Jeans Are Back

Backpackers are sometimes identified as a subculture of generally youthful travellers dedicated to budget travel. I think that identify comes from the fact that there were millions of us traveling on a shoestring in the 60s.
Those of us who started backpacking in the 50s and 60s more fully appreciate the major innovations in outdoor gear in the past three decades. Materials and technology continue to make gear much lighter, more weather resistant and even fashionable.
My personal gear 40 years ago was mostly canvas, wood and leather. I felt more like a pack mule than a backpacker.
They say there were some 14 million of us backpacking in the 60s. Most, if you remember, were wearing Levis. It may not have been the smartest choice for hiking but we could all afford jeans. They were as trail tough as when Levi Strauss first started sewing them for the California Gold Rush miners in 1850. They were so popular in the 1960s that Levi salespeople spent their time visiting retailers and apologizing for not being able to fill all their orders. One of the biggest drawbacks was the fact that denim took so long to dry. Wet and heavy, the pants would become uncomfortable and actually dangerous. Jeans were soon replaced in the hiking community by lighter, faster drying materials. I have been hiking for years in jungle style pants that wick moisture and dry quickly, but I have always missed the look and feel of hiking in jeans. I have searched outdoor catalogs for years thinking that surely some innovative company would sooner or later figure out how to build a blue jean pant that could wick moisture and dry as quickly as the paper thin hiking pants that are currently on the market.
From the ad above you can see that has happened. Royal Robbins® has put jeans back on the trail. The company sent me a pair and before the UPS man was out of the driveway I was testing them in the creek. Within an hour they were completely dry. Several field tests between the new jeans and my current Supplex hiking pants proved that the jeans dry as fast and wick moisture as efficiently. The bonus the jeans offer is the same toughness that denim originally guaranteed wearers.
In her book Where the Waters Divide, Karen Berger tells a story about crossing paths with a know-it-all backpacker that was wearing jeans. Her opinion was that if he knew it all he wouldn’t be in jeans. That train of thought will not hold water any longer (pun intended).
You’re going to like hiking in these pants and it won’t be just nostalgia. Nox Jeans have a vintage-wash look of broken-in jeans with the added performance benefits of wicking moisture, Coolmax®, and the shape retention and stretch of Lycra®. This is definitely NOT boring old denim.
You won’t find me on the trail any longer in paper-thin jungle-style pants that make me look like Safari Sam. I’m stylin’ in my new Nox Jeans!