Ripstop Track Pants

Details

Training trousers in a woven polyester ripstop, 190 grams per square metre, with a 6 mm grid. Say the plain thing first. This is a synthetic. It is 94 percent polyester and 6 percent elastane and there is no cotton anywhere in it, not in the body, not in the pocket bags and not in the waistband. Shuunnya's cotton shelf is one aisle over and this trouser is not on it. Naming that here is the same discipline as declaring a powerloom cloth on a shelf full of handloom claims: a page that denies a cheat while committing a quieter one is worth less than no page. Why it is synthetic. Ripstop works by weaving a heavier thread into a grid every 6 mm, so a tear runs to the next grid line and stops instead of opening the length of the leg. At 190 GSM the grid needs a fibre that will not abrade away around it, and polyester takes roughly four times the Martindale cycles cotton does at the same weight. It also dries in about 40 minutes against three hours, and elastane bonds and recovers far better on a polyester ground than on a cotton one. The tear figures are the argument: 25 newtons on this cloth against about 12 on a plain weave of the same weight, both to ISO 13937-2. What you give up, and it is not nothing. Polyester holds body odour, because the bacteria that produce the smell bind to a water-hating fibre and a 30 degree wash does not remove them, so this trouser will need a warmer wash or a longer one than a cotton pair would. It melts rather than scorches, so a hot iron glazes it permanently. And it sheds microfibres in the wash, which a cotton garment does not.

• 94 percent polyester, 6 percent elastane, split confirmed by ISO 1833 separation
• No cotton anywhere in the garment, including pocket bags and waistband
• 190 GSM measured on finished cloth to IS 1964, 6 mm ripstop grid
• Tear load 25 N against about 12 N for a plain weave of the same weight, ISO 13937-2
• Abrasion tested to ISO 12947, which is where the polyester earns its place
• Diamond gusset crotch, so there is no four-seam junction at the squat point
• Triple-stitched inseam and seat, articulated knee with a shaped back panel
• YKK number 3 zips on both side pockets and the back pocket
• Replaceable 4 mm drawcord through open eyelets, the part that always frays first
• Azo-free below 30 mg per kg on the restricted amines, ISO 14362-1
• No cotton content claimed, no fusible waistband tape to lift, no printed logo