Trekking pants are not something we buy every day. It is a functional and highly engineered product made with specific use cases in mind. Hence, we will have to be careful when we choose or buy such pants.
These pants are supposed to be light, comfortable, tough, frictionless, rapid drying, and flexible, allowing adequate freedom of movement. Your outdoor pants should ideally be constructed of nylon, polyester, or polyamide – all have the desired properties, some more than the others.
Because they affect how much flexibility in movement you want, the fit and fabric of your pants are crucial to consider. For instance, certain types of pants are better for scurrying around. Others are better suited for traversing terrain at a slower speed. Consider the environment and surface you will wear your trousers in as well. If it's hot and humid outside, you may require more ventilation; under these conditions, lighter, stretchier clothing is preferable. Or perhaps you require a sturdy material to offer additional defense against chilly winds and inclement weather.
A good pair of trekking pants will also take proper care of the pockets. You might need to keep a knife, a protein bar, sunscreen, and other items in your pocket, so that you don't have to remove your backpack every time you need them.
Now when it comes to choosing one from the great ranges of men trekking pants available, that too within 5 minutes, you need to focus on a few features of these pants that I will mention further.
Details to be noticed while buying proper trekking pants
There are a few details you need to pay attention to while choosing trekking pants.
- Lightweight: We will have to first check the weight of the pants. If too heavy, then these pants themselves are going to be a burden instead of helping for your trek. Weigh your pants because even a few grams matter. Good pants for trekking should be around 300 to 400 grams. That is when we see the pants’ fabric comes into consideration. The fabric composition and density (GSM or grams per square meter) are carefully chosen by the best brands to make them lighter compared to others. For long treks, the right pair of pants can make your luggage’s weight decrease by kilograms.
- Easy to Clean: Trekking through the rough and unknown places and your pants getting dirty go hand in hand. And obviously, it’s better to get materials that do not stain easily or get dirty easily. The best brands make their pants with stain-resistant and dirt-resistant materials. Washing these pairs of pants is easy, just a splash of water and it’s clean, with no extra effort.
- Quick Drying: As we just discussed, easy clean men trekking pants are the best. In the same way you also need to check that pants dry easily. Pants made of non-absorbent material, or water repellant or waterproof trekking pants make drying quicker and simpler. Such outdoor pants with water repellant feature are great to wear in urban settings as well, especially in monsoon or rainy weather.
- Ample Storage. While on the trail you might need to keep a knife, some matches, a protein bar, some basic first aid, and other items handy around, so that you can access them quickly without the need to remove and open the backpack every time you need them. For a multipurpose pant that you would also use in urban settings, such pockets should be placed intelligently, without making them obvious.
- Breathable: When you are out on a trek there are no sessions for taking bath, so you must make sure the pants are breathable or have sufficient ventilation, else you will sweat and start stinking, which is not a great feeling. Cotton is a breathable fabric, but it’s a perfect no for trekking pants as it doesn’t dry quick enough. The best material options are polyester, polyamide, or nylon. In addition, look for innovative designs by pant brands where they use mesh pockets and other zippered openings for ventilation, which adds to the natural breathability of the fabrics.
- Fit: After checking all these now the most important thing is to check the fitting and how comfortable these pants are when you wear them. Keeping everything aside, when you are wearing something for going out in a physically rough sport like trekking, you need to make sure you are comfortable with your clothes. Ideally, trekking, or outdoor pants should be of regular fit, not so tight that they sit on your skin and don’t provide flexibility, not too loose where it may be hanging and can get stuck in a bush or a branch. The biggest fit problem, for any pant, is the changing waistline or an in-between waist size and that people with the same waist size can be of different heights. Look for added features such as adjustable waist strings to deal with the waist size issue, and adjustable in-seam length to make sure the length can be adjusted as people with the same waist size are all not of the same height. It's an obvious point, but even some recognized brands miss it.
Finer Details to Concentrate On
You need to keep a check on the finer details even while choosing from the best trekking pants India. Here are a few of them you need to pay attention to.
Functional Pockets:
On a trek, you always carry your phone, camera, dry food, etc. in your pockets. These will fall out, particularly if you rapidly climb or crouch to sit. On trails, it is impossible to find a flat surface to sit. If your pockets aren't zipped, any shift in elevation causes items to fall out. Good trekking pants have one or more pockets with zippers. It stops things from spilling out.
While buying the pants be sure to check whether the pockets are deep enough to fit your phone and knives and other useful things. Even better, if one of the pockets has a mesh mobile holder which prevents the phone from moving around when you are hiking.
Convenient Closure:
You must also consider how simple or complicated it is to use and maintain items like buttons and Velcro while examining details. The bottom-mounted Velcro will collect dirt and be challenging to clean. But in freezing winters while one's fingers are too chilly to fiddle with buttons, the Velcro is particularly handy.
Also do not forget to check if the trekking pants need a belt because the weight of the belt might bring you down during the trek.
Region of Use:
While buying trekking pants you need to always keep in mind which trek you are buying those pants for. In case there are rivers and streams you need to cross frequently, then you need pants with the rollup or convertible feature.
How Much Should You Spend on Trekking Pants
This is not an easy question. When you are on a trek you deserve the best performing pants that protect you from the elements, are comfortable to wear for extended periods of time, have the right stretch, are lightweight and durable, and easy to clean and maintain. Good outdoor pants are INR 3000/4000+. Do you want to spend that much if the pants are most likely to lie in your wardrobe after the trek? If not, the options are to either go with cheaper products which will be a compromise on the overall experience, or buy a good versatile, multipurpose hiking pant which will not only serve you well on the trail, but you can easily use it as Friday wear in office, wear it to dinners or just casually, just like a pair of denim.
Conclusion
If there are only 10 days to go for your next outdoor adventure, here is a quick 5-minute checklist for you to decide the hiking pants you want to buy.
- Fit – right waist & length (go for adjustable options if available), and stretchability
- Comfort – fabric that you can wear all day
- Breathable – natural breathability of fabric + adequate ventilation
- Storage – Number of pockets, size and accessibility, zippers to secure
- Water repellant / quick drying
- Versatility – will justify the price if you can also wear it in your daily life
So go ahead and buy your best trekking pants India and head to your upcoming trek.