Are the New Smitty Performance Polyspandex the Next New Umpire Pant?

[BrianC14]

10 hours ago, JimKirk said:

Thanks @BrianC14 for the kind words and the business. You are correct. The material is substantially different so not possible to match the color exactly to the poly-wools or polyester.

To ease your fears, I do know MANY college umpires went with the poly spandex this year knowing their crews may not match just so. I was at a regional game where everyone but 1 were wearing the PolySpandex. No one appeared to notice the one umpire in the lighter poly-wools.

For future sake, if could share the number of pants bought poly vs poly-wool vs poly-spandex this year, you would see that there is a BIG WAVE of umpires moving to the poly spandex. As @conbo61 alluded to, this shouldn't be that much of a concern...especially moving forward.

Enjoy the pants. Look forward to seeing more feedback on them here.

Good enough for me, thanks @JimKirk.   I tried them on with the shin guards, and really like the way they look and feel.   Will have to ask SWMBO if she can get them hemmed for me ASAP.   

 

6/29/17:  Yet another update.  I ran into two umpire buddies at a high school tournament today.  One of them was wearing the PolySpandex pants;  his partner was wearing the Honig's poly wool.   They were standing next to each other in the parking lot.   My opinion:  the Smitty PolySpandex looked great; the others.... faded, tired.   But side by side the Smitty's didn't look all THAT different in color (bright sunshine).

Next step for me is to get the pants hemmed and I'll be wearing them PDQ.

[JimKirk]

19 hours ago, umpstu said:

They are darker.  Scott Kennedy wore them throughout the post season.  Did you notice them?  I didn't. I had to message him to find out.

I'm trying to catch-up on the forum as my travel has died down with the end of the season. I appreciate the emails and encourage you to keep them coming.

As for the poly spandex umpire pants : Yes,  sitting in the locker room or inside your house they Appear to be darker. Once you step outside out on the field with your crew, these pants blend in with any charcoal grey  poly wool pant. From February to June, there was never anyone that said, "Hey, are you guys not wearing the same kind of pants?"

Even the Umpires that were wearing polywool pants eventually switched to the poly spandex pants after the weekend I worked with them. 

My cell phone and email blows up from D1 umpires & conference coordinators all over the country that want to make this an approved pant to wear next year.

 Don't miss out on these umpire pants and let the parade pass you by.....

[BrianC14]

4 hours ago, Scott Kennedy said:

I'm trying to catch-up on the forum as my travel has died down with the end of the season. I appreciate the emails and encourage you to keep them coming.

As for the poly spandex umpire pants : Yes,  sitting in the locker room or inside your house they Appear to be darker. Once you step outside out on the field with your crew, these pants blend in with any charcoal grey  poly wool pant. From February to June, there was never anyone that said, "Hey, are you guys not wearing the same kind of pants?"

Even the Umpires that were wearing polywool pants eventually switched to the poly spandex pants after the weekend I worked with them. 

My cell phone and email blows up from D1 umpires & conference coordinators all over the country that want to make this an approved pant to wear next year.

 Don't miss out on these umpire pants and let the parade pass you by.....

HA!   I read @Scott Kennedy's comments right after I updated my post above about how they looked in sunshine.    They do indeed blend in well.   

[BrianC14]

So I've read some comments that the Poly Spandex base pants are closer to being something akin to combo pants relative to the width of the legs.

 

Has anyone measured them vs. the width of the legs on, say, the original Honig's poly wools?    How do they compare?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?   

[jkumpire]

7 hours ago, BrianC14 said:

So I've read some comments that the Poly Spandex base pants are closer to being something akin to combo pants relative to the width of the legs.

 

Has anyone measured them vs. the width of the legs on, say, the original Honig's poly wools?    How do they compare?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?   

Brian,

Not in my experience with them, though I have not measured them. 

After almost a season wearing them I like these pants. but the reason why might be simply because my old Honigs Polywool's are wearing out and the new ones I got this year are very, very disappointing. Obviously they changed manufacturers, and the quality of the material is awful. If I knew who made the older pants i would see if I could purchease directly from them.  

 

 

[blue32]

3 hours ago, jkumpire said:

Brian,

Not in my experience with them, though I have not measured them. 

After almost a season wearing them I like these pants. but the reason why might be simply because my old Honigs Polywool's are wearing out and the new ones I got this year are very, very disappointing. Obviously they changed manufacturers, and the quality of the material is awful. If I knew who made the older pants i would see if I could purchease directly from them.  

 

 

Hardwick made them-white pockets for the MLB guys, black pockets for us common folk.

[BrianC14]

5 hours ago, jkumpire said:

Brian,

Not in my experience with them, though I have not measured them. 

After almost a season wearing them I like these pants. but the reason why might be simply because my old Honigs Polywool's are wearing out and the new ones I got this year are very, very disappointing. Obviously they changed manufacturers, and the quality of the material is awful. If I knew who made the older pants i would see if I could purchease directly from them.  

 

 

Could you enlighten us and measure them?  Or just lay one leg of the Smitty's on a leg of the Honig's for comparison purposes?   (Specifically, the base pants).  Thanks. 

[BT_Blue]

8 hours ago, blue32 said:

Hardwick made them-white pockets for the MLB guys, black pockets for us common folk.

The new pants are made South of the border.

 

[BrianC14]

I hate dust bowl fields.

SWMBO hemmed the new Poly Spandex plate pants last night.  Tonight I wore them for the first time... unfortunately, in a high school field that had baby powder dust all around the plate.

The Poly Spandex were great, but one thing I noticed is that they tend to grab onto every bit of dust that can be imagined.... but that's more of a field problem than anything else.

Standby, www.ump-attire.com , I'm about to order the base pants.

 

[KenBAZ]

Had my first plate last night with these poly spandex pants. They did hang up in my Force3 shins on occasion however the legs were plenty wide enough to pull up over my plate shoes and shins getting them on. The most important thing was how much cooler I felt. It was 109 at game time and our humdity is starting to get up a little bit. The combination of these pants over Nike Pro Combat Hyper Cool tights kept my legs the coolest part of my body. I could feel sweat everywhere except where I just had the tights and pants. I currently have about eight pairs of pants for plate and bases. I'll be moving to these going forward. Even if you don't work in such extreme conditions I think you'll appreciate these pants. Now we have to see how they handle laundering. Any one have suggestions for washing them?

 

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

[JDavis225]

45 minutes ago, KenBAZ said:

Had my first plate last night with these poly spandex pants. They did hang up in my Force3 shins on occasion however the legs were plenty wide enough to pull up over my plate shoes and shins getting them in. The most important thing was how much cooler I felt. It was 109 at game time and our humdity is starting to get up a little bit. The combination of these pants over Nike Pro Combat Hyper Cool tight kept my legs the coolest part of my body. I could feel sweat every where except where I just had the tights and pants. I currently have about 8 pairs of pants for plate and bases. I'll be moving to these going forward. Even if you don't work in such extreme conditions I think you'll appreciate these pants. Now we have to see how they handle laundering. Any one have suggestions for washing them?

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk
 

I've washed cold and dried on lowest heat setting and mine are holding up well after about 3 washes. Having the permanent crease sewn in helps keep them looking well too! 

[Aging_Arbiter]

I got mine back from the cleaners yesterday (hemming and initial press)..................................and last nights game rained out!!

[kylehutson]

1 hour ago, KenBAZ said:

Any one have suggestions for washing them?

I throw them in the washer with all my other sweaty, nasty baseball "stuff", and then throw them in the dryer. Washed 'em at least a dozen times with no problems.

In fact, once or twice I left them in the dryer long enough that they wrinkled, so I turned the dryer on for another 5 minutes or so and voila!

[Aging_Arbiter]

@Umpire in Chief If my timing is correct, this should be right about the 337th post in this string.  I think that speaks VOLUMES for @JimKirk and the new pants.  Is this some kind of record for discussion topic threads?  Just curious.  Topic has been hot for quite a while now.

[BrianC14]

On 7/5/2017 at 11:13 PM, BrianC14 said:

So I've read some comments that the Poly Spandex base pants are closer to being something akin to combo pants relative to the width of the legs.

 

Has anyone measured them vs. the width of the legs on, say, the original Honig's poly wools?    How do they compare?

Anyone?  Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?   

OK, I asked, and now that I have the base pants (more kudos to www.ump-attire.com ) so here is the direct comparison of the width of the pant legs on the Poly Spandex base pants:

The maximum difference is approximately 1/4" from the end of the pleat to no more than 1/2" right near the knee.   Not enough for me to care; in fact, it would seem that having more room at the knee is a good thing.  This does have me wondering if someone may have ordered the combo pants instead of the base pants?    As information, the stock number on the base pants is BBS390.   

[JHSump]

@BrianC14 then, just for clarification, does that pic show Honigs polywool base pants on top of the polyspandex base pants?

[BrianC14]

1 hour ago, JHSump said:

@BrianC14 then, just for clarification, does that pic show Honigs polywool base pants on top of the polyspandex base pants?

Yes, those are the original Poly wool pants from Honigs.   Just beneath are the Smitty Poly Spandex.

[BT_Blue]

Now the question comes... how do they compare to the new  (crappier) Honigs pants.

[BrianC14]

15 hours ago, BT_Blue said:

Now the question comes... how do they compare to the new  (crappier) Honigs pants.

Based on the reviews made on their website, and some comments made by a few guys in my association, the Smitty PolySpandex takes top prize by far.

Let's face it. .. the umpiring world is pretty small when it comes to sourcing equipment and uniform needs.  Word spreads pretty fast.

[BT_Blue]

10 hours ago, BrianC14 said:

Based on the reviews made on their website, and some comments made by a few guys in my association, the Smitty PolySpandex takes top prize by far.

Let's face it. .. the umpiring world is pretty small when it comes to sourcing equipment and uniform needs.  Word spreads pretty fast.

I know. I had the chance to see them in person the first year they had them. They looked and felt AWFUL!!!

Even the guy at Honigs was bad mouthing it.

[JimKirk]

There is now a flat front western cut pocket option available on the market in heather grey combo. So that makes 8 poly spandex colors and styles available.

Men's
https://www.ump-attire.com/Baseball-Umpire-Equipment/Clothing-Apparel/Pants/S399-HG_Smitty-Womens-Flat-Front-Poly-Spandex-Heather-Grey-Combo-Umpire-Pants

Women's
https://www.ump-attire.com/Baseball-Umpire-Equipment/Clothing-Apparel/Pants/S399-HG_Smitty-Womens-Flat-Front-Poly-Spandex-Heather-Grey-Combo-Umpire-Pants

 

[umpstu]

7 hours ago, JimKirk said:

There is now a flat front western cut pocket option available on the market in heather grey combo. So that makes 8 poly spandex colors and styles available.

Men's
https://www.ump-attire.com/Baseball-Umpire-Equipment/Clothing-Apparel/Pants/S399-HG_Smitty-Womens-Flat-Front-Poly-Spandex-Heather-Grey-Combo-Umpire-Pants

Women's
https://www.ump-attire.com/Baseball-Umpire-Equipment/Clothing-Apparel/Pants/S399-HG_Smitty-Womens-Flat-Front-Poly-Spandex-Heather-Grey-Combo-Umpire-Pants

 

Will they be making these in a plate and base pants version?

[JimKirk]

On 7/27/2017 at 7:43 PM, umpstu said:

Will they be making these in a plate and base pants version?

To my knowledge, there are no plans in the works at this time.

[JoHart10]

I bought these pants when they first came out but was skeptical so I waited to hem them until others could review them for a season. I have 2 main questions: 1) After hemming did they shrink in any way that made the hem incorrect? 2) Any real negatives to these? I would understand pm's to address the second question. 

[Razzer]

1 hour ago, JoHart10 said:

I bought these pants when they first came out but was skeptical so I waited to hem them until others could review them for a season. I have 2 main questions: 1) After hemming did they shrink in any way that made the hem incorrect? 2) Any real negatives to these? I would understand pm's to address the second question. 

I also was thinking the same for point 1. After wearing 2 pairs of Plate and 2 pair of base pants I have zero issues with shrinkage or the hem.

Point 2. I wondered if taking a direct hit or a shot on the side of the pants would cause any problems like a scorch mark..so far no issues.

I wash mine in cold water after every use and hang to dry, the crease stays and they look new every time I put them into the bag.

I have also put them in the dryer low heat no issues but I do prefer hanging them after washing.

10/10 for me