Great pants, lightweight yet tough enough for hiking/camping. Was unsure about style of back pockets, but after use they are ok. Zippers are sturdy and easy to use. Front pockets are deep enough to keep items secure. Zippers at ankles are strong, easy to operate, and covered by flap. To make these pants the best out there, would love to see cargo pockets added (would have to change back pockets back to traditional style) and a short version added for those of us 5'7" and under. These pants are ok with boots on, but can't walk around house without them on.Great pants-ALMOST perfect!
Have had these pants in the past and needed a new pair for an upcoming trip. I am 5' 5" tall and normally wear size 12. I bought these pants in women's size Medium. They fit well and the length is good. Only negative is that the pants legs are a bit tighter where the zippers are. Would also prefer the zipped shorts to be about two inches longer.
I had a previous model of Bean's nylon zip off hiking pants that I loved. This model is good on top, has about the right number of pockets, but fails badly from the knee down. Now that these pants are only available in rough sizes (S,M,L...) there is now no easy option to shorten them because they have a side zipper that goes to the hem. Also the touted "cinch closures at hems" are hard to get at. What if you want to fold these pants and tuck them into your boots? You can't. Much better would be a simple thin but wide (about 1.5") Velcro cinch about 2 inches up from the cuff so that you could shorten them if you wanted to! The side zipper is probably supposed to allow you to remove/put on the zip-offs without removing your shoes, but #1) unless you have very small feet that doesn't work very well and #2) often when hiking your shoes are dirty or muddy and you want to slip your shoes off anyway. These pants are annoyingly over-engineered.
So far, so good. These pants/shorts washed up well before wearing and I just got back from 4 days of hiking and camping in the wet woods of Vermont's northeast kingdom. I wore these each day (changed in to camp clothes in evenings) and while a bit grubby by day 4, I still felt fine stopping in a cafe on the way home.
Quick drying (hung in the lean-to overnight), seemed to resist a good amount of dirt and haven't ripped yet! They washed up beautifully after the trip and I plan to take them on another camping and hiking adventure in another week.
Especially handy to have the zippers up the calf for easy on/off and I like the adjustable cinch around the ankle for when I was on the trail or wanted to have 'short pants' versus full on shorts.
Also totally convenient to have the key clip in the front left pocket as well as the triple pockets in the right rear.
