Review: KÜHL Renegade Cargo Convertible Pants

I don't typically do reviews of gifted items, but when the folks from KÜHL contacted me the items on their website were too enticing to pass up. I'm always looking for clothes that fit the near-impossible standard of being both highly functional and fashionable and it looked like KÜHL was down with that challenge. More to the point, Shira looked at their website and agreed that their clothes had way more potential than most of my wardrobe.

So I told them I was in. I asked them to send me a pair of Renegade Cargo Convertible and Resistor Light Chino pants. Here's my take on the former, I'll share my thoughts on the latter in a separate post.

Let's Talk Pants

I just explained my never-ending search for functional and fashionable clothes, yet I chose these pants for strictly the first quality. Like other convertible pants, they have a set of zippers that turns them into shorts. You can't get more practical than that.

When hiking, camping, fishing or doing some other outdoor activity and I can't decide if the day calls for pants or shorts, convertible pants let me get the best of both worlds. I generally consider convertible pants a no-go for most non-outdoorsy activities, but that may just be my limited sense of fashion adventure.

As convertible pants go, there's no doubt that the Renegade Cargo's are the nicest I've ever owned. The workmanship and material is top notch. I'm usually a 34x34 in pants, but found these to run long and ended up fitting into a 32 inch inseam instead.

KÜHL seems to be all about well thought out details. I like that both cargo pockets have inner pockets to provide additional organization. One fits my Galaxy S10+ phone, the other is zippered for additional security. The back pockets are secured with Velcro which also provides a nice bit of security. The front pockets are mesh, which helps with breathability.

I like that the pant cuffs have a vertical zip that makes taking the pants off over shoes that much easier.

Overall, these are excellent pants. When functionality obviously trumps fashion, these are the pair I'm grabbing.

The only negative point I can offer is the choice of marketing language on the website. They describe the zip-off feature as a "STEALTH zip-off design." I don't see anything subtle about the convertible nature of these pants. By wearing these you aren't fooling anyone into thinking you're wearing a pair of khaki dress pants. Language aside, these pants do live up to the claim of being a quality bit of functional kit.

Here's some action shots of me wearing them on our last camping trip. It ended up being too hot for pants so I was psyched I could switch them into shorts mode.