A comfortable pair of pants is a must when traveling and taking long flights like we do. Unless you always chill out in first-class luxury, you’re most likely all too familiar with the general crampedness of flying; it can all be challenging, whether it’s the seats, the overhead bins, or the queueing. Thus, you gotta be free to move and sit for extended periods while still looking fly.
The Flint and Tinder 365 Pant ticks all those boxes, making it an easy pick if you’re traveling far and want to be comfortable. That said, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give this pair a fair shakedown, so let’s dive into the details.
The Rundown
First, we’ll give you a bit of background on our chosen 365 Pant. There are a fair amount of styles to choose from at the time of writing, including athletic tapered, straight, slim, and chino. We chose slim, not because it’s objectively superior to the others, but because it fits our style nicely. Whichever style you go for, it’s worth picking out the best colorway to suit your taste (we went for light grey).
As for sizing, we went for 36×34 (that’s 36 waist, 34 height). We usually have trouble finding pants that are lengthy enough for tall users, but the 365 Pant, thankfully, has a fairly wide selection.
The materials that make up the 365 Pant are the key to how it wears, and two particularly interest us: cotton and spandex. Okay, so they’re pretty common materials; nothing groundbreaking here. The ratio is quite normal too, with 98% and 2%, respectively. Yet, we think this blend is just the right amount to give the 365 Pant the stretchiness we dig.
We cannot overemphasize how big of a deal it is to wear pants that stretch comfortably when we travel. Beyond the rigors of flying in economy class, you never know what your trip brings. You might need to curl up to fit in a rickshaw, skip over gaps along a rope bridge, or take a huge step up an ancient temple. With a stiff pair of pants, you might not make that step, or worse, you might rip a hole somewhere you don’t want one.
The soft cotton is also a huge deal for comfort. It’s not itchy, nor is it irritating on the skin, whether it’s the bare parts around the waist or around the legs where there tends to be a lot of hair that can get snagged randomly. Apart from being soft, the 365 Pant is also fairly light; it’s notably lighter than what the thick-ish weave’s appearance might suggest.
The light weight and texture feel closer to chinos than rugged denim jeans or even the relatively heavy Proof Rover Pants. However, the fabric doesn’t dull out much of the harsh textures of whatever surface you’re sitting on. As evidence, check out the imprints left over by the old tag; they’re still there even after numerous wears. So, if you’re coming from heavier or thicker pants like those, then prepare to feel surface imperfections just a bit more than usual.
Reliability is also a big factor for us when it comes to pants. As such, other key areas we look at are the zipper and button. The zipper is from YKK, which is probably as best as you can get, given how they’re the de facto choice for many top brands. Our hands-on testing reaffirms this, so you don’t have to worry about going by reputation alone. We’ve zipped this zipper up and down countless times across different time zones, and it’s yet to fail us. The same is also true for the button. It’s a chunky, no-nonsense button that fits well with its corresponding buttonhole.
Other aspects of the 365 Pant feel more or less standard. There are four pockets, with two back pockets and two at the sides, all of which fit a Max-sized iPhone with no problem. The pockets’ fabric is a different blend (as is typical) of 65% polyester and 35% cotton, so they are much softer than the rest of the body. You also get the standard belt loops, with two at the front, one on each side, and a central one at the back. The stitching on these loops feels fairly robust, though we typically use very lightweight, travel-friendly belts anyway.
