You ever put on a piece of clothing and find yourself wearing it every day for the next two weeks? That's how I feel about this new pair of convertible hiking pants and I just can't get over it.
A few weeks ago some samples from Eddie Bauer showed up in the mail and while I am always excited at the prospect of free gear, to be honest I wasn't initially as pumped on the pair of zip-off convertible pants as they were probably hoping I was going to be. They're not the sort of pants I would normally wear and I was worried the fact that they were in fact zip-off pants would relegate them to the back of my closet, tag and all. I'm not some super fashion-forward guy - in fact I've been known to wear the same pair of sweatpants for months! - but at the same time, whether you're out on the town or deep in the backcountry, it's important to feel comfortable in what you are wearing. I've never been one to wear tight spandex or super short shorts, no matter how practical they are, as I just can't feel comfortable in them and, as much as I hate to admit it, if I feel like I look like a dork I'm just not going to be able to enjoy myself. There, I said it.
So back to the pants. Sure enough, one day last week I was headed out on a hike, it was scorching hot so I didn't want to wear my regular hiking pants, but at the same time I knew the bugs would be out so I wanted to stay as covered as I could. I decided to give the zip-off pants a go. What I noticed right away was that I really liked the cut of the pants. They're baggy enough to make you feel like you're rocking a bit of steeze and not wearing some super-tight hikers you might see your dad wearing on the Grouse Grind. The next thing I noticed was how damn light they were. So nice.
As I headed out on my hike I continued to notice little things I really liked about the pants. The little zippers at the leg-bottoms gives you an easy way to let in more air while keeping the bottoms off the ground. When they do hit the ground and get a bit wet, they dry off super fast. And the zippers that let you turn the pants into shorts don't rub up against your legs at all, something I was worried about.
Sure enough, mid-day, the time came to try out the transformers-esque feature of the pants that let you easily zip off the bottom half of each leg and turn those suckers into shorts. And sure enough I continued to be impressed. The legs zip off super quick. The two zippers are color coded to help you when it's time to put them back together. And of course the option of bringing both pants and shorts, while keeping your load down, can't be beat.
In the past week and a half I've worn these babies pretty much every day. I've gone biking with them. Hiking. Camping. Fishing. Shooting cameras day and night. And you know what? I frickin' love these things! I may not wear them to the skatepark but other than that these are definitely going to be my go-to clothing item of the summer.
And for a suggested retail price of $59.99 they're damn hard to beat.
Check out the pants and all the other rad stuff Eddie Bauer is making over on their website, and give em a follow on Facebook as well - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how many awesome items this company makes. And don't forget to check out their premium outdoor brands First Ascent, Travex & Sports Shop, there's some amazing technical backcountry, camping, fishing and hunting gear in there. Oh and their blog is rad too!
