Posted on: Monday, March 7, 2005

ABOUT MEN

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer

The men's pants industry is in trouble, and I think I know why. It's because they don't make pants that fit me.

According to published reports, sales of Dockers, Haggar and Savane and Farah pants have all fallen sharply in recent years, despite millions of dollars spent on advertising designed to convince men that the pants will make them even more attractive to women than driving one of those cool new Mini Coopers.

Still, business is flat.

"We're in a no-growth business," Joe Haggar (how's that for a cool name?) lamented recently.

Well, what does he expect? Pants are the only type of men's apparel that don't come ready to wear.

Shoes? Lace 'em up and go. Shirts? Choose from one of four sizes (S M L XL) and you're set. Hats? Adjustable.

But pants almost always require alterations, and therein lies the problem, Joe. When men go shopping, they want to shop and go.

They don't want to hang around while someone capable of handling a mouthful of straight pins measures their inseam. They don't want to disappear into a fitting room only to emerge a few minutes later to ask their wives to judge how the pants fit. And they don't want to be told to come back next week to pick up their altered purchase.

Still, it's almost impossible these days to find a pair of pants that you can wear out of the store, especially if you happen to be looking, as I always am, for a size 38/29, which pretty much tells you that I'm wider than I am tall, which pretty much is the situation of most men my age.

At Costco, where I would do all my clothes shopping if it were up to me (which it isn't), they always have piles of inviting-looking pants on a table.

I'd love to grab a pair or two, then move on to the beef, beer and book sections.

There's just one problem: The pants never include anything shorter than a size 31 length, which would leave me dragging across the floor.

Meanwhile, pants makers are trying to come up with something new to jump-start sales.

The last big thing in the men's pants market, apparently, was the creation of wrinkle-free cotton khakis, which put the ironing board into semi-retirement, for which all men are eternally grateful as, I bet, are a whole lot of their wives.

Apparently, the companies are betting on an innovation known as hidden expandable waistbands, which allow you to keep your favorite pants year after year, even after your waist line goes from, say, 38 to 40.

Now, there's something that might get my attention as a pants buyer.

The appeal here is — brace yourself — comfort, which the pants makers say is the No. 1 thing men are looking for when it comes to pants — or anything else.

So I'm all for the expandable waistbands. But even better would be pants that shrink to fit a guy with a 29-inch inseam.

Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.