backpacks:
are listed by what they are, not by the boy’s age. A sweatshirt or school trousers belong in boys’ clothing, anything he laces onto his feet in boys’ shoes, and caps, belts and backpacks in boys’ accessories. Girls’ cuts and dresses sit next door in girls’ fashion.
Boys’ sizes 4 to 20, and the husky and slim cuts:
follow the US system most labels here use. Little-boy sizes run 4 to 7, then boys’ sizes climb in even numbers from 8 to 20, and many brands cut a slim and a husky version of the same number. A 10 Husky keeps roughly the leg of a 10 with a fuller waist and seat, which spares a stocky boy from rolling up trousers two sizes too long. A listing that says only “size 10” leaves that out, so ask. Shoes count differently. US kids’ sizes go up to 13 and start again at 1, so a 1 is the bigger shoe. Mark the length of his foot on paper against a wall and compare it with the insole of the pair on offer rather than trusting the number.
Football boots, turf shoes and concrete courts:
call for three different soles, and the wrong one wears out fast. Firm-ground boots with moulded studs are made for grass and hard dirt fields. Turf shoes, marked TF, carry a mat of short rubber studs for synthetic five-a-side pitches. The small-sided game boys play on concrete, often on a court that doubles for basketball, needs a flat indoor sole that grips, while studs grind down and skid. Junior Club and Academy boots from Adidas or Nike run roughly Q500 to Q900 new, and a boy can go up a size within a season, so a used pair with most of its studs left buys the same months of play for far less.
Padded jackets for Totonicapán, shorts for Escuintla:
altitude decides more of a boy’s wardrobe than fashion does. In the western highlands the coldest mornings bring frost, and a lined jacket and closed shoes get worn every day. On the Pacific lowlands it is hot all year and the same jacket hangs untouched. The used trade reflects it: long sleeves fetch less on the coast than up in the cold, so a padded jacket is worth listing where the buyers are shivering.
Zips, studs and copied club shirts:
are where used boys’ things give themselves away. Run a jacket’s zip end to end and squeeze a padded one for fill that has clumped in the wash. On football boots, look at the studs under toe and heel, then at the toe itself: boys kick and drag their feet, and the upper peels away from the sole there first. A heel lining worn through will rub the next owner raw. Football shirts of the national team, Municipal, Comunicaciones or the big European clubs are the boys’ item most often copied. A genuine shirt has a crest that sits flat and straight, clean stitching inside, and a product code on the inner tag that, searched online, shows the same shirt. Numbers already lifting at the edges give a copy away.
Football boots and jackets he outgrew in a season:
are the easiest boys’ things to pass on, because the next boy only needs them to fit. For shoes, give the US size, the insole length in centimetres and the sole type, FG, TF or indoor, and photograph the studs from below. For clothes, write the size with any husky or slim mark and show the inner label. Say whether he can try them on: a parent coming in from Chimaltenango for a pair of football boots will want to see them on his son’s feet before paying.