The Dry Hydrogen Cargo Pants from Molecule of Asia are made from heavy cotton and right out of the packet feel like they are well made. The material is of good quality and the stitching and fittings are well done and look and feel as though they will last. These trousers have a plethora of pockets, all with fastenings of one type or another. The two front pockets have flaps that have press closures on, the two rear pockets have the same, on each leg there is a bellows pocket with press fastening closures, with a zipped pocket behind.


At the waist there is a draw cord, on the inner waistband there is what can only be described as handles to pull the trousers up, which seems to me to be excessive and also a possible point of chafing if the trousers got soaked through. The zip is a heavy duty plastic affair with a pull tag on, again maybe unnecessary but a feature none the less. At the bottom of the trouser legs rather than a pull cord there are press fasteners to cinch them in.


The main problem I have with these trousers is sizing. I am 5'7" with a 34" waist and a 30" inner leg. The way the manufacturers have made there sizing system means I have to order a large, which means a 35" waist and a 30" inseam. In reality this appears to be a 35"ish waist and a 32"ish inseam. The waist I can live with as a belt can sort that, the length of the trousers though, is something that I do have a problem with. I hate having trouser legs dragging on the floor, especially at this time of year when there are puddles everywhere. The other thing is that with legs this long it looks like I am a child in my dad's clothes, not a good look for a 36 year old father of two.

The extremely baggy fit of these trousers is something I haven't seen outside of a skating videogame, the width of the bottom of the trouser legs would fit my size 8 boot through, when the press fasteners are done up it does pull the trousers back in but I have to turn the bottom up inside or they look like MC Hammers parachute pants (younger readers use Google for that one). I ordered the Dirt Brown version as I figured it was a more all-round colour, for hill walking, casual use or even PMC's at work. The colour is not to bad and is more milk chocolate than dirt.

I have worn these out and about round town and they are by and large comfortable and do a good job of keeping me warm, the same can be said about wearing them in the hills. I wore them on as trip up into the mountains today and for trousers designed for the warmer climate they did a creditable job of keeping the wind off. My one moan is that when I had to step into pull my son out of boggy ground the press fasteners in the bottom of the trousers gummed up and wouldn't work, this left them flapping around like a yachts sail until I broke and had to clean them out with a stick. They were not particularly fast drying but at no point was I uncomfortable.

All in all these trousers are let down by the sizing and cut, they are too baggy, that said the quality is rather good and a lot of thought seems to have gone into the fittings and pocket layout.

Molecule Dry Hydrogen Cargo Pants