KUIU Kutana Stretch Woven Pant, worthy of the KUIU name of does this pant fall short?

Luke Cunningham

When I first heard about the KUIU Kutana stretch woven pant I knew I needed to get my hands on a pair and see if it holds up to the KUIU standard. For years my backcountry pant of choice have all had a stretchiness to them. When the KUIU arrived you could tell it was built with quality in mind.

KUIU Kutana Stretch Woven Pant review

Zippered back pockets, Vents on each leg to release heat, articulated knees, and even low profile cargo pockets with zippers.  You could tell this pant was made for the back county the minute you open the package. KUIU designed this pant to be just that, a water, pick and abrasion resistant coming in right around 13 oz.


Kutana Stretch Woven Pant | Bourbon

 

I knew my first adventure in this pant would be the perfect test. An 8 mile, 4500 ft gain mountain that would provide many obstacles to test the durability on mobility of the pant. Over the period of two days this pant saw rain, snow, wind, and sharp rocks and excelled at every turn. On the decent when the weather changed from 30 degrees to 60 over a 2.5 mile stretch, the side vents provided a perfect outlet for all the heat that had built up.

 

The overall quality and performance of the pant was exactly what I would expect from KUIU but it isn’t without flaws. The main flaw I found with this pant is the cut.  I debated even testing this pant on my hike due to how tight they were when you put them on.

It took around a day of wearing them to break in the fabric and become comfortable enough to tackle the objective the next day. To make sure it wasn’t just me I had someone else try on the pant and they struggled to get the pant over their thighs and glutes. The tightness, at least for me made the cargo pockets unusable.

Once the pant broke in it was a delight to hike in the following morning. On the hike out I kept feeling a pinch in my hand, it didn’t take long to realize the position of the zipper on the cargo pocket is in the perfect spot to catch my thumb as I’m walking. To me the key to this pant being wearable was that I needed to have a belt on in order to have the mobility needed. Future versions of this pant could greatly benefit from something built in to tighten the pant up a bit.

 

At the end of the day I was satisfied with the pant and the performance it showed. I would caution anyone with bigger legs to try on a pair before purchasing. They will stretch and break in throughout the day but will go back to normal when you wash them again.