I’ve had a bunch of Haglöfs technical gear on test over the past few years, but here’s something a little different.
I saw these at the range preview a year ago and liked the look, I’m not overly keen on wearing outdoor gear unless I’m on the hill, but for easy days on trails or days-out up north I often miss the better fabrics and functionality of tech gear, if not the look.
So, what we have here from Haglöfs are two pairs of pants with their new “Loose Cut”. The looks are are casual, but the under the hood it’s business as usual.
In the Bracken colour are the Mid Trail Pants, cut from mid-weight Climatic fabric, the same fabric the more technical pants are made from. There’s a shed-load of features, single-button waist with belt loops, double-fabric seat, two open fron pockets, two deep rear pockets with poppered flaps, two zipped thigh pockets, ankle adjustment, shaped knees, diamond crotch and even little jeans-style metal rivets at the pocket corners.
I’ve worn these a few times now, and I have to say they’re brilliant. They sit low on the waist, look like combats but have great free movment and they have a go-anywhere feel without the regulation black knees that can sometimes make you feel a little conspicuous in town.
The looser cut is great in warmer weather, the pockets are all useful, ever the rear ones, as their low position works with a pack. I can see these fighting off more technical choices through the summer when I’m packing for trips.
In Cool Steel grey are the Rugged Ridge Pants. These are cut from a heavier Climatic fabric, with more of a canvasy feel. The same Loose Cut applies, but the styling is even more er, “Street”?
Features are cut back, two low slung open-topped rear pockets and two front patch pockets sit with a single-button waist with belt loops. The technical cred is subtly applied with some shaping at the knees and a diamond crotch gusset. There’s carpenter-style leg pocket with a velcro tab to stop your three foot rule sliding out when bouldering or flipping upside down on your skateboard. The wee metal rivets are here on the pocket corners too. Cool.
In think the casual models were a good move, the designs look right, the fabric performance is long-proven and I’m happily wearing them with my Converse for just cutting about. It’s like having a secret weapon?!
One thing to bear in mind is sizing, I’m a size large in all things Haglöfs, but in these I’m an XL. So, try before you buy.
Haha, I wear outdoor clothes all the time, my Haglöfs Reptile Hood is a wear to work garment – we need that up here in the far north :)
I love Haglöfs Climatic material, my fave pants are the Mid Fjell – my only problem is being able to find dealers who supply a large range of Haglöfs clothing in the UK… everyone seems to have dribs and drabs… never a lot, and quite often it just looks like all the weird sizes left over :) Thank god for Google :)
Hmm, I’m wondering if the Mid Trails in charcoal might make new office trousers for me… shame the nearest stockist I can find appears to be Carlisle!
I wear outdoor kit to work as well Gordon, I think I just crave the feel of cotton in the evenings :o)
Climatic is great, the last couple of days I’ve gone from baking sun to horizontal snow and the pants (Mid Flex) just kinda sailed through it all.
Biggest range of Haglofs pants I’ve seen is in Escape Route in Pitlochry, after that The Climbers Shop in Ambleside. I think Craigdon do a few as well?
The Mid Trails are nice Matt, as good under a desk as on the trail :o)
I’ve been using the Mid Trails for a while (legwear a gap in my Haglofs collection and a nice change from the fit of most brands), including an overnighter on Seana Bhraigh. I agree that you don’t really notice the difference versus more ‘technical’ trousers. They are not really that loose a fit, the mid weight climatic is comfortable, even when it gets hot. I even like the side pockets (cargo pockets are normally a pet dislike of mine). The only downside is the lack of noticeable water repellance. I’ve recently got some Lite Flex pants – the climatic fabric in these is a little more shiny/clammy than the mid weight fabric.
Haglofs perhaps do miss a trick by not including any ventilation zips; personally I find this makes a dramatic difference to versatility across a range of temperatures – otherwise they are great. The leg length does seem spectacularly long (some modification required in my case).
Down here in NW England there are stockists – Outside, The Climbers’ Shop and Fell and Mountain seem to cover most of the range of trousers.
I’d have leg vents as a compulsory option on outdoor trousers!
Haven’t tried the Lite Flex, but I’ve got the old versions, Thor Flex I think they were? Rust red though, even for me that was hard on the eyes…
The new Lite Flex is in more sober colours! – and without the different colour stretch patches. These are the only Haglofs item I have that has any quality issues – the exit holes for the integral belt are poorly finished and already a bit frayed, and for good measure the end of the belt keeps on getting lost inside when the trousers are washed.
Mesh inside the thigh pockets on the Mid trail would be a good ventilation option (or even a DIY modification).
The Mid Flex’s are getting a revamp, the thigh pockets are changing. I’ll have some photies of that son, I’ll check to see if they’re mesh.
Interesting about the quality control, tell them!
Hi Pete,
Been trying to get hold of some of these (a lot of e-shops were advertising stock until you try and add it to the cart!). how are the sizes on the Mid Trails? I’m a 32″ waist normally, which is a small in Haglofs’ terms but I wondered if they come up big or small in your experience? It’s areal shame that their gear is such a faff to get hold of, not to mention pricey. Word of the recession mustn’t have got through ;)
Thanks
Bar.
If found they came up small, but maybe not by a huge amount. My waist does go up and down depending on how active I am…
Most of the outdoor brands are selling all their kit in the more affluent east now so there’s no incentive to keep the prices down for this tiny market back here.
Great isn’t it.
yuppies. more money than sense… if only people knew, NEVER buy outdoor gear at recommended retail (rip off) price….
i use a site like gearbuyer.com to flag the cheapest prices for gear in the states and get it shipped.
they dont tend to have much haglofs though…
i’ll use a mail forwarding company if theres any embargoes on shipping abroad which there often is…
Aye, a lot of brands don’t like their kit to cross borders, Patagonia and Arcteryx come to mind.
Odd since all of comes from China anyway.
theres some mid trails x large at half price.
http://www.outdoorkit.co.uk/product.php?product_id=11890&category_id=319
the dont want their gear to cross borders where there are exclusive distributors for the products setup,
party because the distributors can incur the cost of marketing and distributing the gear. but often it protects their horrendous markups
in nz and aus the markups are horrendous and masses of people use mail forwarding companies to get the gear cheaper. half. third or a quarter of the local retail price.. i want quality kit but i’m not going to support someones oppulent lifestyle to get it… my most expensive items are now bought abroad often needing mail forwarding companies.
in some cases the distributors are actually pathetic at marketing anyway and arent making a decent living, no ones winning, its expensive, hard to find. not reaching the audience it could.
me and a mate were trying to obtain rab gear to do online reviews, promises promises from the distributor and we got nothing out of him. his gear is sold in about three shops in all of nz… and very limited range…
A lot of good brands get buried in new territories by chosing the wrong distributors. Handle it wrong and the brand name gets a reputation that’s not necessarily approriate for the quality.
I’ve seen it a lot in the UK, fast talkers getting hold of good technical brands and burying them in a year. It’s rare to see a brand come back from that.
One similar story is Montane in the UK, it was slipping into the bargain basement zone with sale prices and lots of ebay trading and they had to fight to bring it back up which they have done.
montane, zero presense in nz, the australasian rep shows no interest in selling in nz.
only in a handful of shops in aus
only sells mainly because of its high reputation, probably enhanced by expat brits down under looking for their favourite gear and they cant find anything else locally made to the same standard..
dont tend to get the euro brands that much down under, berghaus are pobably the biggest.
you get the american ones but you’ll be paying through the nose for their gear.. also what you get is the pirates having a field day since they can make a killing flogging off cheap kit at the rate of knots. someone in nz has just been caught selling thousands of items of pirate north face gear online… he reckoned he wasnt aware it was fake… few people are really winning…
North Face is always a bootleggers favourite, everytime I review it on here I get blasted with spam and malicious subscribers. Very strange.
I”ve heard, that the factories that make brands like the north face the workers in the factories will do knock offs with off cuts and sell them.
but a lot of the pirated gear items like the gore tex logos are all wrong , and the hardshells arent waterproof let along waaterproof and breathable
The Haglofs fakes on ebay are funny, the single attempt to makle them look authentic is a sewn-on H patch.
It’s probably kind of irionic that the same manufacturing centre caters for the top end as well as the market stall fakes. Chine really does have it all sewn up.