What Are the Differences between Standard Hiking Pants and Convertible?

If you want the best hiking pants on the market , then you must have already heard brief mentions of “convertible pants” and “standard (or full-length) hiking pants” here and there. Wondering what the differences between them are?

Well, this article today will give you the answer.

The Problem with Breathability

Before we jump into it, we have got to discuss first the problem of breathability.

During tough day hikes in hot and dry weather conditions, breathability is incredibly important. Because you will be sweating profusely, the last thing you’d want is all that sweat building on your skin because they’re trapped and can’t be vented. Not only is this incredibly uncomfortable by making you hotter, your skin will feel sticky, and you will also build unpleasant body odor quicker and disturb your travelling partners.

There are two things you can do to improve breathability in a pair of hiking pants.

The first is to find the best hot weather hiking pants that’s made from breathable materials with loose weave. It will allow sweat and your body heat to escape into the environment far more efficiently and let air from outside in to cool you down. The design of the hiking pants should also be built to facilitate breathability with venting points throughout.

The other method is to just … roll up your pants’ legs.

Now that your legs are directly exposed to the outside environment, breathability is a given. Of course, you’ll be giving up the innate protection from the pants’ fabric as well as the ultraviolet protection, but for the most part, you can go without them.

The difference between standard pants and convertible pants is all about this.

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✯✯✯ Related Article:  Best backpacking pants

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Convertible Hiking Pants

Convertible hiking pants makes it far easier and convenient for you to transform your hiking pants into shorts. About ⅔ the way down the pants (around the knees), you will find a zipper that you can pull to shear off the lower portion of the pants’ legs.

That’s what “convertible” means: you can literally transform a convertible hiking pants from the traditional shape to a pair of shorts with a single zipper pull.

This way, you won’t have to bother with bringing your own shorts along and use up the precious space in your backpack. But in return, you do have to keep track of your pants’ legs and it’s not uncommon for people to lose them.

Plus, because you also have to factor in the zippers into the design, convertible pants for hiking tend to be very bulky and not at all visually appealing. They will also be heavier than standard hiking pants.

Standard Hiking Pants

A good pair of hiking pants are just that … they are pants. In every way, they are the same as the “traditional” pants that you would wear to school and to work. Because of this, they don’t have the zipper-off ability that convertible pants have, so if you ever want to shorten the pants’ legs, you will have to manually roll them up.

Fortunately, catching onto this demand, a lot of manufacturers have designed cinch cords or roll-up tabs to secure the legs after they’re folded up. But other than that, you really can’t shorten them as effectively as convertibles.

Since they don’t have the bulky zippers of convertible pants, these long hiking pants are slimmer, fitter, and generally lighter. The water resistant and weather-proofing capability also tends to be better in standard hiking pants than convertibles, so if you were to hike in cold or damp environments, this is the type to choose.

Conclusion

We hope this short article has helped you understand better what hiking pants are all about! If you want to start shopping for your best pants for camping , browse through our selection of best reviews at our site for more information.