Seven for All Mankind Jeans- a Man's Review

Five years ago I scoffed at a co-worker at my store as he told me about his fancy new designer jeans. What would a guy like me, who had always bought jeans at Old Navy, Gap and maybe American Eagle want with a pair of jeans that would cost me a couple hundred dollars? Seven for all Mankind? Well, at least the name sounded catchy, and, as it were, the more I looked at the jeans, the more I liked them. So, when I ventured into a Nordstrom's half-yearly sale a month or so later, I got hooked by a "good deal" on these spendy jeans. For a mere 120 bucks, I got a pair of handsome looking jeans. Of course, $120 could have bought me somewhere between four and six pairs of the jeans I was used to wearing. When those cheap jeans got thrashed it was an easy transition to wearing them as I fished and hunted and eventually wore them down to rags. I had a hard time picturing myself hopping out at the local fishing hole in my premium denim 7's, which at full price would have cost more than my rod and reel combined.

A week later I got a compliment on how nice my jeans were, and then another, and another. The first one I figured cost me $120, but by the third and fourth, I was down to $30 or $40 bucks for each kind word. Five years later, still on occasion wearing that same pair of trustee 7's, I must be down to just pennies per compliment I have received on them over the years. But two things impressed me more than just their ability to draw compliments, and those things are my main defense when I get any kind of ribbing for buying jeans that cost so much.

First, they feel like pajamas. My first pair had soft and relaxed denim that literally felt like pajamas when you pulled them on. They looked nice enough to wear to a fancy dinner with a button-down shirt and a sport coat, but felt comfortable enough for a nice afternoon nap on the couch. It is hard to beat a pair of jeans that do an equally good job of feeling and looking great.

Secondly, despite the soft, relatively thin denim, they are very tough. As the proverbial starving college student, I wore that first pair of jeans for three or four years, several days a week during the colder months (about 8 worth in the Pacific Northwest). Remarkably, it wasn't until about year five that they finally wore through in the knees. Also, despite the fact that the bottom of the cuff would occasionally get caught under my shoe, the bottom never frayed like you see on most jeans. So, although the initial price tag seemed relatively steep, there is no way that even six pairs of the jeans I wore before 7's would have lasted me so long after so much use. In the end, the price is fully worth it.

Five years after I scoffed at that co-worker, I have purchased more pairs of Seven for All Mankind jeans than I will admit here. And, when it is time to buy another pair of jeans, you can bet they will be 7's, too.