Outlier Bike Pants: Hi-Tech That Looks Good

Can pants be a gadget? And can any pants, ever, be better than jeans? It turns out that yes, they can, and they don’t even have to have any dorky cargo pockets to do it.

The new Workwear Pants from Outlier are designed for bike riding, and the Outlier folks (bike riders themselves) decided that they wanted something good looking, long lasting and, most important for cyclists, made from a breathing, quick-drying fabric:

We didn’t study some long dead miner’s trousers and then carefully distress the garment to match. We didn’t track down some antique loom and use it to make our fabric exactly the way it was back then. You don’t need to wear our pants for six months to break them in just right.

The result is a $190 pair of Cordura canvas (80% Nylon, 10% Polyester and 10% Spandex) (82% Nylon, 16% Polyester and 2% Elastic) pants which you can wear for weeks without washing (just like jeans) but that keep you dry when riding (not like jeans). Still not convinced that these trousers are a gadget? Try this: The fabric is treated with a self-cleaning nano-coating that mimics a lotus leaf. Spills just shake off, including red wine and coffee (lucky for me, as they’re the only things I drink). Finally, it has a “gusseted crotch”. Not particularly gadgety, but the schoolboy in me just likes to say “gusseted crotch”. Available now.

Product page [Outlier. Thanks, Tyler!]