Fjallraven Greenland Pants Test Report by joe schaffer

Product: Greenland Pants

Manufacturer: Fjallraven front

    Website: http://www.fjallraven.us

        Weight: 13 3/4 oz (390 g) in size 48

        Features: from website
            Outer material: G-1000 Eco: 65% polyester, 35% cotton
            Fixed length leg ending
            Full Leg
            Mid Waist
            Pre-shaped knees
            Map pocket
            Regular Fit
            Button Fly
            Rear triple seams

            Colors: Dusk (requested and shown in photo), Deep Blue. Limestone and Black are shown out of stock

            Sizes: 30/31 (76-79 cm) the only size shown on website as of 6/1/18

My Specs: Men's 33-34 waist (EUR 50)
        Weight: 13 1/4 oz (375 g)
        Dimensions:
             Length: 43 1/4 in (110 cm)
             Inseam: 32 in (81 cm)
             Seat: 14 1/4 in (36 cm)
             Waist circumference: 35 1/2 in (90 cm)
             Leg circumference at knee: 17 3/4 in (45 cm)
             Leg cuff circumference: 16 in (41 cm)
             Front drop: 2 3/8 in (6 cm)
             Back pockets: 7 x 7 in (18 x 18 cm)
             Leg pocket: 8 1/4 H x 6 3/4 W (21 x 17 cm)
             Front pockets: 6-10 in H x 5 in W (15-25 x 13 cm)
                      Utility pocket: 3 1/2-5 1/2 H x 3 in W (8.9-14 x 7.6 cm)
             Inner waistband: 1 1/2 in (4 cm)
             Six belt loops

MSRP: US $150

Received: May 30, 2018

My Description:
    These are six-pocket pants with a zip fly and button waistband. The right leg sports a large, flapped pocket in front, secured by a single snap and dressed with a small leather logo; and a utility pocket inside the front pocket. All pockets are large, and the back pockets have a bottom pleat to open up more. The six belt loops are not evenly spaced, with front and back loops set closer to the epicenters of belt tension. A black inner liner smooths the waistband. Backside of the knee is cut and sewn for bend-stress management. The design is mid-rise, dropping in front. The unwashed material feels like light canvas.

Impressions:
   My first impression is how well the pants fit. I was skeptical of the company's sizing recommendation but followed it. The waist measure given would seem too small for my pudgy build, but the the next size up would surely be floppy. As it is, the rise is modest and lets the waistband circle below the BOB (big old belly). As over square as I am it is rare to find a pair of pants with large enough waist and short enough legs, and the legs are several inches (7 cm) too long. I can fix that.
    Pocket design means to allow some meaningful cargo. I've never had pants with a leg pocket and I'm anxious to see how quickly I'll take advantage of it. The logo patch of course will have to go.
    I like how the pants look--almost too nice to rough them up backpacking. But that is the charge and I will step into it.
    The material claim of durability gets my attention as I expect all of my gear to outlast me. The pants do not feel uncomfortable in any way, having tried them on only to see if they fit, but the touch is smooth and hard, almost like cardboard. Oddly, I like that as it makes me feel well contained. I can't tolerate compression wear, but I love the fit and feel of jeans and these pants have that feel. I'm familiar with a 65/35 blend, which I find just enough cotton to feel good, but not so much that the material is over-absorbent or takes unduly long to dry.

FIELD REPORT

Field Conditions:
    1. June 6-9, 2018: Stanislaus National Forest, California. Three nights at 5,200 ft (1,600 m). 10 mi (15 km); leave weight 36 lb (16 kg). Temps in 40's - 70's F (7 - 23 C). Dry, no wind. Campfire two evenings.
    2. June 15-21, 2018: Emigrant Wilderness, California. Six nights/mornings with 91 hrs wearing, 28 mi (45 k) backpacking. Camping at 7,400-8,900 ft (2,300-2,700 m). Leave weight 36 lb (16 kg), return 30 lb (14 kg). Temps 35-75 F (2-24 C). No wind or rain. Campfire six evenings.
    3. June 23-29, 2018. Emigrant Wilderness, California. Six nights/mornings with 65 hrs wearing, 12 mi (19 k) backpacking. Camping at 7,100-7,600 ft (2,200-2,300 m). Leave weight 41 lb (19 kg), return 31 lb (14 kg). Temps 45-80 F (7-27 C). No wind or rain. Campfire, but too warm to wear long pants.
    4. July 8-15, 2018. Emigrant Wilderness, California. Seven nights/eight days with 60 hrs wearing, including 28 mi (45 k) backpacking. Camping at 7,100-8,600 ft (2,200-2,600 m). Leave weight 36 lb (16 kg) return 26 lb (12 kg). Temps 45-85 F (7-30 C). No wind or rain.
    5. Aug 9-11, 2018. Spider Lake, California. Two nights. 10 mi (16 k) backpacking. Camping at 6,700 ft (2,000 m). Leave weight 40 lb (18 kg), return 30 lb (14 kg). Temps 90-45 F (32-7 C).
    6. Aug 22-28, 2018: Emigrant Wilderness, California. Six nights/seven days with 140 hrs wearing, including 24 mi (39 k) backpacking including 3 mi (5 k) cross-country. Camping at 7,200-8,400 ft (2,200-2,600 m). Leave weight 40 lb (18 kg) return 30 lb (14 kg). Temps 45-85 F (7-30 C). No wind or rain.

Impressions:
    1. June 6-9, 2018: I wore the pants 45 hours on this trip, evenings, sleeping and mornings. Arriving at our first campsite in early evening tested the pants' ability to withstand mosquito intrusion, which the pants passed. The too-long legs worked out great as even sprawling in my lounge chair my ankles were hard for the bugs to find. Although I spent about eight hours relaxing around campfire, the pants did not attract attention of the cinder gods, so the material's resistance to melting remains undetermined.
    After a teeny bit of grani jeans comp

te scrambling I can say the pants feel limber enough for that activity, yet the close cut and the stiff material make my lower body feel well contained. I don't like the feel of stretchy pants, and these definitely are not. The articulated knee seems to work very well as I was able to take monster steps up without binding.
    Perhaps an hour or so of sitting and walking about in warm sun proved the map pocket not to my liking. The pants breathe well, but the extra layer of material for the pocket stiffens the leg at that point and also restricts breathing. I didn't have to put my plastic map case in there to know it will cause sweating, which will make that part of the pant leg drag over the underlying skin. The pocket is not designed for cargo and indeed an object in the pocket causes rubbing not to be tolerated.
    Given my keen regard for fashion, the pants earn high marks. That they also feel great on me earns a degree of respect for the garment. A belt will necessarily attend the next leg of the test. I marvel at how tough the material seems to be, yet folds into a much smaller package than all-cotton jeans.

    2. June 15-21, 2018: The pants worked great for evening wear, sleeping and morning wear, accumulating 91 more hours of wearing. They might have stretched, or I might have shrunk, but I'm of the impression now that the waist cuff needs a bit of a crimp. The pants do want to assume the position of gang banger wear and I was glad I remembered a belt, which is a three-quarter inch (2 cm) webbing strap. Threading it in I keenly observed that under each belt loop is a second, smaller belt loop. The buckles on my belt will slip through either loop, but typically I find the buckle hanging up on the small loop instead of going through the larger loop. This is moderately annoying.
    The small pocket inside the right front pocket also got my attention for its propensity to snag a finger when plunging a cold hand into the pocket, which I find moderately annoying. (Anatomical disclaimer: A tendon contraction of the ring finger could be the primary cause of this.)
    Bugs bloomed half-way through the trip and I can confirm they have some trouble drilling the fabric. They can, but they have to work at it long enough most get squashed or otherwise distracted before diminishing my blood supply. As two days of this trip were a torture of bugs, the relief provided by the pants proved quite welcome.

    3. June 23-29, 2018: Again I wore the pants for evening, sleeping and morning wear, accumulating about 65 hours on this trip. The leather logo became a safety issue for me as I kept swatting at it--sometimes with sharp objects in hand--thinking there was some unwelcome thing fastened to my leg. I also grew weary of lugging it around. I took it off and carried it out as camping residual for a final and appropriate disposition.

    4. July 8-15, 2018: Most of the 60 hours of wearing was in bed. Two afternoons I wore the pants around camp. I wind up walking on the cuffs a lot. I suppose I could roll them up, but that's a lot of work. And then I have to remember to shake them out before getting in the sack. I risked the pants' well-being at the campfire one night, but they did not attract any cinders.

    5. Aug 9-11, 2018: Campfire was not allowed on this trip, so evenings were gaining some quality chair time with nothing but clothes to keep warm. Days were too nasty hot for long pants; evenings got close to chilly and more cover-ups were required. I also slept in the pants until getting melted out in the morning.

    6. Aug 22-28, 2018: About half of the 66 hours of wearing on this trip were in the tent overnight; the balance chair-lounging in late afternoons and one night around the campfire. The material shows no sign of wear, and has not yet been attacked by the cinder gods.
firepants

Accumulated wearing: 348 hours. Hiking: 3 mi (5 km). Machine washes: 3.

LONG TERM REPORT

Field Conditions:
    6. October 5-12, 2018: Dinky Lakes Wilderness, California. Eight days backpacking 15 mi (24 km). Camping at 8,300-10,000 ft (2,500-3,000 m); 29-65 F (-2-18 C). Half the days mostly sunny; rest of days partly or all cloudy with brief snow showers one day. Overnight freezing.

   7. Oct 20-25, 2018: Emigrant Wilderness, California. Six days backpacking 12 mi (20 km). Camping at 7,200 and 7,600 ft (2200 & 2300 m); 32-60 F (0-16 C). Sunny, no-to-light breeze. Overnight freezing three nights.

Impressions:
    The pants still look new after a total of 538 hours of accumulated wearing; four mi (6 km) hiking; and four machine washes. That I felt only four washes were in order indicates the fabric has good resistance to soiling. There is no pilling of the fabric; no loose threads; zipper works smoothly; waist button remains firmly in place. I wore the pants continuously on layover days as well as all night for sleeping; in one stretch racking up 121 consecutive hours.
    The pants fit me perfectly around the leg, being neither too snug nor too loose. They are much too long, but stay cuffed well enough I may not bother to hem them shorter. On the last outing it occurred to me to cuff the legs inside to keep detritus from accumulating in the fold.
    With my squatty build I prefer low-rise pants (as I'm not yet quite old enough to want the belt buckle up to my chin). I like the fit of these pants, but they slip too low without a snug belt. I think the seat-space allotment is just right for me, but perhaps the waist cuff could be a little less. All-cotton pants often shrink from washing, then stretch out as they are worn. I didn't find that happening with the part-cotton Greenland pants. (I sometimes shrink a little during longer and/or consecutive outings.)
    I wasn't sure I'd take to the hard finish of the fabric, but I like it a lot. As much as I wore the pants my knees never got irritated from the fabric rubbing over them.
    Excepting an afternoon of brief snow showers and a few minor spills, the fabric never saw much water. The little that did get on it seemed to bead up faster than soak in, and it brushed off without consequence. I felt the pants breathed as well as all-cotton jeans and even on warm days they did not have the 'hot house' feel that sometimes develops with synthetic material.
    The map pocket doesn't work for me, though in these last two trips the temperature was low enough I never developed any moisture under it. I would rather not have it, or at least move it to the side of the leg. I became concerned about the possibility of dislocating my tendon-contracted ring finger in the inner right pocket and having to be helicopter-extracted. Medical efficacy therefore compelled me to remove that pocket before the first of these last two trips. I didn't miss it at all, and managed to stuff my cold hands in the pockets numerous times without consequence.
    Over a total of 20 nights I exposed the pants to about 80 hours of campfire lounging. I don't find any burns. I would expect the cotton to mitigate cinder damage, but finding none causes me to think the pants were not struck by any hot ash popping out of the pit. I have no observation to make about the partly-synthetic fabric's resistance to burning.

Reviews > Clothing > Pants and Shorts > Fjallraven Greenland Pants > Test Report by joe schaffer

Reviews > Clothing > Pants and Shorts > Fjallraven Greenland Pants > Test Report by joe schaffer