Is there a comparable long pants outdoor sport to model after?
Great example: if one team has "red" jerseys on and the other "blue", it shouldn't be as difficult as it is as a player or spectator to tell the teams apart.
Is there a comparable long pants outdoor sport to model after?
Not a lot of running in motocross
Although now that I think about it I might prefer motocross pants for paintball, they don't cut them like parachutes
Too bad punkworks doesn't test much anymore, "do baggy pants improve your odds" could be a tricky one to figure out
Soft goods in our industry has all sorts of issues. I'm 6'2" or so with what amounts to a 35 waist and 33 inseam, yet the only pants that will accommodate my dimensions have a 40 waist or a 30 inseam. I would love if they made sizes with a tall option, and I suppose a short option would be nice too...
That said, at this moment I would probably rank the top two all-around soft goods suppliers as Dye and Valken. Dye has always had top notch soft goods, and Valken has greatly improved their line generation after generation.
It's been years since I'd dealt with custom soft goods, however something a lot of people forget. If you are having custom team gear made up. You can typically request alterations to the sizing! Jerseys are a lot easier to tweak than pants, however I believe we did have to build out a set of XXXXXXL pants or something for a team once.
My biggest gripes with our soft goods brothers in arms would be far better left in the Insider section.
I'm 6' and have a 33 waist and 32 inseam. The waist adjustment has never been too much of an issue except with lysk pants. I actually do agree that the cut on most pants are awkward, however, I do wear knee pads under my pants so they do need to accommodate. Since you typically put them on from the bottom that means bigger bottoms. I also wear slide shorts, which means I need a little more room around the hips. I think those considerations are a factor that drives the extra space/ baggyness. The need to support weight from a pack is unique to paintball and as such, most pants have a rubber strip or something to reduce slippage. The ventilation and stretch zones are a natural evolution. Reinforced knees and junk padding are also natural evolutions. As far as color and all that... why not gripe about Kelloggs or whatever for bright colors? Unfortunately paintball is kind of a fashion forward game and plain colors probably won't sell. HK got their foothold in paintball because of their over-the-top designs.
Love it or hate it, I don't understand the complaints. Almost all of the design elements of paintball pants are suited for the game. I also mean that as specifically speedball. The ultralight dye pants are maybe as close to woodsball pants as you could get.
So this is probably (somewhat) two different conversations.
First aesthetics:
HK aims to a particular crowd (15-20 year olds), and it seems to be working for them. I wouldn't really call them fashion forward so much as the "teen boys" section of Kohl's. Some people here and elsewhere have suggested there's a market of players who used to play and are getting back into it after college, I doubt the super-busy HK style that has become so prevalent really calls to them.
At any rate, for a sport so obsessed with appearing "legitimate" in the eyes of the outside world, I don't think it's doing the trick.
Second, fit (maybe only relevant to tall people):
I just can't seem to find comfortable pants that really fit the game. I've tried most of the big brands and I always feel like they're impeding movement in one way or another. If I'm sprinting, the baggy pants feel like they slow me down. It ends up being way too easy to kneel on them or lay on them and have to pull them out from under myself after jumping into a bunker. Since I'm tall I'm often in awkward positions to get completely behind bunkers, and it's just stupid (and frustrating) to have your paintball pants limiting your range of motion. Kneeling on one knee shouldn't require stopping and pulling a pant leg up mid-game to get all the way down.
Maybe it goes back to finding something long enough, I hate having to choose between being able to run because the crotch is in the right place, and having ankle coverage. It sucks crouching and having 6"+ between the bottom of the pant and the top of my cleat. And if you go big for the length, you end up with stupid amounts of baggage. At 6'2" and healthy (not even crazy tall) I end up spending $150 on pants that fit like shit. Maybe I should just go with BDUs from now on.
Ever so many citizens of this republic think they ought to believe that the Universe is a monarchy, and therefore they are always at odds with the republic. -Alan Watts
I work for the company building the Paragon