Men's Golf & Performance (Pants)

Golf and performance pants copy the look of a chino and change everything under the surface. The fabric is a woven synthetic, usually polyester or nylon with 4 to 8 percent elastane, built to stretch in all four directions and then pull back to its original shape. Recovery is the point. Cotton stretches and stays stretched, while these snap back, so the knee still looks flat on the eighteenth hole.

Most pairs carry a durable water repellent finish, a coating on the fiber surface that makes drops bead and roll off instead of soaking in. It wears away with washing and abrasion, and a spray-on or wash-in treatment renews it. Seams are often flatlocked, meaning the two fabric edges butt together and are stitched flat rather than overlapping, which removes the ridge that chafes on a long walk. Inside the waistband you will often find a silicone strip that grips a shirt tail and stops it working loose.

A chino shares the silhouette and none of the behavior, since cotton twill soaks up sweat, bags at the knee and takes half a day to dry out. Wool dress trousers hold a crease these will never take, because polyester has no memory for a heat-set fold and the line washes straight out. Joggers offer more comfort and no structure at all. What separates the performance pant is that it looks like a trouser from six feet away and behaves like sportswear the moment you move.

The people who benefit are golfers, coaches, teachers and anyone on their feet for six hours, and the pants travel exceptionally well because a pair rinses in a sink and dries overnight. Humid climates suit them, cold ones less so, since thin synthetics carry almost no insulation. Avoid them if the cool, slightly slick feel of polyester bothers you, or if your office reads shine as cheap, which it usually does.

Pinch a section of fabric, stretch it hard for five seconds and release. Quality cloth returns flat with no ripple, while a poor blend leaves a visible bag. Angle the pants toward a window, because a mirror-like sheen is the difference between a trouser that passes off the course and one that never will. Wash cold, keep fabric softener away since it coats the fiber and kills both the wicking and the water repellency, and never iron hot enough to melt the yarn.