For years, Duluth Trading Company has made a name for itself with rugged outdoor gear and clever, slightly naughty ad campaigns. The Wisconsin-based brand offers clothes that tackle common wardrobe gripes, such as hidden crotch gussets and plenty of pockets. Today, it's adding new fit options to its jeans lineup, including Slim, Standard, and Relaxed fits.
The Fire Hose Work Pants, pictured above, are a good example of the type of pants you'll find at Duluth. They're made from a beefy 11.5 oz cotton canvas that feels as tough as the ripstop fabric of 5.11 tactical jeans—we put them through a series of tasks, including mowing and trimming the yard and hauling wood. Despite their beefy construction, they were surprisingly comfortable and showed no signs of wear or fraying after several months.
A key feature of Duluth's jeans is a crotch gusset that runs the length of the leg, making it much easier to bend, squat, or kneel. It also prevents the pants from pinching in sensitive areas or stressing at the inseam and ripping up in the middle, something that happens to far too many pairs of jeans.
There are three blue-jean pairs in this line: a flannel-lined Cowboy Cut, which is perfect for wearing while shoveling the driveway on a snowy morning; a fleece-lined relaxed-fit jean, the best value of the bunch; and a pair that's nearly indistinguishable from Carhartt's Work Jeans (and, we suspect, just as warm), with a prefaded Kenton wash that will look at home in your local coffeeshop or at your kid's hockey game.
