Shortly after the holiday season one of my prefered retailers put the TRU-SPEC 24-7 Rip Stop pants on clearance. I am a huge fan of cargo pants going back to my middle and high school years long before it was tactical. My job affords me the luxury of wearing cargo pants instead of requiring slacks.

As a parent who has little time for laundry and always in need of extra storage for all the items my kids ask me to “hold for just a  minute daddy” cargo pants are part of my life for good or bad.

Before getting into EDC and CC I often rotated between Eddie Bauer, Gap and other preppy style cargo pants. In the last few years before finding the EDC market I was becoming every unimpressed with quality. The pants stained easily, they tore at the cuffs and would wear in the knees and crotch.

Moving to Vortex, TRU-SPEC and some of the other “tactical” brands has made a huge difference. While 5.11 and the LA Police Gear imitations often have the same quality issues the preppy retailers have TRU-SPEC has really impressed me for the following reasons.

Constructed of 65/35 Poly/Cotton Ripstop that is pre-washed to reduce shrinking and fading

In english these are made from a quality material and pre-shrunk to your size. This way they don’t shrink after you own them like traditional cotton pants. Contrary to popular belief you aren’t getting fatter your pants usually get smaller. Unless you’re me then yes you are getting fatter.

My inseam is not standard. I am 31 inches and since pants are 30 or 32 inches I have to buy 32 inches to not look like I am wearing floods. This means the bottom inch of my pants can run on the ground and under my shoes. I try to manage this but the fact is most of my pants have a missing section of the cuff especially on my right side. This is the first pair of pants with regular daily wear to not rip up at the cuff and I would gather it is the tough rip-stop material.

Pockets

If you are buying cargo pants you want pockets. Not just the 4 pockets common on standard pants but lots of pockets. The more pockets the better and if I can get pockets in my pockets to organise my items even better.

• 2-Front slant pocket
• 2-Open accessory pockets
• 6-Expandable pockets with hook & loop flap closures

The open accessory pockets are just behind the front slant pockets. A flashlight in one side and pocket knife in the other work great. Double stack mags like Glock or M&P will not fit but single stack like the P938 or a 1911 pistol fit perfectly.

The expandable pockets actually have more pockets inside them. I guess listing these is cheating but they come in real handy when separating out your kids GI Joe figures from your pocket med kit. Each large cargo pocket has 2 smaller pockets that will each fit a 30 round USGI or Pmag so you could actually carry 4 mags without printing. They are high enough up on the leg that you will not bruise the hell out of yourself as you walk either.

The velcro pockets are canted as well to better retain the gear and allow easy access while maintaining a certain amount of retention. This will take a bit of getting used to as you can only open them from one side but once you get used to it I found it to be a feature.

The pockets also use a billowing system. This allows them to lay flat against your body when empty or loaded lightly. However a velcro tab pops away from the body to billow out opening up much more storage space.

Comfort Tru-Fit waistband

I’m not kidding when I say this feature this one feature and everything else aside is reason enough to buy these. In fact I bought 4 more pairs after wearing my first 2 pairs for a month straight.

If you carry IWB or even more so if you alternate your carry from IWB to OWB or maybe off body carry. The reason is that with the TRU-SPEC 24-7 pants the Tru-Fit feature allows the waistband to expand a few inches. So you can order a pair of pants that actually fit you without a gun and when you add your IWB they fit, when you switch to OWB they fit and so on. It’s essentially a mini elastic waistband but the best part is you cant see it or tell it is there except for when you put them on.

These are also perfect for Thanksgiving dinner!

Double reinforced knee with built in knee pad pockets

When bending, getting down to tie your kids shoe lace or shooting a training course these knee pad ready pants are a great way to have protection without ugly strap on pads.

Crotch

The crotch is very well made and can take some serious stress. Seams are double stitched, double seamed and triple rolled. In short you are not going to pull or tear the crotch on these like you will on cheaper pants.

Price

I bought mine for $35 on sale they retail as high as $50 but you can usually find them around $40. Compared to even non tactical pants these are a great deal and when compared to tactical pants the deal is even better.

Summary

The pants have held up well, have been stain resistant and I went and bought 4 more pairs out of my own money. Not sure you can get a better recommendation than that.

The colors range from hey I just got out of the military to, I am an off duty cop to hey look at that Starbucks douche so no matter your level of “gun guyness” you like to sport you’re covered.

This is where I bought mine and I am not endorsing them but they did a great job on a video of the product.