KAVU

Hilly Billy Stretch Pants - Men's

Love'em but did have to re-style to fit

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

Size Bought:

S

Height:

5' 5"

Weight:

150

I already have 4 of the Kavu women's San Blas overalls with the same material and similar design and wear them all the time. I love the fish print in this men's style so I ordered a pair of the men's size S, knowing that these ran really small in the women's (i am normally a large in women's stuff but wear the women's M in the Kavu overalls). As I expected, these fit in the hips and seat and legs but the upper portion was way too long and baggy for my 5' 5" height. Could not shorten the straps enough to fit and the yoke was up too close to my chin. Since I am an experienced seamstress, I re-jiggered them to fit. I cut off the straps at the top of the back yoke, then used one of my women's overalls to trace the back and cut it down and pin and top stitch it to match. Then I used a seam ripper to remove about 2" of the top-stitching at the upper edges of the front yoke pocket and the webbing with the buckle on it for both straps. Folded the pocket top under to shorten it and resewed the top stitching. Then I cut a half inch off the top of the yoke above the pocket and folded it down another inch to shorten the front yoke. Re-stitched the front buckles to the shortened front yoke and pinned the cut off straps to the back yoke and tried it on. That allowed me to see how much to shorten the straps and I ended up cutting off 2 inches and then sewed the straps back onto the remodeled back yoke. Sounds like a lot of work but it took me less than 90 minutes and now they fit very well. Unlike the women's San Blas style, these have full length legs, deep inset side pockets and both a large back pocket and front yoke pocket. Also a zip fly which works for using a SheWee. Fantastic for hiking, hot weather kayaking, gardening and just hanging out. Fabric dries in minutes after getting wet. I plan to wear these for airline travel -- so comfortable with the soft stretch and not having stuff binding around your waist. Always get rave compliments from both men and women whenever I wear them anywhere. If I had a trunk full of these to sell people that ask where I got them I could sell a couple pairs a day (I've referred them to Backcountry). The guy who reviewed before me should have returned them for a smaller size. The stretch is very forgiving. And they are well made (I say that as somebody who has designed and sewn my own clothes and outdoor gear for over 50 years). Also machine wash and dry easily. I hang them up rather than tumble dry so I don't have to listen to the buckles band around. They dry quick on a hanger. I would like to see Kavu offer a women-tailored style with these pocket features and the longer legs.

Poorly made

The materials are fine, very stretchy and light, but the design/construction is pretty bad. I am 5’10 and 175lbs so usually wear a medium, especially because Kavu’s pants run on the small side. The mediums I bought wear enormous! 6 inches too long and the straps are useless. They only adjust maybe 4 inches total and the straps are so long that the chest pockets are awkwardly low no matter how you wear them. Love Kavu but these were disappointing.