I bought my first pair of supplex nylon pants back in 1999, “Anywhere Pants” from Travelsmith. I found them great for work, when my job took me out in the field in Texas during the summer. They certainly were much cooler than jeans, easier to move around in, and dried much faster than denim, which was uncomfortable when splashed frequently with water from the groundwater wells I was purging and sampling. They also were cooler than all but the most broken-in cotton khakis. However, they weren’t as soft “just like cotton” as advertised (thought they did continue to soften up with each wash), and the styling - well, I felt like a retiree in Boca Raton - elastic waist, sweatpant-like baggy cut.
Since then I have had a few more pairs of nylon pants, incrementally better in fabric softness, but still nylon, albeit soft and comfortable. As for styling, they were better than the “Anywhere” pants, at least for a 20something guy that I was in the early-mid 2000s, but they were all outdoorsy cargo pants type. Hip, but not super versatile in styling.
This week, however, I bought a pair of REI “Adventures” pants. 100% nylon, but with a light, soft feel and weave of well-broken-in linen. The styling is classic khaki chino slacks - these are pants I could get away with wearing into the office - even possibly wearing with a blazer to a nicer restaurant. Of course there is some compromise of storage space, but not as much as you might think - in addition to standard slacks pockets at the hip and in back, they have zippered pockets on each side that disappear into the seams. These are pants that are equally at home for hiking, even hot weather paddling, and still look good taking your wife out to dinner. I highly recommend them.
what are you doing
taking my wife out to dinner?
OK serious question: do they have them in zip-off legs?
With pants this stylish,
can you blame her?
It doesn’t look like they come in zipoff, but the more cargoey ones do. I’ve also got a pair of REI Saharas with the zipoff legs.
Bordering on OT, Bluewater/ Upstream
Edge uses Nylon cloth in some of their canoe layups. While it isn’t as tear-resistant as the Kevlar they use for the inner layers, Nylon has somewhat more compression strength than Kevlar. There is some glass on the outside of the layup also. The result is a 17’ large capacity boat that weighs 47 pounds.
Great stuff, but
When will they make a comfortable synthetic that won’t melt to your skin in an electrical arc/flash that doesn’t look like blue collar work wear Nomex? Don’t get nylon too close to campfire sparks either. ‘grumble over’
Problem is
they work so hard to soften it up, but then any flame retardant would stiffen it back up.
Great pants
I wear mine all the time in place of kakis in more casual settings. I even wore them to a funeral viewing, it was memorial day and we stopped by in between BBQ’s.
I got a pair at an REI Garage sale a couple years back and they are great. The reason they were returned is because the top button came off. So I got them cheap and sewed a button on.
I also got a pair of the shorts version at the most recent garage sale.