Hardwearing Jeans.

[Suffolkboy]

Hi all. Bit of an odd topic but...

I keep tearing the knees out of my jeans! Been through a few brands now and I am coming to the conclusion that they don't make them like they used to. I used to get a good couple of years wear out of a pair of jeans but the last lot I have bought have had holed knees inside six months! Recently also I have torn the bum as well frustratingly but I guess that's what I get for my died of pies and cream cakes and my nightly routine of squats.

Also what has happened to the fit? I want bloody jeans! Not tights! and I want the waistline to be on my waist not around my arse.

My question is can anyone recommend a robust, hardwearing pair of jeans? In a decent straight legged fit. Ideally to fit a normal man. Not a slinky legged hipster. You know the ones that look like they have them on backwards.

 

[Rich C]

I like Levi 501s. They're the classic choice for a reason.

 

[sunnybob]

Kevlar good enough?

https://dragginjeans.net

 

[Geoff_S]

Completely off the wall here. I gave up with jeans a long time ago. The days when they were designed to be hard wearing work clobber have long gone. The reason that you are finding it hard what you want is that jeans are now designer items, nothing more.

So, I've gone down the Snickers Workwear route. I have not thrown any out because they've worn out, they just go on and on. I did replace a couple of years ago, purely and simply because there was so much gunk on them, I felt ashamed

 

[Lons]

What Geoff said!

However I still wear jeans now I'm retired and it doesn't matter much as they don't get such a hard time, was different when still working and I went down the Snickers route as well.

These days for knocking around the workshop I just buy cheapos and throw them away, they last at least as long as the big brands, though not such a good fit, bought some from Sainsburys for £8 each and 2 pairs for a tenner from Asda recently so just throw away stuff.

When in The USA a number of years ago I bought 8 pairs of Wrangler / Levis at around £10 to £12 each and still have some of them. What was noticeable was the huge range of sizes available compared to choice in the UK.

 

[Shaggy]

You could always sell your holy jeans to the youth of today, holy jeans seem to be all the rage these days and they buy them like that :roll: .

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Marks and Spencer do regular fit 'bog standard' jeans at £15 a pop. Nothing fancy, but I get a couple of years wear out of a pair, on average, as general gardening, workshop and 'kicking about' trousers. I find that they usually go in the pockets and fray about the pocket seams rather than split at the knee. (They do all the fancy 'skinny' types as well, but at about three times the price.)

https://www.marksandspencer.com/regular ... MEDIUMBLUE

 

[Geoff_S]

You could always sell your holy jeans to the youth of today, holy jeans seem to be all the rage these days and they buy them like that :roll: .

Interesting. I'm going to just sell them the holes 8)

 

[John Brown]

I used to by 501s from Costco. The last pair I bought, the denim was about half the weight, and I haven't bought any since. I tried "Dickies", great price, good heavy denim, but appalling fit(IMO).

 

[Yojevol]

I haven't worn jeans since my student days when there was no other acceptable option. These days I live in strong cotton workwear trousers. Very comfortable and hard wearing. There's a lot of choice from scewstation or toolfix.
Brian

 

[Suffolkboy]

Thanks everyone.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has noticed the reduction in quality of jeans.

I will have a look at the M&S jeans though.

Tried Dickies and also found the fit to be awful although I do wear their shirts often.

I'll also have a look at Snickers workwear.

Oh and the Kevlar ones were a good shout, about five or six times more than I am willing to spend though.

 

[flying haggis]

my last couple of work "jeans" came from lidl. excellent and cheaper than snickers, much much cheaper

 

[transatlantic]

I get mine from Asda, they seem to be thicker than other more expensive brands, and I like the inbuilt 'stretch'. Although one of the first things I have to do when buying a new pair is get the belt hoop stitching made stronger (but thats due to me being rough, other people seem to manage)

My problem is finding a pair that isn't this new 'skinny' trend.

 

[transatlantic]

Also - it's the same with T-Shirts!

The trend now is to have them very thin, tight, and the 'sleeves' half the length they used to be.

 

[disco_monkey79]

I don't know if you can get them over here but Wrangler western jeans are VERY good quality denim, and have a high waist (as they're meant for people sat on horses).

I order them from the US which, with import tax and freight, makes it expensive, but I'm a 38 leg, so it's worth my while as the 38l choices in this country are either incredibly cheap and nasty, or eye-wateringly expensive and still cr@p quality.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Look at Land's End for both jeans and Tees.
Neither is cheap, unfortunately, but the best quality I have come across.
A mate bought me a couple of DuLuth tees. They are longer than average so you do don't a builder's smile when you bend over. I don't think they are available over here, though, so you'll have to go Stateside to acquire them. But they are really excellent.

 

[doctor Bob]

Best jeans I ever had were Pepe heritage.

 

[Hlsmith]

Only trousers worth having for really tough jobs imo are carhartt double front logger pants

https://ruffntuffclothing.co.uk/carhartt-logger-pants

Made from canvas they wear and feel like jeans but are as thick as possible last year's are almost impossible to tear and last year before they start to wear couldn't recommend them highly enough
Only problem is the colour I've posted fades badly and shows up everything you get on them so I now just have the dark brown it hides all manor of dirt

 

[Trevanion]

I tried the Aldi ones, even though my work environment in the workshop isn't as rigorous or rough as some other trades I ended up wearing out about 4 pairs in a rather short span of time. They're dead thin and if you catch them on anything they just tear a hole, the seams wear out very quickly too and two pairs were chucked because the crotches tore out after a couple of weeks. Pretty poor really. I looked at Apache Cordura trousers but they were way too "stiff" to walk around in even after a few days and a wash.

I've got a couple of pairs of Snickers 3214 Canvas+ trousers now and after about a year they're both holding up very well and have worn in very nicely, after putting them on for the first time they just felt right and not stiff at all and I had great mobility in them compared to the other brands. The only niggle I've got is that the zips were pretty poor quality and stripped after the first month or so, instead of going through the whole rigmarole of sending them back only for them to say that it was wear and tear and they'd charge me for the repair I instead opted to take them to a tailor I knew to be re-zipped, been excellent since.