KEY POINTS:
School shorts are being made to fit 140cm (55in) waists as school children just keep getting bigger.
Uniform retailers told the Herald on Sunday they were selling oversized clothing that they would once have considered "dead stock".
Managing director of Auckland's School Uniform Centre, David Kranz, said the average size of socks had risen from 8 to 10 and polo shirts from 4 to 8. "That's a good indication that the bulk of the population has got bigger."
Kranz said it was common to sell shorts with waistlines of between 112cm and 140cm.
The increased demand meant his shop kept the supersized items in stock, rather than ordering them when they were occasionally needed.
"Ten years ago it would have been, 'We're never going to sell any of these'.
"We feel much more comfortable holding larger sizes than we did in the last decade. We know we're going to sell them."
Ian Johnson, director of Hamilton firm Sport and Uniform, which caters for 300 schools across the Waikato, has noticed a growing demand for larger sizes over the company's 30 years in business.
As well as obesity, he puts it down to New Zealand's increasingly multi-cultural population.
"I would say that the size range is broader.
"We make a few odd sizes that we're always going to get."
Some manufacturers have also had more requests for ultra-small sizes.
Anna-Louise Lovelock has been making uniforms in Wellington for 20 years and noted a recent increase in demand for size six skirts.
But she is also making them in sizes 26 to 28 for larger students.
"So we've got the two extremes."
A 2006-07 survey by the Ministry of Health revealed 20 per cent of children aged 2-14 were overweight and one in 12 was obese.
Dr Teuila Percival, a paediatrician at Kidz First Children's Hospital in Manukau, said obesity had become an issue over the past 10 years.
"We're seeing larger children over all ages."
She blamed the change on lifestyle and eating habits.
Pies and sausage rolls had become more common in lunchboxes, replacing the healthier lunches of earlier generations.
Percival said the situation would change only with greater education about the dangers of poor diet - and parents had to set an example.
The Government has tried to make junk food less available in school tuckshops with new guidelines introduced last month.
Schools have been told to sell healthy options so children eat less salt, sugar and fat.
The scheme has had mixed success, with some students claiming they prefer the healthier options and others heading to local takeaways for lunch instead.
