I bought these pants back just before Christmas but I held off on reviewing till I could trial them and then give some proper feedback. So here we go!
PROS:
1. I love that they're mostly cotton, which makes them so much cooler than your standard riding tights. I deliberately tested wearing a pair of summer-weight riding tights one day (~36C) then these riding jeans the next day (~38C). The riding jeans were noticeably cooler to me, despite being a heavier material! The bootleg cut also makes them cooler, as I get air flow around my ankles/lower legs.
2. The phone pockets are, of course, the biggest Pro in my opinion! I work with horses, so I'm on and off them every day on the regular. It's great to not have to worry about pulling my phone out of a back pocket before I mount up. Plus, I'm left handed. So many of the riding tights that I'm interested in only have phone pockets on the right leg. That is a frustration for me, as I predominantly use my phone with my left hand. Pockets on both thighs is a win!
To talk further about the phone pockets, I can confirm they're a lovely, deep pocket. My phone is 6.5in long and 3in wide. It fits in the pockets no dramas. Nor does the phone get pushed out of the pocket during riding. I've worn these pants during arena rides, for tuning up school horses, retraining reactive horses, and guiding trail rides. My phone has always been perfectly snug the entire time!
3. The belt loops are also fantastic! I can't stand riding pants that don't have belt loops, they always slide down and just don't suit my lifestyle. So belt loops are always a must and these pants have them! They're a good width and length, leaving plenty of room for my wider belt, plus there's two side-by-side belt loops on the very back, giving extra strength. Considering I've torn belt loops clean off in the past, these are going strong so far!
4. The stitching in general all seems well made and strong. I've only found one weak point at the bottom of zip where I thought stitching was coming undone, but so far it's only visibly stretched, hasn't torn or come undone, despite me constantly pulling them on and off and therefore stressing that exact part of the pants each week. There's also no signs of the pants wearing through on the inner thigh. I lose good pants to thigh chafing every year, even jeans that are meant to be strong enough to withstand that. I normally see visible signs of wear at around the 6 month mark, with holes appearing and resulting in the pants being binned by 12 months. It's only been about 3 months with these but so far so good!
5. The silicon free option is my best friend! I hate riding pants with silicon on them, always have and I suspect I always will. Finding riding pants without silicon that checks all my other boxes has always been a challenge. But these jeans tick all the boxes in one go!
CONS
1. Along the inner waistband seam, there is a small flap of fabric leftover from sewing the seam (~1.5cm width). Sometimes this little flap twists up instead of laying down flat, therefore creating a pressure point around my waist. Given that the waistband is already elastic, my body doesn't appreciate this extra pressure, so sometimes it's pretty damn uncomfortable. Since realising what's going on, I make a point to smooth down this little flap (especially across my hips) so it doesn't twist up as much.
2. I can very clearly tell that the jeans were designed to have silicon attached to them, which makes sense from a manufacturing perspective. But the extra seams on the inside of the legs just look a little silly and out of place when there's no silicon. This is really not a major con, it's purely cosmetic and has no bearing on the performance of the pants. But still, I'd love to see these come in silicon free options without the weird extra seams.
3. They are a bit snug around the waist, but honestly I think that's more of a Me problem than anything else. Trust me to go ahead and buy some pants right before Christmas without any regard to how much food I'd be eating in the coming days! I've definitely added on a bit of weight around the belly and it hasn't shown any sign of shifting yet, so I strongly suspect that is more the reason for the pants feeling a bit tight now more than anything else.
4. The waistband has a zip and a hook, instead of a zip and a button. I prefer a button to the hook. It's not a deal breaker, I've been learning to deal with pant hooks as several of my other pairs of riding pants have them. Only a minor thing but something to consider if you're like me and you prefer buttons.
All in all, the Pros FAR outweigh the Cons for me! These riding jeans were exactly what I was looking for and have more than paid for themselves already. I bought a size 12 and could probably do with a size 14 now but honestly I'm still wearing them all day long.
9/10 I definitely recommend them!
(photos show weird inner leg seams, stretched stitching on zip, flap of fab...