Columbia Men’s Silver Ridge Utility Convertible Pants

Good design, good fabric, disappointing workmanship and quality

This is the third pair of these pants that I have owned. The first one lasted over 5  years and I loved it. The second fell apart in a year. I switched to OR pants, was dissatisfied and tried the Silver Ridge again, hoping the poor quality was a one-off failure or that they had improved their quality systems. They have not. Nor have they responded to my complaints.

This is a shame, as the design and fabric choices are excellent. But good intentions paired with crappy execution results in a mediocre product.

Strengths:

• The fabric (recycled polyester) is a bit rough and a bit heavy, but it has just the right amount of stretch. It is fairly windproof, which results in less breathability/more clamminess — but these are convertibles, so you can always zip off the lowers to let your legs breathe. Despite the apparent lack of breathability, the pants dry fast, especially when wearing them.
• The belt is a bit heavy, but the buckle doesn’t slip and require constant re-tightening (as the OR pants do).
• Good number of pockets, and two are secured by hook-and-loop. I haven’t lost my wallet or pocketknife when rock scrambling.
• Cuffs are wide enough to pull over trail runners. No ankle zippers (a plus in my estimation) so if you wear boots  you’ll need to remove them to get the pant legs on or off.
• The fabric itself is durable, resisting abrasion when rock scrambling, but…

Weaknesses:

• Poor workmanship. There were several loose threads when new and they have continued to accumulate. The hook-and-loop strips are poorly attached. My wife has had to do numerous repairs and she is appalled by how poorly constructed these pants are.

These could be excellent pants. But unless you are prepared to do regular maintenance, I can’t recommend them.

I have two pair, the oldest is ~ 5 years old.  Both have identical product numbers yet one is nylon and one is polyester.

The vast majority of my use has been the nylon pair as I put these through a lot of pretty tough bushwacking, and the material has held up very well.  It also cleans easily and shows minimal wear and no pilling.

The pocket stitching comes apart easily though, just from the weight of my phone and I’ve resewn the nylon pair multiple times.  I no longer trust the pockets.

I still use these at very start and very end of 3 season backpacking and day hikes where I know the temperature will stay below 15C because they have good wind resistance and if trip features a lot of bushwacking.

Above about 20C they get overly sweaty for me though the zip at the leg does help somewhat with venting.

OR Ferrosis are much more breathable and get the lions share of my wear the last few years but pill up much more easily bushwacking than the SRL.