I’ve only recently been able to be picky about my clothes and now been trying to find a good pair of jeans that wont rip or tear.
I do a lot of labor so my jeans usually get pretty beat up, i don’t really expect a pair to last forever but i haven’t had a solid pair last more than a couple months without getting a tear. Every pair i have has both knees ripped open. I’ll fix them with a patch but they always rip in a different spot.
I’d spend $200 on a pair that’ll last at least year.
When you say jeans, do you want them to be denim? Or are you open to other materials?
I work a labor job that is brutal on jeans/pants. Ive been wearing Mascot workwear pants for years now, and they are the most durable work pants ive ever had.
They have jean style pants as well as pants with extra cargo pockets, and the thing that I lovrle the most, they have pants with knee pad pockets. They have saved my knees!
I have worked this job for six years now and I’m on my second pair of pants. The first pair is beat to shit after all this time. Ive been patching them up over the years, I just bought the new pair early last year.
The pair I’m wearing now ive been wearing for close to a year and they have no rips, tears, or wear spots.
I’m not affiliated with the company, they just make good pants that I wear for work. The pants I buy cost around $140USD when I bought the most recent pair.
Dickes work pants are solid.
Would probably be helpful to know what brands of jeans you’ve been using and what ways they’ve failed you.
Personally, I don’t have a physical labor job, but I am a pretty dedicated DIY/homeowner type, so I’m not exactly a stranger to doing hard work either, and I usually get a few years out of my jeans, just buying whatever they have at target or Walmart or whatever, and they sort of go through a pipeline - I start off with decent-looking jeans, after usually a couple years of casual wear they get downgraded to work jeans after they start showing wear in the usual places, and after they start getting really ripped and beaten up they get further downgraded to dirty work jeans for things like painting where there’s a really good chance they’re going to get stuff spilled on them, heavily stained, and I may not even want to try washing them when I’m done.
As far as more dedicated work jeans, I have a pair of Carhartt jeans I break out when I’m doing really heavy duty stuff, which isn’t all that often, but they are obviously heavier duty and cut more for you to be able to move around freely in them.
I’m sure Dickies probably has something pretty comparable to those Carhartts as well.
I haven’t tried out their jeans specifically, but I have a few things from Duluth Trading Co that I’ve been very happy with and for what they are I think they’re pretty affordably priced.
Not jeans exactly, and no first-hand experience with them, but I’ve heard from a few people whose opinions I usually trust on these sorts of matters that Filson Double Tin Cloth pants are probably one of the most durable, hard-wearing pairs of pants you can buy. If you’re working in hot weather and don’t expect to get wet, they’re probably not exactly the ideal, but I’ve generally heard good things about first products overall and I think they make some other pants that are more akin to a regular pair of jeans.
Could try Origin workwear. Triple stitched, made in the USA. They seem to hold up to regular shop use for woodworking. Others have also recommended them
(Grease Point is the money is no object option, but I don’t have a pair so can’t say if they’re worth it)
I only buy heavyweight denim, when shopping go for at least 15-16 oz fabric. The thin stuff is great for warm weather but is not gonna last
Any brand that uses Japanese selvage in the heavier weights lasts ages. Take a while to break in and are $$$, though.
One thing that makes them last longest is washing gently and only when necessary. Tumble dryers and fabric softeners plus dryer sheets accelerate wear drastically. I have a couple pairs from Naked and Famous that are roughly a decade old with no tears or holes.
Otherwise like mentioned here: canvas pants or the firehose material ones from Duluth last a long time too. Much easier to maintain and handle frequent washing more readily.
Naked and Famous are great but very expensive. They use exotic fabrics and make exclusive, limited edition runs that, IMHO, would be wasted on workwear.
If you’re looking for regular selvedge denim at a fraction of N&F’s price, while still uncompromising on quality, durability and fabric, their no-label sub-brand The Unbranded Brand are awesome. I’ve worn 2 pairs already (both lost to crotch blowout after 3-4 years of daily wear, the issue being me getting fatter, not the jeans themselves). I’ve just started wearing my latest pair, an UB301.
Interesting… didn’t know that existed. Will have to check them out. And yeah, i should have pointed out they may be too expensive to be used for harder labor, they’re just the ones i’ve owned that have held up the longest so they came to mind.
Had you already tried Levi’s? I had my last pair for 5-6 years. In fact, I only bought a new pair because I’m fatter.
My Levi’s have consistently outlasted my wasteline
By jeans do you mean denim only? I think canvas pants generally last longer than denim, maybe try that.
I’ve been a big fan of Duluth’s stuff. Their 'firehose" ones seem to be pretty long lasting for me.
https://www.duluthtrading.com/men/collections/fire-hose-workwear/mens-fire-hose-pants/
Thanks I’ll check them out! They don’t seem too expensive either
Mine have held up for years. I don’t do construction stuff anymore so they’re just daily wear jeans but they basically look new. Seams are all rock solid. A big selling point for me was the fit. They have all sorts of sizes. They have normal, semi stretch, strech, you name it. Plain jeans, cargo pants, slacks. A lot of the ones like the “firehose” ones have a gusset in the groin… so instead of just being sewn into a really thick seam that gets a lot of strain put on it… it has a flat diamond shape in the area that flexes and moves with you so it’s a lot more comfortable especially if you squad down in them.
If you like cargo pants as well, they have actually useful pockets. They’re made of the same material so they hold up pretty well and I really haven’t had any issue with them ballooning out and getting in the way. Definitely been worth the price for me. They have sales every so often as well which is good. I usually just order directly off the site if I need some.
–edit–
Looks like its buy one get one half off right now actually 👍
They have a decent warranty on them as well. https://www.duluthtrading.com/content/no-bull-guarantee
Gusset is magic for making pants fit incredibly better than you expect.
I think I heard somewhere that they don’t stand by their warranty as much as they used to. Can’t confirm it myself though.
But probably around 10 years ago I did get to put the warranty to the test and I was impressed with it. I had one of their flannel shirts, and I wore it around a good bit for probably almost a year at the point this story takes place.
One day at work, I noticed that the seam down one side had started coming apart. I conveniently worked really close to one of the brick & mortar stores, so on my lunch break I swung over there wearing the shirt, showed them the seam, and they basically told me to just go grab a new one off the rack and that was it. Took the old shirt off and handed it over and walked out wearing the new one, no receipt, no paperwork, no hassle, it was a pretty great experience.
Still have that shirt a decade later and wear it regularly, it’s obviously picked up a bit of wear over the years, but the seams all look good and the fabric still feels solid all-around.
