Owner Review by Sonja Furiya

Owner Review: ExOfficio Explorer Convertible Pants

Reviewer Information

Name: Sonja S. Furiya
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Height: 5’2” (1.57 m)
Weight: 115 lbs (52 kg)
Email address: fallingarrow at gmail dot com
City, State, Country: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Date: April 7, 2005

Backpacking Background:
Although my interest in the wilderness began in my youth, I started hiking and backpacking on a regular basis last year. Currently I do day and weekend hikes primarily in Eastern Missouri/Western Illinois where the terrain can include open grassland, forested areas, steep rocky hillsides, limestone outcroppings, narrow drainages, etc. I try to plan a week-long trip at least every other year. My last long trip was on the Powell Plateau, North Rim, Grand Canyon. I like my pack to be as light as possible. Although I aspire to being able to call myself an ultra-light backpacker, I’d rather carry tent poles (light ones) than use my trekking poles in my tent.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Ex Officio
Year of Manufacture: 2003
URL: http://www.exofficio.com
Website listed weight: 3oz (85g) /sq. yard (of current 2005 model)
Actual weight: 8.9 oz (252 g)
Size: Women’s 8
Waist 27” (69 cm)
Hips 37” (94 cm)
Regular -30” (76 cm) pant inseam, 7.5” (19 cm) short inseam

Product description:

Photo of pants

As the name of these pants implies, they convert from pants to shorts by way of zippers. They are made from a lightweight 100% nylon that feels like soft cotton. They have a Teflon® treatment for resistance to stains, dirt and water. They are wrinkle resistant and fast-drying.
The elastic in the waistband is on the back left and right sides. There are 5 belt loops that fit a 1” (2.5cm) belt. The fly is a standard women’s fly that crosses right over left. The zipper is nylon with a metal pull. The waistband is attached with two ¾” (2 cm) buttons – one on the inside and one on the outside. On the inside of the pants there is an extra button sewn against the left pocket. I was concerned that this button would dig into my skin when I had my backpack belt cinched tight but in fact I was never aware of it.

Pockets: There are two side slanted hand pockets which have mesh lining on the side that touches the back of my hand and fabric on the side that goes against my leg. Measuring from the waistband, the pockets are 11.5” (29 cm) deep. The left pocket also has an inner zipped security pocket (which is an additional fabric layer next my skin – same size as the regular pocket.) The zipper opens downwards. There are no back pockets.
The 6” (15 cm) wide cargo pocket on the outside of the left leg is a double pocket: The smaller, outer pocket has a zipper at the top to close it and is 6” (15 cm) deep. The inner pocket closes with a small centered piece of Velcro and is 7.25” (18.4 cm) deep. The bottom edge of the cargo pocket is 2” (5 cm) above the shorts hem.

The convertible pants legs are attached to the shorts with zippers. Both legs unzip starting at the outside of the leg and going clockwise – so the right leg unzips the back portion of the leg first and the left leg unzips the front portion first. I found this to be annoying as I shall describe later. At the bottom of the pants leg is an ankle zipper to aid taking the legs off over hiking boots or shoes. The ankle zippers are 9.75” (24.77 cm) in length and are on the inside of the leg.

Field Information

I have used these pants as my basic hiking pants over the last year. Primarily I have worn them in mild (50F-80F (10C-27C)) and dry weather conditions. I have used them on a couple of dozen day hikes, as well as on an 8-day backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon. On this trip they were worn everyday with no washing in temperatures ranging from 75F (24C) during the day to 40F (4C) in the evenings. The area we were hiking in had had a major fire the previous year and so we basically camped in a fire pit during the entire trip. By the end of the week my pants were black with dirt, grime and soot. The pants washed fine and there is no trace of any of the grime. So I would say that the stain resistant properties work well. Dried tomato juice also washed out without any staining.

The water-resistant properties cause water to bead up on the surface of the material allowing me to brush off the spilled liquid. The pants dry very quickly, within 12 minutes, quicker in warm and breezy weather. They wrinkle ever so slightly, but nothing that bothers me. After all they are hiking pants and not dress slacks. I have washed them frequently and they basically look the same as the day I bought them. Because they are lightweight the pants only provide minimal cover when I am walking through thick undergrowth; thorns or spiny branches do poke through the material on occasion causing slight fraying, but on the whole they are pretty durable.

The size fits nicely – not too tight and not too loose. It is comfortable wearing them over long underwear in the evenings. I had to shorten the legs however as they were too long. Even if I had bought the petite size inseam (28” (71 cm) pant inseam) I would have still needed to shorten the legs by 2” (5 cm). The Regular size required a 4” (10 cm) shortening. I found instructions on the ExOfficio website on how to shorten the convertible pants. However, the instructions were how to shorten the legs at the hem – which also shortens the ankle zips. If I had shortened my pant legs 4” (10 cm) at the hem the ankle zips would have been only 5.75 ” (14.61 cm) long rendering them unable to slip over my hiking boots. I chose to shorten the legs just under the leg zipper so that I could keep the ankle zippers intact. The partial elastic waistband is very comfortable and the pockets are all accessible when I have my backpack on. The left, zipped security pocket is great for holding ID or keys and the zipped cargo pocket is extremely useful for holding items that I need quick access to but don’t want to lose like my lip balm & hand sanitizer.

I was annoyed with the leg zippers unzipping differently. There was one time on the Grand Canyon trip when I wanted more ventilation on my legs; I would have unzipped the legs altogether if we hadn’t been hiking through some pretty brushy terrain. Having the back section of my right leg unzipped and the front section of my left leg unzipped was not particularly comfortable. I would have preferred to either have both back sections or both front sections unzipped. Still, I loved being able to ventilate my legs while still having my legs protected and also being able to take the legs off altogether to create the shorts. When removing the legs, they slip over my boots very easily.

I did have some problems putting the correct leg section back on the shorts. There is nothing to indicate which lower leg section belongs to which upper leg. The zippers are not the same length on each leg and so when I zipped the wrong sections together the zipper lengths did not match. I have had to sew in a color thread so that I can match the legs up again when I turn them into shorts. I think that the zippers on the legs should be exactly the same length so that it doesn’t matter which lower leg goes on which upper leg – or that they should be color coded so that it is easy to identify the correct sections.

Summary

The Explorer Convertible Pants are great, comfortable hiking pants. They convert to shorts easily, have great, useful pockets. The material is light- weight and cleans easily.

Pros
· Pockets
· Fit
· Easy to clean

Cons
· Having to match the legs up once they have been removed.
· The leg zippers not opening the same section of the leg.

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