One pant to hold them all

There seems to be a fasination of tools/gear/gadgets in general around this board and I admit, I find them all very interesting as well. But there is one problem, how can you have all your gear with you all the time?

The "What is your EDC?" threads seem to be a fair indication that a large percentage of CPFers like to carry around a lot of stuff. There are many ways to carry around all this gear. Man-purses... *ahem*... warbags that have been discussed is one of those methods. The belt is another but may not be everybody's cup of tea unless you like to look like Batman

As the subject of this post implies, this is a thread about pants. Obviously the first choice would be cargo pants, and the Royal Robbins 5.11 pants is a popular choice, with a group buy happening right now. The only problem with these is they still look like cargo pants and may not be suited for some situations such as work or formal parties.

Dockers came out with something a while back called Mobile Pants that contain hidden pockets so not everyone that sees you knows you have a lot of stuff with you. Which do indeed sound like a great idea, but I have yet been able to get a pair since I'm in Australia.

A review of Dockers Mobile Pants can be seen here

Then recently a company called Scott eVest who makes coats and vests with hidden pockest came out with a pair of Hidden Cargo Pants. Now these seem to have even more pockets than Docker's pants.

Some reviews of Scott eVest's Hidden Cargo Pants with pictures can be seen here and there

Has anyone has any experience with both the Dockers and Scott eVest pants? Are there any other companies that offer pants with extra hidden pockets that we can use to carry all our gear around?

-YC

I have a couple pairs of the Dockers pants. They do work great, but the lower pockets in the legs are smallish, and anything much larger than a small cellphone shows an imprint through the pants that looks weird. An L4 is probably too big, but I do carry one in the left leg pocket. I have found that you can't really put much in the zippered pockets that hide behind the regular pocket, as you then have layers of stuff in your pockets which a)isn't very comfortable and b)looks really bad.

All that being said, they are good casual dress pants as long as you don't overload them. I usually carry in mine:

Left Front: Car keys and Squirt S4 with Inova Microlight; Spyderco Rookie clipped inside
Right Front: Squirt P4 with Arc AAA; BM 552 Rittergrip clipped inside
Hidden Right Front: Rev. 1 Firefly
Hidden Left Front: Flamed CC Ti Moneyclip with $$$
Back Left: Checkbook or nothing
Back Right: Spec Ops THE Wallet
Hidden Left Leg: Nokia 3390 Cellphone (bulletproof phone!)
Hidden Right Leg: Surefire L4

Much more than that is uncomfortable and looks bad. I'm borderline as it is. As always, YMMV.

I love pants with heaps of pockets. But if you are skinny like me you will find lights knocking on your bones when you run. I need some padding /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

LOL, I hope the reviewer actually irons those pants before he goes out in public.

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yclo said:
A review of Dockers Mobile Pants can be seen here
-YC

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OK, Don REALLY needs to post here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/poke2.gif He has the ability to procure gems out of thin air. The man is a magician. A light here, another one there, a titanium coin...

I think it might have something to do with his pants. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

I have three pairs of the Mobile Pants in black. The extra pockets come in handy sometimes, but they are too small. Also, I'm not too thrilled with the material. It's 100% cotton, but they are not close to as comfy as my Brooks Brothers pants. Maybe it's because of the wrinkle-free feature?

Btw, the Mobile Pants are no longer being made.

I'd like to try out the SEV pants, but $109 is pretty pricey.

North Face has some cool pants with a bajillion pockets on them. Pricey, though. .

Bump?

I have been wearing both 5.11 pants and the Cabela Trailhiker pants. After using bouth, I relly like the Trailhikers a lot more. I posted a mini-review here. I have a pair of the Dockers pants as well, but as has been mentioned, the extra pockets are too small.

The price looks right on the Cabla's. I might try a pair.
I have two pair of the 5.11's. They wear very well for me but I did pop the front snap on one pair. And no, it's not from eating a lot of fried pork rinds.

The key question is: how many candles can I stuff into my Mobile pants?

I have a couple pairs of Dockers Mobile pants. One of the key issues all of these multiple-pocket-garment manufacturers have is that they have layers of pockets, but all the pockets bottom out at exactly the same level. So if you put your cell phone in one and PDA in another, they end up "on top" of each other, and clump through the pants. This seems like such a simple problem to avoid with a little foresight, sigh. As LEDModman indicated above, the Dockers have this problem, which you can get around by just not overloading the pockets. Otherwise, they're fine pants. ScotteVest jackets used to have this problem as well, but they seem to have figured it out; don't know about their pants.

Joe

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sunspot said:
The price looks right on the Cabla's. I might try a pair.
I have two pair of the 5.11's. They wear very well for me but I did pop the front snap on one pair. And no, it's not from eating a lot of fried pork rinds.

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I had the same thing happen with a pair of 5.11 pants. The snap was not properly set, and it came apart the first time I wore them. RR was great with the way they handled it. The asked me to donate the pants to a charity, after fixing the snap, and they sent me a brand new pair!

I hate the look of cargo pants.

The Dockers Mobile pants are the pants of preference when out and about. As they have been discontinued, I went on a buying spree ordering them from across the country.

They are great for concealed carry. Either a S&W subby in the front right pocket, or a Kramer undershirt holster using the hidden pockets for my extra magazine and G2Z.

I haven't found anything that looks as classy.

I like the Cabela's pants, particularly the 7pocket hiker, both pants and shorts, for warmer weather (available lined, also). The toughest I've found are the Carhartt "Tool Pants". Good, practical pockets (altho only two flapped). Numerous, well placed belt loops that will accept a 1 3/4 belt. Very, very tough. Carhartt makes several other pants -- double seat, double knee, etc. Cabelas carries some of them but www.sierratradingpost.com seem to be best source. They often have seconds at a very good price.

BTW Litho and other gun guys -- Dockers are made by Levi-Strauss who is a major contributor to Brady Campaign (formerly Handgun Control International) and other anti-gun groups. FWTW

Thanks MikeF. I'll give that a try.

Thanks for that info BIGIRON. No Dockers for me.

BIGIRON -

I didn't realize that. Thanks for the info.