Recently I abandoned my Smartwool long underwear because I was always fixing holes in them and they were only worn at night or under trousers in cold weather. I replaced them with a more useful pair of REI running tights. These do everything the long underwear does and I feel better wearing them to ride the bike and walk around without trousers over them.
This brings up something I`ve wondered about. What`s the difference between long johns and tights? I have a set of long johns that I use to add extra temperature range to light outer clothes, by themselves in a sleeping bag, or (the bottoms) under my shorts. I would think that at least the bottom part would be the same thing as cycling tights, but maybe not since this and previous posts have mentioned trading for a little weight savings. Maybe there`s some overlap in the definitions?
FWIW, the labels are no longer legible in mine, so all I can say is that they`re some kind of "polyester-ish" synthetic, upper and lower were each house brands from a different major sporting goods retailer.