Possible Close Enough Pants

[Ragingblues]

I know that Dockers has offered a pair of machine washable, pleated pants with rear pocket flaps recently. The closest color in that line was a standard khaki, which was not very Raiders looking.

However, I found these today, in a color called "bark" that looks pretty promising:

www.kohls.com/products/product_page_vanilla3.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=381182663&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=345786395&bmUID=1169153784094

We have Kohls here in Jacksonville, so I will try to head over and check out the color in person. They are $39.99 online for the first pair, but the second pair is 1/2 off. So, if these turn out to be a nice choice colorwise, a couple of guys could split the deal for a better price per pair... or just buy a back up pair. Kohl's does also offer $5 standard shipping on the entire order, or free standard shipping when you spend $50 or more.

I'll report on the color in person soon, but... what do you guys think so far?

Ken

[pitfallharry]

Let me know what you find out. I looked at both Kohls here in my town waay before Christmas.....I think it was before I bought my Izod's and they had some pants that looked like this. The only problem was in person the "bark" color had a green hue to it and the material was rather weird. They were the same price as this and they had the back pocket flap.....That's what first drew my attention to them. I'm not sure if these pants are what I saw or not.

[Deleted]

Hey Ken,

That looks like a mighty nice find you made there. I'm sure many folks will be looking forward to seeing what further info you come up with on these.

Cheers,
G-MANN

[Ragingblues]

Thanks John... I'm just hoping the color is somewhat close to what we see on screen. Pitfall may very well be right about it, so we won't know until I go. (hey... a rhyme!)

Ken

[Ragingblues]

I stopped into Kohl's this morning to check out these pants. They are soft and look very comfortable to wear. The color is almost exactly what you see in online, especially in the zoomed in version of the photo. I will say, that next to a pair of reddish brown pants, they take on a faint olive hue to them, but that's the only time I ever noticed it. This must be a different color than Pitfall saw before, IMO.

The pocket flaps are actually much more screen accurate than shown online too. They have almost the same shape as the actual Indy pants pockets do. I would really like to have a pair of these, and wanted to be able to post photos of them for everyone to see with other gear. But, funds are tighter until I find steady income. In the store, I could have bought a single pair at $29.99, instead of buying two to get that price with the online deal.

If you have a Kohl's in your area, I recommend dropping on to check these out. Even if you order them online and think I am crazy about the color or something, they would make a great pair of pants for most functions, or could be returned. I am pretty confident that most will like the color.

Ken

[pitfallharry]

I think Penny's has got these same pants onsale as well. I was at my mall today and just happened to stop in there. For some reason JC Penny's has a very wide selection of Dockers and other casual pants and most are in the color range of the Oak Creek pants.

Anyway, I stopped in and right at the front of the men's area they had, what I believe , are these Dockers pants. The only problem was they didn't have the pleated versions. These were flat front. The color you describe is pretty close to what I saw with these pants. The pants are also soft to the touch. Because of the material.....which I think is Twill......the brown kind of comes off a little faded. The back pockets are close to the Indy pants and the flap comes down over the button and covers it. The button just goes through the pocket itself. Unlike the Oak Creek where the button goes all the way through the flap.

The pants I saw, to me at least , seemed a little bit on the "dressy side". Not really in appearence but in the way they felt and the weight. I don't know if you'd want to go out "adventuring" in these or not. They'd be nice and lite for the summer though. I think these were also the same pants I saw over at Kohls last year too.....back when they were priced higher.

By the way here are another pair of Dockers that I saw that looked really good in person and the pants were identical to the weight and material of both my IZOD's and Oak Creek. Follow the link and select the Truffle Brown color. You can zoom in if you want. These are onsale for $24.99

www3.jcpenney.com/jcp/Products.aspx?DeptID=469&CatID=30577&CatTyp=DEP&ItemTyp=G&GrpTyp=PRD&ItemID=11785a4&ProdSeq=4&Cat=dockers&Dep=Men&PCat=Pants&PCatID=28232&RefPage=ProductList&Sale=&ProdCount=23&RecPtr=&ShowMenu=&TTYP=&ShopBy=0&RefPageName=CategoryAll.aspx&RefCatID=28232&RefDeptID=469&Page=1&CmCatId=469|28232|30577

[Ragingblues]

I went back into Kohl's today to try them on with the NH shirt and Wested. I even took the camera along so I could snap a shot of the whole getup in the dressing room (yeah, money's tight right now.. so I couldn't justify buying them). It turns out, they are too olive in color. It's a weird color though, that looks more brown until you get it away from greens and blues and near actual browns, then it shows it's true olive nature.

Here's a quick snap of them laying on the dressing room 1/2 chair thing they expect you to sit on :



I'm really showing these now for two reasons.
1. I said they might be a good color, and I wanted to take that back.
2. I wanted to show what the pocket flaps actually look like.

I truly believe they could be color adjusted with a mixture of Rit dyes, but for $30.00, there may still be better options out there. The pocket flap shape is nice enough to still consider it though, if that's your thing. At $30 and up, it's enough money to where you start thinking about getting the real deal instead, which defeats the point of close-enoughs. The two main reasons I look for close-enough pants are too save money and avoid wearing/dry cleaning wool pants. That seems like a poor choice for hiking/outdoor/adventure fabric to me anyway.

Ken

[indianatone]

Well thanks for going all that way to check them out, and even more to make the retraction and save some folks the time and money of buying a pair that "almost" do it instead of make the ideal pair. The other thing I noticed is the belt loops on these pants are set the same as the Wested and the LL Bean pants. Two on the left and right of the seam but no loop over the middle.

Somewhere there's a guy in Hong Kong sitting on a bunch of Oak Creek pants wondering why he can't sell them when there's a whole market for those things.

Thanks much for checking these out up close and personal, and then reporting honest findings!

I do like to wear "cotton" based khaki type pants over wool based on exactly what you mentioned. Wool just has to be maintained too much to keep it fun and you never really get to have too much fun in a pair without worry that they'll get a hole.
Wool dress pants are not the most ideal things for messing around. Now the Oak Creeks.......you bet!

[pitfallharry]

That's the exact same pants I saw last year. They weren't "Close-Enough" for my tastes and like RB said they (at the time were about $40) and once you get up there in price you SHOULD just go ahead and save up for a real pair.

The one I linked at Penny's for $25 would be alright. I've got my Oak Creek and IZOD's so I'm happy and I don't need anymore.

[Ragingblues]

Well, I will never buy wool pants regardless of price. Partly because of the dry cleaning involved and also because I live in Florida.

The two things I don't care for about the JC Penney pants you bought, are no pocket flaps, and cuffed bottoms. I need them to be the right color, be pleated, and have pocket flaps before I even think about them. The color is nice though....

Ken

[pitfallharry]

I've never been a big stickler for the pocket flaps. A part of me likes them because they look cool but the other part hates them because they're a "pain in the butt" with a wallet in your pocket.

My IZOD's had cuffed bottoms but I took them out and ironed out the crease.

I'm willing to overlook that stuff if the color is right and the pants are cheap. Anything over $30.00 I wouldn't bother with.

I just don't want to spend a fortune on pants or a shirt for that matter I'm only going to wear when I'm out on adventure and they're supposed to be for adventuring. I rip my $20.00 pair of IZOD's out in the woods I'm not going to care. I rip a pair of NH pants or Wested's I spent some serious cash on....I'm gonna be ticked. ;D

[Ragingblues]

I definitely agree with you about the price issue and the potential to rip pants. That's one of the reasons I won't be wearing NH or even Wested pants anytime soon.
I actually really like the pocket flap look, but agree that it is a pain to get your wallet out when wearing pants that have them.

Then again.... neither one of us are really loaded at the moment, so what would we be doing spending money anyway? ;D

Ken

[pitfallharry]

;D

Yeah, you right there....

I'm just glad I got most of my gear when I did before I lost my job. So now I can kind of go and just "upgrade" certain things when I get the cash.

[indianadirk]

while we are talking about Close enough pants ( sorry for the thread Hijack hope your okay with it Ken)

I found some close enough pants in the form of old German police officer pants ( after I read that thread on COW) I looked at ebay germany and found a pair in my size , all they need is 2 button holes made in the pocketflaps.

best

Dirk