Romanian Wool Pants, Surplus

Here’s a garment made from the material of the gods: A proper good pair of woolen pants just rough enough to exfoliate the excess dead skin from your legs and grow some hair on your chest. When trousers are as practical as this and so hardy yet somehow so pleasing, you shouldn’t wait for a second longer! Reach for the stars, and failing that, these pants.

Features

This kind of woolen fabric would cost an arm and a leg if newly made. It’s a spectacular material for clothing as it can handle some wind and rain and still be warm even when damp. So basically, like a softshell but instead of modern silly-willyness, it’s a good old-fashioned garment designed to take punishment and give some back.

• Regular side pocket on either side
• One button-closed back-pocket
• Belt loops that vary in size
• Some may have one mysterious larger belt loop at a different level on the backside
• Adjustment cords and foot loops on the pant legs
• Button fly

These pants are best in the mid-seasons, so just the thing for hunting and other outdoorsy things when it’s not too warm. When it gets really cold, you should put on some long johns or just grit your teeth and accept that life is pain. They are versatile enough to wear out in public when you want to appear a little savage but civilized enough to hang around the water cooler. The pants also feature a relatively modern cut, so you don’t have to wear them particularly high.

Size info

We got a disorganized heap of these in an esoteric Romanian sizing system. There is some variation even within the sizes for one reason or the other. The sizes are displayed so that after the Romanian designation, there’s first the waistband of the pants and then the length of the pant leg in centimeters. The pant leg has been measured from the crotch seam to the pant leg opening.

Note that within a size, there might be some variation, about 1 centimeter, from the given measurement. So you should purchase a size that will be usable even if it's a tad smaller or has a slightly shorter pant leg.

Materials and care

They're pretty thick. Most likely, at least 75% wool with other fibers, such as human hair, in the mix for durability. You shouldn’t shove these in the washing machine, and normally you won’t need to wash them much. Simply airing them out is enough. If you do need to wash them, handwashing at 30 degrees Celsius (86 F) is the way to go.

Used surplus

There might be a slight smell of moth repellent from years of storage. How intense it is, depends on how sensitive your nose is to the usual surplus smells. It's not the worst we've encountered, and at least you won't get any moths from these.

Many of these pants have had some small repairs done, and some are in a more rough shape than others. At least a few pairs will have the button fly on either side pocket. We don't know why this special Romanian design feature exists, and we don't pick and choose. All pants are in serviceable condition.