A year of working from home means that we forget about some types of pants. As jeans, and then joggers, and then whatever-is-clean takes over our non-video half of our wardrobes you would be forgiven for not really thinking much about the humble chino. But, things are changing and it is a good time to start looking at what might give you that jogger comfort while still being office presentable — on both halves of your body.

With that in mind, I picked up a pair of Bonobos’ Tech Chinos in Navy. I wasn’t expecting much, but I’ve been very impressed with these pants. Allow me to share…

Materials

These pants are made with Schoeller textiles, enough said? If not, they are 59% Cotton, 36% Polyamide, 5% Elastane. On top of that they have 3XDRY applied to them. All in all the fabric is pretty awesome.

It feels and drapes like cotton. It has grime/oops resistance with a strong DWR coating. And the stretch is fantastic — there’s not been a single time I felt restricted by the pants at all. I don’t know what to make of this fabric, because it is simply great.

Fit and Style

These pants have a lower rise than some of the other chinos I have tested, but not so low that they are hard to keep a shirt tucked into. Whether wearing them around the house, or into the office they look like chinos. A nice pair of chinos at that.

Bonobos offers a wide range of fits so you can dial in the fit to your body type, I went with a 34×32 in the Slim cut and find that it fits me really well with no tailoring needed. The only hint of these not being a standard chino are the back pockets where one is a snap and the other is (annoyingly) a zippered pocket.

Performance

I’ll say it again: this are among the most comfortable chinos I have ever worn, that they look like normal cotton chinos is only more impressive. These are so good I’ll just shift to comparing them directly to Outlier’s Futureworks which are my gold standard for performance chinos:

• Dirt/Grime Resistance: the DWR treatment is impressive and generally these pants don’t get that dirty. But when compared to the Futureworks there is one downside: the Tech Chinos tend to collect dust and light colored marks very easily. Where on the Futureworks I can brush such marks away with my hand, the Tech Chinos generally require a touch more effort — a damp rag generally cleans them back up. So if your are in a position where you are in a dusty area, or prone to brushing against things the Tech Chinos might become slightly annoying for you. Aside from that the performance for repelling splashes of water bests that of my Futureworks.
• Movement Comfort: I find these to be even with Futureworks when it comes to how easy they are to move around in. They offer more stretch than the Futureworks but a lower rise and a trimmer cut negates that extra stretch — whereas the Futureworks have a better gusset on the crotch. Both are easy to move in, so much so I would not worry about wearing either for most things I might find myself doing.
• Breathability: the one shortfall of these pants is breathability, the Tech Chinos don’t breathe nearly as well as the Futureworks. For cooler weather, the Tech Chinos will be great, but for summer the Futureworks are greatly preferable. I wish there was a slightly more breathable pair because that really is the biggest knock against these.
• Durability: I suspect they both last a long time. In normal wear the Futureworks are likely to outlast. But if you are prone to snagging pants, the Tech Chinos will be a better option as Futureworks do tend to get a snag under certain circumstances — like cats and thorns.

Overall, the Futureworks are better for warmer weather and they dry much faster for travel. Otherwise the Tech Chinos are really neck and neck with the Futureworks.

Overall

I would peg these as a sleeper hit. I know a lot of people don’t want to play the waiting games for Outlier’s Futureworks to be in stock, in the color you want, in the size you need. I know that a lot of people want more fit options and wider size ranges. For those of you in that camp the Tech Chinos are the best option I found for performance chinos which are available in the size/colors you want on demand.

That said they come in at the same price as the Futureworks and given that I would still prefer the Futureworks over them, but the margin is much closer than I ever expected.

You can find them here.

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