Like most men’s clothing, chinos emerged from war. They were slim-fitting, flat-fronted, functional, and most importantly… really really dependable. By 1902, after heavy field-testing, they’d been made an official part of the US Army uniform. Once World War II was over, the guys who’d fought went off to college still wearing them – turning them into an instant hit on the Ivy League campuses. And their reputation was only cemented as a staple of mid-century menswear when they became the standard issue kit for John F. Kennedy and Steve McQueen. So we’ve taken the world’s most dependable pants, and made them even more dependable.

120+ years later, you still don’t need to mess with the design of the chino. So we haven’t. Instead we’ve taken pants you’ve always been able to rely on, and woven them with the strongest fibre on Earth… so you can rely on them even more. While they look and feel like regular chinos, every pair of Indestructible Chinos is made with a blend of cotton and Dyneema® – which is the same stuff used in body armour, arctic ropes and the sides of tanks.

To understand just how tough Dyneema® is you have to look at how it's being deployed in the world today. It's used to make bullet resistant vests, armour and helmets. It's used in panels on tanks to protect against stronger ballistic threats like anti-tank projectiles. And you'll find it in bulletproof cockpit doors in most commercial planes in the US. Unlike other high-strength materials it's so light it floats on water, and it's resistant to the long-term effects of moisture, UV light and chemicals, which is why it's now also being used in artificial limbs.

Our Indestructible Chinos are deliberately built with a classic minimalist design. They’re flat-fronted with two front pockets and two zipped rear pockets, all reinforced with Cordura. In terms of style and functionality, they’re closest to our Equator Pants, but with a slightly more relaxed cut.

Every pair of the Indestructible Chinos combines cotton with 5% Dyneema®, which is enough to make them highly resistant to rips and abrasion. We subject the Indestructible Chinos to the Martindale test where an abrasive mechanical thumb rubs the fabric over and over again. Most materials are tested up to 20,000 rubs before they break down. The Indestructible Chinos were still going at 100,000. If you notice the occasional white ‘slub’ in the fabric – which looks like the end of a small white thread, that’s just the Dyneema® yarn.