Lets talk about Jeans

[artie]

Don Williams sang.

I got my first guitar when I was 14
Now I'm crowding 30 and still wearing jeans

Well I'm way way past that and still wearing Jeans.

Levi 501s have been my work and casual wear for about as long as I remember. BUT like so many things they are not what they used to be.

I remember way back when you bought a pair of jeans, they were so hard and uncomfortable they had to be worn for weeks and washed at least once before you could look forward to wearing them.

Nowadays they are comfortable right out of the packet, but are worn out in no time.

Anyone got a recommendation for reasonably comfortable hard wearing work jeans.

 

[Rorschach]

Jeans are a fashion item now, probably one of the most long lasting we have ever seen. I don't know the last time I saw a pair of "working" jeans.

 

[Sideways]

I was looking for a good pair of work pants recently. By the time I'd looked at stuff all the way up to £100+, I gave up and ordered a new pair of Fjallraven Vidda Pro pants. Good heavy duty polycotton trekking pants. I've been wearing them in the workshop over the last 3 years and must have had well over 200 days wear and many many washes out of the last pair and only just picked up the first small tear at a pocket seam. They've done better than most jeans I've owned.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I was looking for a good pair of work pants recently. By the time I'd looked at stuff all the way up to £100+, I gave up and ordered a new pair of Fjallraven Vidda Pro pants. Good heavy duty polycotton trekking pants. I've been wearing them in the workshop over the last 3 years and must have had well over 200 days wear and many many washes out of the last pair and only just picked up the first small tear at a pocket seam. They've done better than most jeans I've owned.

I made the same switch from 501 to Fjallraven. Very comfortable and very practical.

 

[Bristol_Rob]

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/16072126/kuhl-men-s-kanvus-jeans-16072126
Hardy canvas jeans work for me.

 

[RobinBHM]

I like M&S stormwear jeans

https://www.marksandspencer.com/reg...BLUE&prevPage=srp#intid=prodColourId-22388939

 

[heronviewer]

I like these ones - good for bending, kneeling and other contortions and they last a few years before the holes appear in the knees
https://www.landsend.co.uk/Mens_Pre...9306.html?cgid=11384&dwvar_P__39306_color=AAY

 

[Droogs]

can't help sorry, not worn a pair of jeans since 1992, switched to wearing hiking cargoes with zips at the knees to make shorts

 

[1steven]

Moved on from jeans at 40. Now cords or moleskins or if I am on my knees work trousers with knee pads.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Some thirty years ago I hurt my ankle badly - a 13' heavy galvanised gate swung shut behind me and caught the back of my leg., necessitating a heavy plastercast. I usually wore 501s, which were £50 a throw even then, but I had a couple of pairs of cheap ones (two for a tenner) I wore for work. I had to split the leg of a couple of pairs to get them over the plaster so did one of each - the Levis I just nicked the bottom of the leg, gave it a yank and the leg split. The cheap pair? they were work of art to get undone, they were so much better made than the Levis. I never bought Levis again.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Levi 501s have been my work and casual wear for about as long as I remember. BUT like so many things they are not what they used to be.

Thirty years ago they weren't what they used to be.

 

[selectortone]

Got my first pair of 501s in 1966 when I was 15.

My Dad was in the RAF and we were posted to Singapore at the end of the 60s. For the first six months we lived in a bungalow off-camp until a house on camp became available. Walking back home on my own one evening after dark I became aware of a dog acting very strangely in the road in front of me. It was rolling in the dirt and making very strange noises. As I walked past it came up behind me and took a bite at my leg. I had on a pair of nearly new 501s which, as Artie says, were really stiff and thick material back then. The dog's bite didn't penetrate the jeans which was, I discovered the next day, very lucky for me. I shouted at the dog and it yelped and ran off.

The next day there was a policemen in the road who said that the road was closed because there was the body of a dog down there that looked very much like it had died of rabies and they needed to keep people away until it was properly disposed of.

Still wear 501s now. Every day since I retired.

 

[Superduner]

I grew up with Levis, and didn't wear anything else for years until they became both expensive and of much lower quality.

Now I wear Wranglers which I get sent over from Amazon US. For work they do a heavier version called Wrangler Riggs ( Wrangler Riggs Workwear Men's Carpenter Jean, Vintage Indigo, 40W x 34L at Amazon Men’s Clothing store ) in several different styles.

They are very, very comfortable and seem to wear very well.

 

[Wood&StuffLtd]

Don Williams sang.

I got my first guitar when I was 14
Now I'm crowding 30 and still wearing jeans

Well I'm way way past that and still wearing Jeans.

Levi 501s have been my work and casual wear for about as long as I remember. BUT like so many things they are not what they used to be.

I remember way back when you bought a pair of jeans, they were so hard and uncomfortable they had to be worn for weeks and washed at least once before you could look forward to wearing them.

Nowadays they are comfortable right out of the packet, but are worn out in no time.

Anyone got a recommendation for reasonably comfortable hard wearing work jeans.

You can still buy jeans that are stiff as boards and need to be broken in. Look up selvedge jeans on Google. Some are made in the UK but many are made on old looms in Japan. They are very expensive. Since retirement I no longer wear anything other than work trousers from Screwfix or Levi 501s, Timberland and M&S jeans for going out anywhere. Mainly denim shorts and short sleeve shirts when summer is at its height. My daughters and grand daughters do not allow me to dress like an old man!

 

[danst96]

Depends how much you want to spend but there's a brand who makes their jeans in Wales using traditional Japanese selvedge denim that will feel like you are wearing concrete pipes for the first 3 weeks as you described. I can't vouch for them personally because they are way out of my price range but I've heard plenty good things about them. (I work in the fashion industry and can vouch for quality going down)

They are called Hiut Denim Co and all their jeans are hand made in Wales.

 

[danst96]

Depends how much you want to spend but there's a brand who makes their jeans in Wales using traditional Japanese selvedge denim that will feel like you are wearing concrete pipes for the first 3 weeks as you described. I can't vouch for them personally because they are way out of my price range but I've heard plenty good things about them. (I work in the fashion industry and can vouch for quality going down)

They are called Hiut Denim Co and all their jeans are hand made in Wales.

Oh and they only do limited runs of about 200 pairs at a time so you have to wait for them.

 

[Droogs]

Oh and they only do limited runs of about 200 pairs at a time so you have to wait for them.

Best not go on a diet after ordering a pair then

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Just best to not go on a diet!

 

[paulrbarnard]

Depends how much you want to spend but there's a brand who makes their jeans in Wales using traditional Japanese selvedge denim that will feel like you are wearing concrete pipes for the first 3 weeks as you described. I can't vouch for them personally because they are way out of my price range but I've heard plenty good things about them. (I work in the fashion industry and can vouch for quality going down)

They are called Hiut Denim Co and all their jeans are hand made in Wales.

Thank you for that reference. I had not heard of them before. I've had a look at their web site and might well give a pair a go. As you say pricy but I do get a lot of agrevation from my wife to wear jeans again.

 

[Ollie78]

Carhartt still do proper work gear.
The dungaree cut canvas trousers are great.
I have never been skinny enough for levi 501's they don't leave any room for actually moving.

Ollie