Meh

By Mitch Stein Ranked #135 - Men's Hiking and Climbing Shorts April 11, 2010

I am a stretch fabric junkie, and had high expectations for these. I liked the stout but stretchy material, and was jazzed by the load of pockets, many with zippers. The icing on the cake, was scoring a great buy on SteepAndCheap.

However, when they arrived, reality set in...I seem to be pretty much of a universal medium, but these mediums were way to snug... so back they went, swapping in a pair in large.

When the large ones showed up, they seemed, other than being a bit longer than I prefer, to fit pretty well. But when I wandered around the house in 'em (with the tags still on... channeling Minnie Pearl) I found myself continually checking for bunched shirt or undies around the front left pocket. It turns out that Stoic out-clevered themselves by placing a cell phone pocket inside the left side pocket, which led to about 9 layers of fabric piled on top of each other at the seam. Even with the fairly relaxed fit, this became totally annoying, and I had them off within 15 minutes.

As I was contemplating the problem, I took a closer look at the construction of the shorts, and noticed lots of funky stitching, and many hanging threads. With a sample size of only one, I can't dis the whole Stoic line, but these sure weren't anywhere near the nearly flawless quality I've enjoyed with similarly premium ArcTeryx and Mountain Hardwear goods.

I sent them back and replaced them with a pair of TNF Outbound shorts (in Med) which fit great, are even lighter and stretchier, have a nice integrated belt. Even though these are much lighter than the Stoic shorts, I've seen great durability out of the very light Apex Aerobic fabrics, and these will keep me much cooler during serious exertion during hot weather.

View Details: Stoic Overhang Short - Men's

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