Onebag: Western Rise Evolution Pant Review
Note: This post contains Western Rise affiliate links. I get a kickback at no extra cost to you if you like what you see and purchase their products through my links.
I tapped the button on my camera and scrambled back up the steep incline to beat the 10-second timer, trying not to look out of breath or fall to my death, grateful that no one else was on this mountain to watch me look ridiculous as I painstakingly set up shots of myself. Ah, the joys of solo travel.
In all the scrambling around, the main subject of my shot — the Western Rise Evolution Pants — shone again in their incredibly versatile range of movement, comforting me that my first review of a product sent to me by an affiliate for free could be a sincere one.
I’m in Albania for the start of a year-long circuit around the Balkans, and I’m doing it with one bag. Well, let’s say 1.5 bags, but I’ll save the nerdy hair-splitting for a deeper dive into my pack(s) for this year of slow travel. When I first started doing onebag travel almost a decade ago, our community was a bit starved for resources. Fast forward to now in the age of paying more for the absolute minimum — a seat — on many airlines, often for the pleasure of having your checked luggage misplaced, and the onebag subreddit has grown to over 700,000 members.
“Size 32 fits me perfectly, even after all the byrek I've been eating on a near daily basis.”
Fitting four seasons of clothing appropriate for everything from mucking around communist bunkers to hitting the bars in the evening without looking like hiker trash is no easy feat, but luckily, the rise of onebag travel culture has given us more options than ever to look our best in technical clothing that can go anywhere.
Western Rise has positioned itself at the bleeding edge of this space, producing quality gear that really can go from the mountain to a night out at a price point that should make previous mainstays in the onebag arsenal blush. It’s what one might consider — AHEM — an outlier, if you will, in an increasingly competitive market with more options for traveling lightly than ever.
Disclaimer: Western Rise sent me a pair of Evolution Pants 2.0.
As I said, I won’t hide that I was sent a pair of the Evolution Pants (along with the Limitless Merino Button-down, which I’ll write about separately), but I was also very upfront with my point of contact that I would only accept them if I had ample time to test them out and could give my absolute honest feedback on them. It’s been a while, over three months, and I think I can finally speak my piece on these pants after using them in every situation I can think of while actively traveling.
I have the Slim version in blue grey and usually wear a 31-32 waist, depending on the brand. Size 32 fits me perfectly, even after all the byrek I've been eating on a near-daily basis. Right out of the box, they felt a bit snug, albeit not too tight, but felt just right after a couple of wears. I don't know if they needed to mold to my "weird guy" frame or if this is a common experience. I'm 6' 2" with a slim build, and a 32-34" inseam is just right, allowing me to cuff the pants if I like.
ATTENTION! Western Rise is currently having a Father’s Day sale of up to 30% OFF! Use my link to grab a pair of the Evolution Pants for your next onebag adventure!
Stomping around Albania in my new pair of Evolution Pants from Western Rise.
First, let's see how Western Rise bills the Evolution Pant.
Going forward, I want to start my onebag reviews with how a business presents its product. In an environment where we're increasingly overwhelmed by choice, at a bare minimum, it should live up to the expectations they are setting for the customer. Here's the current description of the Evolution Pants on the Western Rise website:
"The evolution of jeans: men's casual travel pants made perfect for travel, outdoors, and everyday activities. From international flights to nights out and everything in between, these durable-meets-lightweight, 4-way stretch travel pants will keep you cool and comfortable. We designed the Evolution Pant to look great and feel casual so you can travel in luxury."
From this description, there are five claims here that I'd like to evaluate:
The Evolution Pants are durable.
The Evolution Pants are lightweight.
The Evolution Pants allow a decent range of mobility.
The Evolution Pants are cool and comfortable.
The Evolution Pants perform well outdoors while also looking good in a casual setting.
How durable are the Evolution Pants?
From the flight over to Blloku's trendy bars to the top of Mount Krujë, I've worn the Evolution Pants in all the situations Western Rise claims to have designed them for. I've pulled them in and out of my bag, brushed up against all kinds of scrub on overgrown paths to derelict bunkers with exposed and rusting rebar, spilled a couple of beers on them, and washed them in a front-loading machine on its last leg many times.
So far, so good — not a single thread is out of place and not a single stain has set in. I haven't noticed any shrinkage, but I also haven't put them in a dryer. I try my best to only air-dry technical fabrics. And air-dry quickly, they do. Even overnight on a drying rack in a room nowhere near a window, they are generally ready to go the next day. Water will bead up and fall away unless you're caught in a sizable rainstorm.
That’s what you want to see.
Considering some of the places I've been hiking, and moments when I felt scared for the pants — like when I got caught up in some briars, snagged them on random metal jutting out of a bunker wall, or the many breaks I took sitting on exposed rock for that Krujë hike — I think it's fair to say they are very durable, especially for the light weight.
My Outlier Slim Dungarees, which are nearly twice as expensive and target the same market, developed snags in just as much time from the washing machine. They look great, and I love them for different reasons, but they do not stand up to the rigors of onebag travel quite as well as Outlier bills them, especially for the extremely high price point.
Western Rise constructs the Evolution pants from a 107 GSM woven twill blend of 90% Nylon and 10% Elastane. Meanwhile, the Slim Dungarees are a 275 GSM double weave of 82% Nylon, 16% Polyester and 2% Elastane. While, in some ways, they have a more luxe tactile feel, the gaps in the weave are larger than those in the Evolution pants, which may explain why they more readily snag.
“Three months in with the Evolution Pant, I would replace the others if I could.”
Are the Evolution Pants lightweight?
I didn't plan to make this review a comparison to the Slim Dungarees, but they are my only other experience with a pant designed with one-bagging in mind and have been the gold standard for quality in the community for a while. I think this perspective is important, however, because it shows just how much the Evolution Pants surprised me.
Another area where they shine is how many grams they're saving in your pack, all while being — in my opinion — more durable than their competitor's product that was also designed as "the pant to travel the world in."
The Evolution Pant Slim is the lightest of any I packed for my Balkan trip. I weighed everything beforehand in anticipation of the totalitarian behavior of airlines nowadays when it comes to baggage, increasingly so with carryons. Here they are, lightest to heaviest:
Western Rise Evolution Pant Slim: 344 grams
Outlier Slim Dungarees: 453 grams
Ministry of Supply Chroma Jeans: 556 grams
Three months in with my experience with the Evolution Pant, I would axe one of these and replace the other with another pair, potentially saving over half a kilo. The lighter GSM of the fabric initially had me wary of their durability, but that has turned out to be totally unfounded. Western Rise just found out how to make something bombproof with lighter materials.
Walking where Skanderbeg walked in the Evolution Pants. You’ll learn all about him another day.
How freely can you move in the Evolution Pants?
The range of mobility was something I kept a close eye on as soon as I started wearing these pants. If they didn't deliver here, that's it. Mission failed.
Thankfully, that wasn't the case. I took a big risk wearing them on the flight from Greensboro to Tirana, having only worn them a couple of times before. You want to be damn sure you're wearing something comfortable for 24 hours of travel time with three flights in basic economy. As the slim version, they are form-fitting but not tight. It was like wearing track pants with the bonus of the fabric not feeling "plasticy" if that makes sense.
Sitting down for several hours — check. How about a 7-mile hike in Albania's Skanderbeg Range with lots of elevation changes?
That brings me back to where I started. The plodding uphill on unmaintained stone steps, the jogging back down again to get in frame for my timed shots, the hiking off-trail into the Balkan mountain scrub to take care of business — the Evolution Pant moved with my body even more fluidly than my PrAna Stretch Zion pants, which were some of my favorites for the trail.
Compared to the Slim Dungarees, which I no longer hike with due to the limited range of motion, the Evolution Pant over-performed my expectations for what a "do-everything" travel pant was capable of on a serious hike. I attribute that to the higher elastane content, 10% to the Dungarees' 2%.
Are the Evolution Pants cool and comfortable?
My Krujë Mountain hike was back in mid-March, but temps still broke 70F that day with quite a strong sun overhead. Temperatures were quite variable, from chilly/mild when shaded by the mountain to a bit sweaty at high noon under direct sunlight. It was a day for pants, especially when not moving and at the summit of the mountain.
Despite the thin fabric weight, they did a decent job of keeping the wind off at certain parts of the trek. I could see them getting chilly at lower temperatures, but some sacrifices must be made for their packability and comfort at hotter temperatures. Western Rise has other pants at a heavier fabric weight that would probably be more appropriate for cold weather hiking.
More recently, I wore the Evolution Pant in 84-degree heat speed-walking from my neighborhood in Tirana to meet some people for a shared taxi to a winery after missing my bus. Yeah, I got sweaty, as anyone would in that situation, but the pants did a solid job of wicking away moisture after I arrived. Although I'm not an impartial observer, I did not notice any odor, which is worth mentioning since Western Rise also labels the pants as "odor-proof and antimicrobial".
I don't really believe in not washing my clothes when I have the option just because I saw a social media challenge where some dude didn't wash his Merino T-shirt for three weeks because...why would I? I like having friends. But on multi-day trips when I only had the Evolution Pants, they did not seem to retain any odor.
The Evolution Pants are the only ones I brought on my recent trip to Berat, Albania.
Are the Evolution Pants appropriate for the outdoors and casual settings?
Well, like I said, I wore the Evolution Pant to a winery, not that there's much of a dress code for most things here in Albania. But! If people had dressed up more, I wouldn't have felt so out of place wearing them with my T-shirt. They don't look like your dad's hiking pants. They also don't resemble jeans either, which is a word that Western Rise attaches to them in the online description. I would describe them as a nice casual-looking chino, but I'm not exactly a fashionista, so take my classification with a grain of salt.
Another outing that underscored the versatility of the pants was my recent weekend trip to Berat in the south of Albania. I felt like I fairly decently lived Western Rise's marketing campaign of an intrepid millennial, trekking many miles up and over Mali Partizan in the morning, avoiding a confrontation with some goat herders and their shepherd dogs, and sauntering back into town for a nice dinner with a half carafe of wine in the evening. The pants actually were perfect for both scenarios.
I probably looked a bit more grimy than the models in the YouTube ads after all that, though.
A passport will fit in the Evolution Pant’s hidden security pocket.
What travel features does the Western Rise Evolution Pant have?
They're great for the trail, they're great for a winery, and they're great for situations where you want to watch your back, literally. I wear the Evolution Pants when I know I'm going to be in crowded areas near the center of town because they have an additional zippered pocket hidden in the right back pocket, perfect for keeping your cash and cards safe.
I typically rock a money clip in my front pocket in Albania since cash is king here, but if I'm traveling in a different town away from my home base in Tirana, I might have more valuables in the zippered area. It's also a good spot for my apartment keys when I'm in situations where, erm, my inhibitions might altered.
The pants also have a large phone pocket where the coin pocket for smaller things usually is on a normal pair of pants. I still basically keep my coins and maybe some gum there. The standard front pockets are deeper than on a traditional pair of pants, and I'm just less worried about my phone (an iPhone 11 Pro) sliding out from there.
Finally, the Evolution Pants are extremely packable. As I said, if I could go back...only bringing a couple of pairs of these would have saved me so much weight and space on a long-term onebag adventure.
I guess you could say I'm a true believer.
I watch or read content creators all the time who all promote the same products and think, "Yeah, you really use it every day, don't you..." So, I wouldn't blame someone for thinking the same of me, especially after what I will admit is a rapturous review that even trashes some of my other gear to a certain extent.
Precisely because I find that behavior so irritating, I wouldn't do that, or a small piece of me would die inside. I specifically withheld this review until I could properly put the Evolution Pants through their paces, trying to emulate the activities and lifestyle pushed in Western Rise's marketing campaigns, and addressing their sales copy point by point.
All I have to say is that there is a reason they've become a mainstay in the onebag community. The pants do what they say they do. And I want more of them. ༄
Written by Seth Barham
ATTENTION! Western Rise is currently having a Father’s Day sale of up to 30% OFF! Use my link to grab a pair of the Evolution Pants for your next onebag adventure!
