Hiking

I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who has primarily hiked in the northeastern US, but I expect a lot of other places can also have surprise rainstorms or sudden temperature drops in the middle of summer.

Jeans don't handle wet well. They aren't very good at insulating while wet, dry slowly, and will be very heavy while wet. These problems aren't unique to jeans, but jeans are much more popular than other garments with the same issues.

It's not unreasonable to turn away folks who show up in jeans. Especially if they gave advance notice.

Even if it were unreasonable, it's their club. You can find others to hike with if you'd like to wear jeans.

There's a phrase in the outdoors community, especially when hiking in the mountains.

"Cotton kills"

When cotton gets wet it doesn't insulate as well as wool or synthetic material and it takes a long time to dry.

While this is true, you can definitely hike in jeans without an issue if the weather is good and everything goes according to plan which realistically is like 99.9 percent of hikes.

It's probably easy for the club to have a rule against wearing jeans so they don't have to worry about the weather turning bad one time and someone getting hypothermia.

Personally I hike in shorts or dedicated synthetic hiking pants because they're more comfortable. They cover a wider range of conditions and temperatures as well as being easier to move around in. Jeans just aren't designed with hiking in mind.

That said, do what makes you happy, I'm just some dude in the internet.

Who knows if they see things this way, but this is how I see it.

I've organized hikes open to beginners. Like zero-experience beginners, leaning into the "no experience needed" inclusivity. We would get people doing dangerous things. Like bringing soda instead of water for a multi-mile hike in the heat of summer. Flip flops instead of shoes. One guy came with a 100 lb pack to "prepare for a backpacking trip" but needed to start at base cardio and ability to walk 5 miles unweighted. Asthmatic and didn't bring their inhaler. Allergic to bee stings and didn't bring an epi pen. And yes, overly warm clothes for a hot weather hike.

So the directions were written to least common denominator and with our own liability in mind. If anyone broke any of the rules we laid out, we didn't want to take responsibility for them on the trail. All of it was intended to be consistent and that we prepare and behave in a safe manner at all times.

No water? Sure, folks will share in an emergency but don't create the emergency by not bringing water.

Inappropriate clothing/shoes? No one wants to deal with your heat stroke, blisters, cold, sunburn, etc, so don't come.

Meds needed? You must bring them and administer yourself, we do not take any responsibility.

Unable to read and follow these simple instructions? This hobby group is not for you. Part of being a beginner is listening to the guidance of the people inviting them along. Come back some other day when you've read through the rules and will follow them.

bruh comfortable jeans are fine. what else would you wear? it also offers some defense to whatever bugs and pointy flora is close to your legs .

on hot days its shorts obviously . but ive done jeans too. i dont think its a big deal

What are you supposed to wear instead, assuming the weather is ok for long pants? I prefer long pants unless it's too hot, since the pants keep bugs off your legs, etc. I've always worn jeans.

Jeans on a walk outside? Your body, your choice. Dress how you’d like. What I am more curious about is what made them so anal about this rule? Did some guy show up in all denim and almost die of heatstroke. Or are they just controlling people? Kindof intense for somebody else’s pants, especially if the hikes are mild.

I've hiked in jeans many times. Worst case, you get hot. Weird they'd kick you out for that.

I think the strict rule is unfortunate, but I can understand it for an organized club. They are going to have inexperienced people joining who don't know what they are doing. It is in the club's best interest to consistently teach and and enforce conservative habits so they don't end up with some newbie having a hypothermia emergency when the weather turns cold and wet. Making exceptions for certain people or trips opens the door to accidents.

An experienced hiker who knows the "right" way to do things will also know what corners can be cut for a given trip. You know when cotton clothing is fine, or when you can leave certain items at home, etc. If you want to do things your way then it's probably best to find different hiking partners who share your experience level and risk tolerance.

I think this is going to depend a lot on the sort of environment you're hiking in

For me, one of the big issues with jeans is that they don't dry out easily, if there's any chance you're going to get wet or sweat a lot, they're a very bad choice. In some cases I'd even consider it to be a valid safety issue if for example the temperatures are going to drop and damp clothes are going to put you at risk of hypothermia

Or in hotter, humid climates, they won't breathe well, meaning your sweat won't be able to evaporate which is how your body keeps cool (already enough of an issue when the humidity is high) on top of jeans already being kind of hot on their own

Also chafing, potentially fungal issues, etc.

And if you're doing sort of a more technical hike where you really need your full range of movement to climb over things, jeans may be a little stiff for that (although arguably a worthwhile tradeoff for them being more abrasion-resistant)

And if you're doing overnight backpacking, they're absolutely too heavy to be worth it in my opinion.

But I can think of plenty of hikes I've done where jeans would have been an adequate, maybe even preferred sort of pants, like if it's a day hike, the weather is cooler, dry, and maybe somewhere with a lot of rocks and thorns.

This kind of feels like a rule that was instituted because too many inexperienced hikers showed up in jeans when they were a very bad choice for the conditions and had a bad time because of it, so instead of trying to judge it on a case-by-case basis weighing experience levels, everyone's personal comfort, the weather and trail conditions, etc. for each hike, it was a lot easier to just say "no jeans" so that everyone could just show up and hike instead of having to play wardrobe police every time they met up (and maybe to hedge their bets against getting sued if someone ended up with hypothermia or heat stroke or whatever from wearing jeans when "no one warned them not to")

Without more info, I would technically say that no one is wrong here but the rule is stupid.

You’re the best judge of your hiking ability so if you like to hike in jeans and know you can do it, go for it. I personally don’t like to hike in jeans, they’re usually too hot and heavy for me but I don’t care what others are wearing. Now, you mentioned it was a club and more formal clubs usually have rules and might have a dress code for one reason or another. The rules might not make sense to you but if you want to be in the club, you need to follow the club’s rules.

To take it further, is there a written list of rules that everyone must abide by or is it just a verbal understanding of the rules? If it’s written down and you agreed to the rules to join, then it’s on you for not following the rules. If it’s just a verbal arbitrary agreement on what the rules are then it’s on the club for not spelling it out in the beginning.

It’s a weird rule to have when not explained. Seems like a weird thing to have as a bannable offence, but here is one possible explanation: Jeans are made from thick cotton. Cotton is slow to dry compared to polyester. Cotton when wet is also a very bad insulator, when compared to wool. Wet clothing can also increase chafing. So when hiking and you get wet from rain, streams or sweat, there are other clothing options that are better suited, and in cold climates, it could even be a safety issue.