Hey everybody,

I was wondering what those of you with short enough commutes choose to wear when you want to get on and off the bike and then walk into an office or business environment. So far, this has been some of my impressions with gear that's intended to be practical and good-looking.


I normally ride to work in either my Outlier Keirin Cut Dungarees or H&M Slim Fit pants (they have 2% elastane which gives them some stretch).


The H&M Slim Fit pants are a great value at only 30 dollars and are very comfotable to ride in, They're a little too tight in the thigh area, but with the built in stretch it's still easy to peddle in them. These pant leg is also slim enough to keep the pant out of my chain without rolling it up, which is a kinda nice perk too. H&M didn't design these pants for commuting however, I just happened to find them to be a good match for that job.

After wearing some Levi's Commuters I picked up on Ebay I can definitely see that there's a huge difference in construction quality. The Levi's are gusseted, also have a touch of stretch, and are a bit slimmer than the H&M pants, and the material in the Levi's feels much tougher and more durable. Definitely makes my H&M pants feel cheap and they get dirty pretty easily. I cycle through like 4 pairs of the Slim Fits though and so far my Brooks saddle hasn't blown out the pant seats. The Slim Fits look good, but I'm going to be monitoring how long they can go without being replaced. IF they can only last a year then it'll be the last time I purchase them.

I've had Outlier OGs and Keirin Cut Dungarees and both were tough, but not invincible. For 200 bucks a pair I want pants that will last for a decade--but within 6 months I found this weird fuzzy texture had developed on one leg of my OGs and I ended up having to send them back. Too bad too, I really loved how ridiculously stretchy they were, felt like wearing sweatpants. The Dungarees are tougher, and have very little stretch, but the gussetted crotch made it easy to throw my leg over the bike. They definitely look great, but so far I'm pretty doubtful about buying Outlier pants again unless I can get a good deal on ebay (which seems unlikely, those Outliers really hold their value!) for the simple fact that pants that cost 150-200 are too expensive for me to feel comfortable abusing. IF they're too expensive to replace then I end up babying them, which defeats the point of buying pants that can supposedly take a beating and still look good and be appropriate for an office setting.

I'm going to be riding the Levi's Commuters for awhile to see how they hold up, but they might strike a nice balance between quality and cost. I've seen pairs of them online for 50-60 bucks, and while they retail for more I would definitely not mind getting rough and tumble in pants in that price range.