REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

This is a review of the Adventure Pants sz 40/30 in Shadow color.
For reference I will say I am in my late 40's and have traveled worldwide professionally for nearly 30 years. I have lived in several overseas locations including Europe for seven years, I am married to a fashion-sensitive European. My own clothing taste leans towards functional. I have owned more than 30 pairs of "travel-specific" pants beginning with a pair of Royal Robbins cotton zip-offs in the late 80's.
Function, fashion and fit of travel pants continues to improve and these pants reflect the refinements of the genré. The fabric is peached with a very faint horizontal brocade pattern so that in the Shadow color it has a slight resemblance to a summer-weight worsted wool. This very dark grey color, with a slight brown cast, is excellent for concealing stains and maintaining a subdued appearance. It will not show lint as easily as straight black and is less likely to fade along crease lines. I have owned many travel pants of lighter fabric and a few of heavier, so I'll call these mid-weight. This is a good thing, giving them a very wide temperature comfort range. I expect that with appropriate undergarments they will be serviceable for northern European urban winter use. The drape is very good for travel pants- not quite as good as fine wool or silk but better than many other nylon and polyester pants I have worn. The fabric is not as breathable as many lighter weights I have worn but is certainly cool enough for most urban uses in most hot places. The textured finish of the fabric does tend to hold animal hair and light lint somewhat. There is very little stretch to the fabric, which is good and bad. Bad for freedom of movement but good for keeping things in place.
The cut can be described as relax-fit Chino, with felled jeans style seams rather than single-needle dress slack seams. A necessary choice for strength but the felled seam tends to put them firmly in the casual category. Overall finish and stitching is good with no crooked seams or loose threads. Plenty of room in the seat, just a bit baggy. This comes from a relatively wide leg opening carried straight up from the leg hem to the waist hem; a very nicely shaped inseam gusset (ala "kick pants", "diamond crotch", etc); and a somewhat high rise. Not nearly as baggy in the hip/waist/inseam as some other travel pants, they manage to avoid the Turkish clown-pants look while still affording room to carry one's passport in the proper location. I find, by contrast, many Exofficio pants to be far too baggy at the hip. On my body the rise (the distance from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband) was slightly long and could have been cut down a good two inches. Not terrible but not perfect. For me a proper fit will place the waistband two inches below the navel with the crotch of the pants pulled up until it touches the perineum. The waistband closes with a sturdy button, just what you want when travelling.
The legs are cut straight with a bottom opening just on the verge of too wide. This of course is very functional, it allows one to don one's pants in the hostel shower room without first doffing flip-flops. And the wide legs go a long way towards encouraging ventilation. Speaking of ventilation someday some couture Einstein is going to realize that a small, discreet mesh vent can be placed in a diamond inseam gusset without at all compromising modesty and there by make a lot of male gonads very, very happy. I'd tight-roll or tuck the legs into my boots before heading cross country.
Pockets are well thought out. No traveler should carry anything of value in a rear pocket; still it is good to know I won't lose my comb or phrase book to gravity as the rear pockets are zippered. Also good to keep the Artful Dodgers guessing. The vertical side-seam zipped pockets are a good compromise between discreetness and capacity. The pocket chamber is located in the front of the leg entirely forward of the side seam. This somewhat impedes mobility when raising the leg with a stuffed pocket compared to the traditional sideleg cargo pocket but makes it easier to get into while seated. Also makes it easier to keep an eye on when standing in a crowded bus next to the AD. Front hip pockets are located slightly forward compared to many pants and are satisfyingly deep. The pocket chambers are stitched at the bottom to the top of the side-seem pocket chambers, which helps keep things from twisting around. The right chamber has a useful open key/coin pouch at the very bottom. There is no jeans-style knife pocket. Why not? Wouldn't a small zippered pocket just inside the front hip pocket be the perfect place to put a small cell phone? The front hip pockets have an interesting "ZigZag" stitch at the seam to keep stuff from sliding out…maybe it works. Haven't lost anything yet. I'd feel better with zippers.
Overall these are among the most stylish and practical travel pants I have owned. Excellent especially for the price. Pretty enough for lunch in that clichéd Parisian café (and yes, Parisian men do sit around cafés discussing the cut of other patrons' trousers) and practical enough for a hike up Machu Picchu. If they had a slightly shorter rise and a good place for a cell phone they'd get five stars.
If you have a young son going on a European adventure do your country a favor and buy him a pair of these. There are already way too many Americans wandering around cathedrals looking like they are in search of a basketball game.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I wore the darker version of these pants 13 out of 14 days on a trip to France. The first week I was in Provence, walking through forests, hill towns, and cities in 95 degree heat in Provence. The pants were cool and comfortable. The second week was in Paris in the 70's and 80's. The pants looked dressier than most of what the other tourists were wearing.

I washed the pants out one night in the hotel sink and they were dry and ready to wear the next morning.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I bought these pants for a business trip to Tanzania that would require me to carry a fair amount of local currency around. Given that the exchange at the time was 1300TZS = US$1, things get bulky pretty quickly. I wanted cargo pants, but opted for these as they are more business-like. I didn't have high hopes when I ordered them.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the pants seemed to be tailor made for exactly what I need to do with them. The side, cargo pockets are correctly sized for currency and surprisingly low profile. You won't be able to get as much as you can into traditional cargo pants, but neither do these bulge out like chipmunk cheeks. The pockets are tucked into the seams, so the zippers are not obvious. (A huge plus in pick-pocket infested areas...)

There is an additional zippered security pocket in one of the side pockets. It's about the size of a credit card -- perfect for keeping your hotel room card on hand.

All of this and they were very comfortable to travel in, both on the 16 hours of flight time and walking around TZ.

I'm getting another pair.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I bought two pairs of these pants to rotate during travel. Both have been super comfortable, and I really like the fact that they disguise themselves pretty well as decent "dress trousers" even though they're tech fabric and loaded with pockets. They can hand wash easily, and in most situations hang-dry overnight.

The zipper on one pair broke recently (the pull separated from one side completely), but I'm still going to exchange them for another pair.

You might want to travel with a lint roller if these will be your only pants. The brush of the fabric seems to be a magnet for pet hair and lint.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

These pants fit great. I am pretty fit and trim so it is a relief to find pants that aren't made with "a little extra room in the rear for the mature man" or whatever the heck it is they do to Dockers and other pants. I don't like tight pants either so these are just about perfect.

I like them so much that I have several pair in different colors. I wear them to work and travelling. I love the material because it feels good, dries out quickly and stays good looking from the suitcase. I have even worn my black pair to nice meetings and restaurants and then gone for a good walk in them afterwards.

When I travel on vacation I take two pair of these, two pair of poly amphibious pants and two pair of ex-officio undershorts (it works!) and I am set. It all packs really thin. Wash things in the evening and dry overnight and good to go with fresh clothes the next day.

I had some zipper problems with one of my first pairs but REI was cool about it. I've also lost a rear button on a couple pair, no biggie, but I probably should have double sewed it when I noticed it unraveling. The black pair gets the wooly boolys and need to be de-linted sometimes.

The side pockets are great for cell phone, pocket knife, map, distributed cash, etc.

I wish they still had the green version and I wish they had a blue color. Why can't I find any decent poly pants in blue? Why always shades of dirt and rock?

okay, enough. Great pants.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I bought these based on the reommendations here and they are great slacks. I just spent 3 weeks in Southern England, Scotland, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. I wore these slacks almost every day, washing them every 5-6 days.

They held up well even on some hikes through the heather and some rocky trails.

The only thing that has me worried is the nylon zipper. I've never had a lot of luck with nylon zippers and this one feels...sort of flimsey. Nothing has gone wrong but the zipper keeps me slightly worried.

Regarless, I'm going to buy another pair and between the two I don't expect to take any other pants except for rainpants and the REI Sahara convertibles on future trips, Thailand next year, I think.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I own all 3 colors and wear them all the time, whether to work, on the weekend, or on vacation (including hiking/outdoor activities). Even though they are light, I do wear them in winter. Would like to be able to iron them (since I do use them for work), but unless you get the heat exactly right, it's too easy to iron them to a permanent shine--so I've given up on ironing...but still love the pants.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

Great pants and they worked great on a 10 day trip to the black forest. We hiked and visited many small cities. They fit me great and were everything advertised. I used the lower pocket on the seam for my passport. I liked the back pocket zippers to provide security for my wallet.

The three colors offered tend to have a shade or green cast. The color I would buy a second pair of would be charcoal grey.

Loved the pants wish they had just one more color, charcoal grey.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I brought two pairs of these pants on a 12 day European trip and was amazed at them. They did not wrinkle in my suitcase, they looked sylish enough for wherever I was, the fit is comfortable and they breathe so the heat and humidity was never a problem.

Great pants.

Comments about REI Adventures Pants - Men's 30" Inseam:

I love these pants. They are comfortable yet durable. After buying one pair I was so satisfied that I got two more in the other colors.