Black pants, a comparison
 

My crew decided to go with the Davis pants in June. Tonight was the first night we were able to wear them. Coincidentally, I was able to hold and look at a pair of the Smitty pants at the same time.

The Davis pants, while more expensive, are an order of magnitude better than the Smitty pants. I was really disappointed in the Smitty pants, as they felt like a cheap-o black version of knickers without the elastic around the bottom of the pants. The white stripe is strangely inset into the sides of the pants with some strange black stitching holding the stripe "panel" in place. The material is cheap and wrinkles very easily.

The Davis pants, however look, fit, and feel better, IMO. They are a higher quality material and feel quite a bit like Davis baseball pants, although the polyester seems a bit more stretchy, although not as much as knickers. They also have hidden waist adjusters.

I am a big fan of Smitty shirts for basketball and football. It's all I wear anymore. The Smitty pants were a huge disappointment.

I don't buy anything but Smitty. Haven't worn the black pants yet. In fact, have to get them hemmed and it was 94 F here today. But I like the feel of them. You also have to buy them one waist size up. Haven't seen the Daivs pants.

I guess it will be a "to each their own" comparison. Makes me want to check out the Honig's, too. So far, though, I'm happy with the purchase.

It's silly, but we've been told we can't wear the pants with short sleeves, although they'll allow crews to wear those hideous "officiating coats" that we'd never buy.

So I guess we'll wear long sleeves on nights when we probably would've chosen short sleeves, if only to wear the pants. Quite frankly, my days of enjoying knickers and football socks is probably over. Besides, white after labor day is gauche. :D

Rich,

I have never seen the Smitty version, but I have seen the GD version and own two pair of the Honigs pants. I think the Honigs looked better than any version I have seen at this time. They feel like they are a weather resistant material and they do not soak thru like most pair of pants would. I have said this before; we used the Honigs pants about the last 5 or 6 weeks of the season which included the playoffs. Almost every game it rained at some point. I even when couple of weeks and did not even need to wash them as they were not wet after the games (we were on turf) or they did not stain when we were on grass one of those games. I loved them and cannot imagine the Smitty being any better. But then again I have not seen them so they might be better or just as good. But if you want something to keep you dry and not very cold, Honigs is the way to go. But maybe I am bias.

Peace

I have a pair of Davis and a pair of Honig's. The Honig's are currently being hemmed.

While in NC we've been told Honig's is the only "approved pant", I ordered Davis to have on hand as I anticipated supply problems long ago with so many states going to the black.

The Honig's have a heftier feel to the material and the weatherproofing is noticible. Davis pants have sliders in the waist, which allows some variation in waist sizing.

There is one other brand I want to try. I posted a link on the boards a few months ago but I've forgotten who the mfr. was, maybe Cliff Keen. Seems like they were well north of $60 but really played up their water resistance.

I know the Davis pants are not weather-proof, it says so on the website. When my crew talked about last season (we were not allowed to wear these last season), we remembered that although we worked in some terrible rain, normally it's your top that gets soaked through, not your knickers. You get mud splashing up, etc., but I don't remember getting in the locker room at halftime and having my knickers stuck to me.

I wonder how the Honig's pants are on the nights where it's just a little cool outside, like last night when it was probably about 57 degrees. The Davis pants were perfect -- I wonder if weatherproofing would have made those pants too hot to wear on a night like last night. And my intention is to wear these pants every time I think I could tolerate a long sleeved shirt. If we could wear these with short sleeves, I'd never wear knickers again.

I could see me ordering a pair of the Honig's pants at some point for those rainy, cold nights, though. Maybe next year. I'm not biased in any way -- I was just surprised how much higher quality I thought the Davis pants were over the Smitty pants. Of course, I tried a pair of their baseball pants, too, and hated them. Their shirts are superb.

Honig's has had a huge issue with the snaps this year. I had to send two pairs back because the snaps broke the first time I opened them. They're going so far as to send repair machines to local shops and dealers so they can replace broken snaps.

Otherwise, the Honig pant is great. I haven't tried the Davis or Smitty's.

Our crew wears one or the other, (GD & Smitty/Adams). I actually went ahead and bought the GD's after I already had the Smitty's.

I agree that the Davis brand is far and away better. The fabric is thicker and less prone to wrinkles or tears, the adjustable waistline is great for really cold days when you may need a base layer below them and/or if a guy would lose a few pounds.

Varsity debut tonight of the pants. So comfortable. Wouldn't have normally worn long sleeves tonight, but them's the rules, so we did. A bit warm in the first half, perfect in the second half.

Watching the highlights, I saw short sleeves with knickers, short sleeves with white shorts, short sleeves with black shorts, and long sleeves with black pants.

The Smitty pants are supposed to be a water resistant fabric. They are definitely not as heavy as the Honigs.

I looked at Davis. There are three different styles. Which ones are you talking about, Rich?

The $50 pairs.

Gerry Davis Sports: 2010 Davis Black Football Pants

Comfy. Really no warmer than knickers, IMO.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but just a quick note on a pet peeve of mine: you aren't "biased" by stating an opinion, even if that opinion doesn't take into account all facts (i.e. you used only one of many products and say that one product is very good). Bias means you either have a duty to be objective (as an official, say) and aren't or it means your opinions are offered for a motive unrelated to quality (say, you profit from the sale of something).

Sorry, back to football.

You'd make a fine lawyer. :D

You got that right.

Peace

What do you wear under the pants? I normally wear McDavid compression tights under my knickers.
My crew bought the GD's. Haven't worn them yet.

I wore black compression shorts. When it gets cold, I'll wear UA Cold Gear tights.

I always wear UnderArmour ankle length tights no matter what the pants I have on over them. With the black pants (at least the ones I own) you can wear whatever under them you like. That is the beauty of those pants.

Peace

Yup. It's not like anyone will see what's under them.

I wear UA compressions....actually Heat Gear version shorts now, and then the UA Cold Gear full length base layer when it gets actually cold out.

We wore ours on Saturday in Milwaukee at Nicolet. A little warm, but were nice to have when the rain came down for a good half an hour. Awesome stuff, and much better looking IMO...oops. There's that opinion thing again.

Good for you. Far as I'm concerned, we've worn our knickers for the last time this season. It will either be short sleeves and shorts or long sleeves and pants the rest of the way. Only supposed to be in the mid-60s on Friday, so by the time kickoff rolls around, it will be perfect weather for the pants.

We're in Two Rivers this week.....just off the big pond. This will probably be our first go at it with the black pants. Looking around the field and even watching TV replays.....I think the pants are far and away a much better and more professional look.

Wore my black pants (Hoing's) last night for the first time. 8th grade game, played in what was basically a swamp (it had been raining all day, and there were several locations on the field with ankle-deep standing water).

Must say, I was very glad to be wearing those pants. They held up very well, and my legs stayed dry throughout the entire game. Cleaning them postgame was a simple as tossing them in the washing machine.

My shirt and shoes, however, were a different story. Probably going to make that shirt my permanent "mud game" shirt.

Ya, really wishing mine weren't on back order. Why or why did I wait for the rest of the crew....?

It's 57 with a 29 mph wind. Guess what we'll be wearing tonight. :D

Cold weather. What's that? :(

What is this cold weather thing you guys keep referring to?

With this wind, I may be wearing Cold Gear and gloves tonight. Amazing -- yesterday it was in the mid-80s before the rain rolled on through.

I think they're talking about when it rains and drops the temperature down from the high 80's to low 80's. :confused:

No doubt. I will have bricks in my pockets too or I'd blow away.

The topic tonight will be scrimmage kicks. In our JV game last night we had a punt into the wind yield 0 yards. I want to make sure we're ready for punts (especially) that either don't reach or blow back behind the neutral zone.

Last night we got drenched. It poured from the middle of the second quarter of the JV game straight through the end. I'm happy we were in shorts, though, cause we would've ruined knickers last night.

Oh, I see... when is it going to start getting that frigid? Can't wait.

December 12th. It'll be 70 degrees the next day. :rolleyes:

Your always better off with the same color, or at least, dark on dark, if possible. I've never had problems with rips and tears, but I know guys who for some reason rip pants like Kleenexes. In basketball, you don't want white anything under your pants!

Well that might be a problem if I did not wear ankle length UA pants. ;)

If pants fit and are in good shape, they are not going to rip. I have only had this happen once in my career and the pants were of old and I was trying to wear them during a bad weather game. I tend to not worry about that anymore.

Peace

For the record....opening kick-off temp was 53 degrees at the site. 25 to 35 MPH constant winds....3rd and 4th quarter there was lake-effect mist and drizzle. Water beaded on the outside of the pants...a beautiful thing.

Why both teams thought they could pass effectively is also beyond me.

Ashwaubenon on Friday....knickers are done for the year, I presume.

We're making the trek to Whitefish Bay HS (Dominican) on Friday. First time I've worked football in the Milwaukee area (I had a game moved and I was fortunate enough to get a replacement game pretty late in the assigning cycle). Being near the lake, I'm guessing it will be pretty cool. We didn't even take the knickers with us this weekend for our Friday and Saturday games. We won't take them this week, either.

It was about 57 at kickoff with a 25MPH wind Friday. The pants and long sleeves were absolutely perfect. I wasn't cool or warm and it's rare you get that perfect balance. We had a punt go for 3 yards out of bounds that night. Had I waited another second to chop it, it would've been 0 yards. :D