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We've only been allowed to wear charcoal here for two years, so that's all I've bought the last few years. Just prior to that I bought a couple of pairs of Cliff Keen heather greys. I take care of my gear, and while these pants are comfortable and durable, they did "go pink" on me after a couple of seasons.
I do have some older +POS heather pants that don't seem to have discolored at all, and they were laundered, used and handled the same as all the others.
I have a car with a medium grey interior and where the sun shines through the back window, the rear seats are getting a pinkish hue! That does lead me to believe that sunlight plays a part in the fading process. I have heard others speculate that washing (chlorine or detergent) plays a part and others say that drying (heat) causes fading.
The charcoals I have are Cliff Keen and Smitty's. The CK's seem a little darker than the Smitty's. Kind of hard to tell without comparing them side by side with new pants, but they both do seem to have lightened a hair after two seasons. The CK's, when the light hits them just right, sometimes give me the impression that they have a brownish tint. Maybe that's a combination of pink and dark grey?
Back awhile ago I wondered if I could dye my old heather pants, to restore the color and maybe make them look like charcoal grey. A little research showed me that this wasn't a practical idea. Apparently, to dye polyester you need some sort of special industrial strength dye and the dying process has to be carried out at extremely high temperatures in a high-pressure vessel. Trying to do this at home would probably blow up your house! If you use the plain old "Ritz" sort of dye available in most stores, the dye will not adhere and will simply wash out when the pants are laundered.
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