[00:00:00] Tayson: Everybody welcome back to the Live Ultralight Podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals. Today we have a Behind the Designs episode which means we have a new product releasing and we have more than just a single new product that's releasing. But in this episode we're gonna specifically talk about one of those products, which is the Altura Dynamic Pants. So these are always fun episodes to do because it's years of effort and behind the scenes work and then we finally get to talk about it to all of you guys, it's all episodes that you guys really interact with. So if you do want to interact with this, you can leave. questions or comments on YouTube. I think you
[00:00:36] Tayson: can start to do that on Spotify, but let us know if you have questions happy to confront those head-on. But you guys love these, we love to do them. It's fun to design product. Obviously, it's fun to do the testing, but it's really fun to finally bring it out to market. So, How are you doing today? Brigham.
[00:00:55] Brigham: Pretty good surviving. Yeah been busy but it's good. Yeah
[00:00:59] Tayson: it's a whirlwind before we launch products and we actually kind of expedited the launch of this product because of Well, we just decided to put on presale for a few weeks while it's in transit, we had a few delays. We're really hoping to launch this around the first of August and we had a couple delays. So to kind of help with that, we ended up putting it on presale for a couple of weeks while it's in transit, which also just shifted timelines around the little bit. So it's been a crunch for sure. But
[00:01:30] Tayson: As per the usual, let's just start by talking about what was the initial design concept? Why did we feel the need to design this product? Where did the original, you know, ideas come from, and what were the the hopes and dreams that this product would become by the time we finished, Designing this product. So with the Altura pants, obviously, we've designed a pair of pants in the past, the Sawtooth pants. They've done extremely well. You know, that was back. When we were launching products on Kickstarter, they were the highest funded technical pant on Kickstarter. They've been a great seller for us for the last really I think five years is how long we've we've sold
[00:02:06] Tayson: those pants now which is crazy. So we were due for another pant and and slightly different direction we do plan to continue to sell the Sawtooth pants. We are going to refresh those within the next I don't call it year, hopefully, but we plan to keep them both because there are Significant differences in what they do and how they function and things like that. So, When we were deciding to start a new pant, where did the original idea to start at come from? And, you know, what were we hoping it would accomplish
Editor’s note: The presale timing, shipping delays, Sawtooth sales history, and planned Sawtooth refresh describe Outdoor Vitals’ August 2025 product status and intentions. They are historical context, not current availability, timing, or a future-product commitment.
[00:02:43] Brigham: um, yeah, I mean it's kind of fun to think of I would imagine maybe it'd be interesting to the audience because because the backstory kind of goes back to just kind of how we in my mind, how we develop products, and a lot of times we so we do a lot of our own testing and we spend a lot of time in the mountains and out and about In the far reaches of the, the Wilderness or whatever. But but we also I mean over the years we, you know, when we're developing something, we'll have prototypes that will send out to people that we kind of, we know how they use things, the way they use
[00:03:18] Brigham: things and get their opinion or you know, feedback on prototypes. And so in, in this particular case, there's some some guys that they're they're in the hunting industry and they have a business there and but they're like, very I've called them like ultralight backpack or Hunters but there and and so we've, you know, we've sent in things like Fortius, when they were under development to get feedback because we know they get a lot of use. Like, when we send things to these guys, we know they'll get a lot of use. And so things like the Nebo like lots of pieces that we that we sent to them to get their their testing and feedback on.
[00:04:03] Brigham: And so
[00:04:04] Tayson: Um and I just did, I want to add in here really quick, these are people that also design products. And so they have an eye for design. Yeah, it's low because of that, you know, me and Brigham trust them, trust them to give us really quality feedback and things like that. Because trust us, we get a million emails comments saying we'll test product for you. Or we have this idea when you start designing product and releasing product and all of that. Like those people are really valuable to us. So we've we've kind of nurtured that along and said for sure over the years.
[00:04:34] Brigham: Yeah. And it's a really good point because we're not, we're We're calculated and very deliberate about who you know who we who we want to get feedback from who we send product to and it's totally good point. But yeah. So in this case, the, the owner of that company just reached out to us and just, you know, kind of pitched an idea.
[00:04:59] Brigham: of of a pant that maybe they could contribute some of their thought process on and they're kind of their wish list or what they would like to see in a pan and It just made a lot of sense because there's so much. the, the requirements that You know, those guys would need in a pant, very much overlap with a lot of what we or just a general Backpacker. That's not just backpacking in beautiful summer weather that they would need as well, you know, for people that just spend time in shoulder season, or or the winter or Find themselves above tree line a lot where where the weather can go from like nice summer conditions to
[00:05:44] Brigham: snow in a matter of eight hours, you know—or even eight minutes. Yeah. So it just made a lot of sense, you know, and to to kind of look at the project. Look at this development, that way. And and so, and at the same time, it was like, it would be fun to do to kind of collaborate on on the design process with with some people that we know it's been a lot of time in the mountains and, and have a kind of that, that mind for product design.
[00:06:10] Tayson: Yeah. There I would classify them with their hunter or not. They, these guys are mountain athletes. Yeah, and you know, that's what we love to do. We love to be high up in the mountains. We love to be above tree line. We love to be in those Wilderness extreme areas and so like it makes a ton of sense for us to To work with them. Plus they've got an exceptional company and, you know, the way that they do R&D is going to be different than the way we do our R&D. So it was, it was an opportunity to, for us to just just learn, you know, different ways and, you know, them learn from us.
[00:06:44] Tayson: Learn from them. Because we, we do have similarities in our businesses and we have differences in our businesses, you know, they. But but the thing that also brought us together is we share a lot of the same concepts of Um, these are family-owned businesses. These are not, you know, venture-backed companies. They're You know, both me and Steve. The owner of this company, we want all these businesses our whole lives. Like we have no intention of selling off or changing values in the companies and so there's just things like that too that we really resonate and that's part of what it's made us friends. But these guys are mountain athletes. These are the guys that
[00:07:22] Tayson: mean Brigham have gone and done you know that our R3 and R5 attempts. Right now the Grand Canyon hikes and their beasts but they get out there, they they're in Alaska weeks out of the year and Montana Idaho all over, you know, the western United States and so it was a good opportunity for sure but so they, you know, they came to us, they had some ideas for this line and really, for us we're like It made sense to call this internally our alpine line. We were like this is really the line built for high mountains for Backcountry for not summer. Backpacking on Trails all the time and so we kind of just
[00:08:01] Tayson: started a few pieces but today we'll talk about the pants under this concept of kind of like an Alpine line, a Mountain Pursuit line Because there is a ton of our audience base that that goes and does that.
[00:08:13] Brigham: Yeah. It's like it was, it was a really good like, kind of packaging and formulation of some Concepts that that kind of the summertime backpacking on Trails is. There's a lot of forgiveness in that like there's a lot of margin for error, you know what I mean? But, We certainly don't just backpack for three months a year. In fact, I don't really like backpacking in July, because there's so many mosquitoes. So, like, there's just so much. time spent where we're off a trail, or the conditions are such that our clothing choices are way more important and what we protect our bodies with plays a much bigger role in our, like, our performance,
[00:09:00] Brigham: and our safety, and our comfort in the mountains. So yeah. Actually, as you said that earlier, it reminded me of this time. This was
[00:09:07] Tayson: like 15 years ago but I remember I was, I was out on the mountain and I was laying on this rock and I fell asleep and I got sunburned and I wake up like sweating and like Like way overheating and literally within 30 minutes, we had a blizzard. It dropped six inches of snow like just that fast the mountains can change and you know, summer gear is not necessarily gear that's ready for shoulder seasons in the mountains. And I think that's where these pieces are really going to stand out as whether it's seasonality or whether it's the type of trail you’re on. Because if you go hike, the Colorado Trail like we just got off of,
[00:09:46] Tayson: it's a beautiful Trail, it's maintained its pretty but you go back up like we as a company went and did trail work here in St. George a year and change ago. And guys, literally left that trail with scars on their bodies because the trail is so overgrown. So hard so bad so you never know, right? There's different. There's different tools for different Trails for different Adventures for all of it. Right? Yeah.
[00:10:11] Tayson: So okay. So that's kind of some of the premise. We feel like there's this need for this Mountain Pursuit line, which is what we now call it and one of those pieces was a pant. So in this pant what was the premise of what did this pant need to be? What did we need to change? What were we hoping it could become.
Editor’s note: The Mountain Pursuit line, collaborator/company plans, rapidly changing mountain weather, and rough-trail examples are discussed from an August 2025 design perspective. They do not establish current company plans, trail conditions, or a universal safety outcome; check present conditions and prepare for the route.
[00:10:30] Brigham: yeah, it kind of the general concept was all like a pretty simple, functional, streamlined pant, that's just comfortable and just works really well. That you know, is on the lighter weight side versus like heavier weight, you know, and a lot of that is just because I guess we found like there's a need for that. In terms of just something light really unrestricted and really lends to mobility and comfort but that wasn't like a complicated pant. Yeah, so simple and streamlined were big parts of the the original design intent for the concept of the pant.
[00:11:15] Tayson: I've also like, on the lightweight side. I'm a, we're big believer in layers and the problem is if you overbuild something it's always overbuilt. But you can always add layers underneath another piece or on top of another piece. And so We try not to, like, over build a single layer of anything. And so this lightweight pant, You know, it really gives you the ability to use it in hot conditions, but also there's no doubt. I'll be using it, this winter, you know, like I tested it throughout winter, multiple winter. So like that's Just something to note in our philosophy, too, of design. I feel like if you go too heavy to, you know, two thick
[00:11:56] Tayson: to whatever like on Fabrics or choices, there you can't, you can't undo those versus with a lighter piece. You can always layer and adapt a piece to different conditions. So, lightweight mobile is a big thing. I wanted to make them really comfortable and mobile durability is definitely on the list. We want to these pieces to be durable for guys that are you know, backpacking and those seasons You know, conditions are harsher. You want to be able to go off Trail or do some climbing. If you're if you're into peak summiting and stuff, this pant needed to be able to do that. So you need to like really move in the pant, but also have the
[00:12:35] Tayson: durability to bump up against a rock or go through some bushes from time to time. Yeah,
[00:12:40] Brigham: yeah. I think like on the mobility thing. it may seem like, Not that. I don't know significant of a goal but if you, if you think about how trails are built and maintained their their if it's like National Forest in the US National Forest land, they are made to a standard and there's a standard for like the steepness that a trail can be. So essentially, Trail walking is about the most mild form of Mountain Travel that exists. So as soon as you step off the trail, all those built-in requirements of basically how mild the walking is going to be go out the window. And so that's why Mobility for, you know, a high mountain pants
[00:13:27] Brigham: for, you know, Mountain Pursuits or off Trail Pursuits. That's why Mobility is, is it is a significant factor is because you don't, you cannot count on, you know, just having a nice graded trail that's got switched backs built in. Like there's a likelihood, a strong likelihood. You're going to be kind of clambering up and over rocks, draws, or very steep terrain, walking over blow-down trees. And, you know, so like that Mobility is, it's a pretty important component
[00:13:55] Tayson: and to go from, like a typical pant to a pair of shorts, like, man, that Mobility is super noticeable. And, and so that's kind of what we're talking about. It's like, can we build a pair of pants though? That makes you feel as mobile as if you were wearing a pair of shorts or joggers or something in those categories? Not like you think about a typical pair of pants, so Mobility was high on the list. Lightweight we with the Sawtooth pants. You know we really built those to also kind of well essentially look good to be able to whatever whether it's travel. Daily wear them but also in the mountains they were kind of walking
[00:14:33] Tayson: a line there whereas with these pants we just made you know the choice that these are these are mountain pants and and so we didn't you know hide the zippers on the side of some of these features they're just more prominent you know volume and some things. A little bit different. We cut them a little bit different. Versus versus like I say on the Sawtooth, they're gonna have a little bit more of a cleaner look. in terms of just, Dealing with some of the features that are built into both of these pants. So, That's definitely a part of it. Yeah. Anything anything else to note about some of the hopes for the design of the
[00:15:11] Tayson: pad? I mean we have we had a strong Baseline with the pant that we already had and so there's things we really liked from those that we would, you know, planned and did keep in the DNA of this pant or similarities different versions of doing them. But similarities, anything else? I guess with the initial design intent like, is there like a specific Thing that you that you think of when you're like, okay if this pant is like works here, then we've accomplished it. Like we've done what we wanted to do. Hmm. I
[00:15:43] Brigham: mean I don't have too much else to add just in terms of the original intent but yeah, we kind of covered it. Yeah, for me, I guess when I thought about these pants like,
[00:15:53] Tayson: okay, these are the pants, I'm gonna want to take when I'm doing trail hiking—hiking on trails that I know are, you know, more covered or more Brushy. the pants I want to be taking in, you know, three and four season conditions and or if I was you know, summiting some kind of really exposed peak like those are kind of some of the overall like okay this is the And where it fits into our line where I want to be using it. So, Okay. So um yeah, like where do you start with the design process? What's the very first thing that
[00:16:31] Brigham: you start to look at there? Fabric is a big one. I mean, especially when testing, when, if you're trying to test the functionality of a pant like It does not do much good to to like go and field test, a pair of pants. If the fabric that it's made out of is not like a contender or in the running or and a realistic option, meaning sometimes, we'll get prototypes made of things that have to that, we have to use, like, a substitute Fabric and sometimes, that's okay. But, but with the pant, it, you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't really work to to design how the pants are supposed to fit, create all the measurements
[00:17:16] Brigham: and then and then and then we get a pattern to make that fit a certain way and then use a substitute fabric. So we actually had to like We really had to. kind of, Assess and and identify Fabrics pretty quick. So that we can actually know what they feel, like to take into the mountains. I mean, because yeah, pockets of pocket, and it'll hold things or whatever, but it's it's kind of it would be very wasteful in time to just Go out using substitute Fabrics. So fabric selection was like an immediate thing to start looking for fabric and then you know, but the basic layout of the pant, you know what Pockets, do we want
[00:18:00] Brigham: their, what Pockets don't we want there or how many, or what type of pockets or so? Let's stick with with fabric for a
[00:18:07] Tayson: minute, what, what were we looking for? I mean, I know we want to be lightweight. There were yeah, we wanted to be stretched, we wanted it to be. We were leaning towards a nylon based fabric for durability purposes. Yeah. and we've we broadened our horizons, I would say in fabric, I mean we really we got more Fabrics from more suppliers than, and then A lot of other cases. I mean, we just had You know, suppliers that we had never worked with new ones, new contacts. We got a broad selection, but in general, we were looking for something that had four-way stretch. Four-way stretch nylon that was yeah, on the lighter weight side of things,
[00:18:50] Tayson: we already mentioned versus heavier weight. So we we want them to be to be light, four-way stretch, and in terms of fabric, I mean those and nylon like those were kind of the things we were looking for and then Like there’s a pile of options, you know, within those parameters. And so you know, a lot of You know, getting things in our hands and seeing how they feel in person before even turning them into a pair of pants. And yeah, I mean, we did get We got a lot of there's some great options too that. Yeah we could honestly come back to those fabrics for different projects because they were I thinking back about some of
[00:19:31] Tayson: those there were some really cool ones that we came across and tested and put our hands on ya. Okay, so we so that was kind of the hope their lightweight durable. Stretchy. Four-way stretch. We were trying to keep nylon as the the major thing we want to like we were okay with a little bit of spandex. We didn't want it to exceed 10%, I think was kind of the goal there and for the most part to meet the parameters. That we wanted.
Editor’s note: The lightweight, mobility, durability, layering, fabric-composition, and intended-use comments describe August 2025 design goals and historical testing. They are not current specifications or performance guarantees.
[00:20:00] Tayson: Yeah. So then we start, you know, testing those but in the meantime there's a lot of like I don't want to call them minor tweaks and adjustments but there's a lot of changes we wanted to make off of our original pant pattern that kind of, in my mind. It's like a lot of little things become, big things in this pant. So maybe walk us through some of the changes in This pant and what we were what were tweaking for it like from sample to
[00:20:29] Brigham: sample, or even from, like kind of, if they maybe got an experience with like our Sawtooth, okay? Well
[00:20:35] Brigham: okay, if you're talking yeah, going from, you know, looking at a Sawtooth and this pant, I mean, the if we go back to mobility and then all, so the original design intent. So this this pant has, like, it's a dedicated backcountry pant, so Versus where like we have a Sawtooth pant that is really trying to be a pant in Two Worlds. Home or city urban office. You know slash but be capable and do well in in hiking backpacking, right? Well with that, that changes what that pant can be right. So you have to give consideration to some things. Um, you know, regarding like City Life and and how the pants fit and look, and,
[00:21:26] Brigham: and Aesthetics versus, when you have a dedicated Backcountry pant, you don't give any of those considerations and so that now when we looked at, what does that mean? Well, that means they're going to fit different because we're not we're not trying to be on both sides of the line between like saying that this is a pant. Yeah that you can go to dinner you know with or something social versus. This is just a pant. Built to take to the backcountry so it's going to fit differently especially when we prioritize Mobility. The way that we do with this pant, it again is going to fit differently. So there's going to be Basically more room throughout the
[00:22:09] Brigham: entire pant fit. But then there's also other design features in to like, To further, add or contribute to Mobility. So, like with the Altura Dynamic Pants, we've put in our articulated knees. So, that includes these knee darts to build, volume in the front of the knee and the slightly pre-bend the knee. So that again combined with four ways stretch that really adds to a ton of range of motion and lack of restriction. Um versus a pant that you want to be able to take to dinner. You don't, we necessarily want to have four knee darts in a pant that's you know made to be city slash Backcountry, right. So things like that definitely are design
[00:22:54] Brigham: elements that we We could include with the pant and and it was, it was the obvious choice, so there's more volume in them. We darted the knees, articulated knees, still has a gusseted crotch, it's a different pattern, it's a different shape, gusseted crotch than the Sawtooth pants. And again, whereas like the Sawtooth Pants, we kind of want to keep a lot of things invisible or not visible. Whereas with with the Altura pant like we can we can design the gusseted crotch Just with a focus on Comfort lack of restriction and so that allows us to, you know, almost make it more overt or visible or not, just not try
[00:23:42] Brigham: to hide it or make it invisible and so things like that, really? They play into it.
[00:23:48] Tayson: Something that kind of is a part of the fit, as well as we wanted to have an adjustable built-in belt specifically for backpacking. When you are using a backpack waist belt, Putting on another belt. It's it's it feels like it's dang near impossible to get a belt that works and doesn't start pinching skin fabric, you know, just the overlapping nature of them, it's really a challenge and maybe it's because it's like going through a few loops around the pant instead of like built into the pant, but we really love the built-in belts. So we kept the built-in belt. we switched to a cam-lock tensioner so there's no way for it to slip essentially
[00:24:32] Tayson: I never really got slipping on the Sawtooth but these like
[00:24:36] Brigham: Fully locked on. Yeah, it locks it. Mmm. And
[00:24:39] Tayson: so, that works really well for backpacking and let's face it. Like, when we go out on a seven-day trip, we lose five pounds, you know, like, well,
[00:24:47] Brigham: you also, right, you eat, you know? I mean, so, like if you go from breakfast to lunch, there's like a 20 degree temperature swing. So you could be, you know, starting off basically having fasted for several hours because you were asleep and you start the hike and then you eat a little tiny breakfast but then when you eat lunch like my lunch is a pretty sizable. And so even that alone like Uh it's useful to be able to loosen up the waistband just a little bit and then as the days go as the day goes on or as the days go on and you do lose a little bit of weight. Yeah. Then tightening it
[00:25:27] Brigham: up a little bit. It's it's certainly handy and it definitely is a good way to go to avoid any of those pinch points and hot spots under under a hip belt.
[00:25:38] Tayson: So, Okay. What are some of the other design aspects of the pant that we wanted to? Well,
[00:25:46] Brigham: yeah, I mean hip vents was, was one of the one. There was kind of like some, Definitely mandatory design features like the the adjustable waist hip vents was one. And that's another one where? Because this is dedicated Mountain pants. We don't we didn't need to bother trying to dial in a zipper with what's called like an invisible or a hidden zipper. We can just use an overt. You know, zipper on the hip that we're not trying to hide or conceal. And so open vents, which have benefits. It's actually a more. It's a more durable zipper itself, it's stronger. It's easier, it's smoother up and down. So yeah, a lot of those things, like, or definitely part
[00:26:31] Brigham: of it. And so, that's what we did. And then, yes. So the hip vents, I mean, those are We we did use a very light mesh that we use for the for the hip vents is it's very breathable. It's, it's not like a dense mesh, so open. Because we we didn't really want to go with just no mesh backer. I just too many times where bugs is an issue. So we definitely wanted to have mesh behind the zipper but as much breathability as possible. So it's, it's a, it's a really good mesh that's that, definitely allows for a lot of airflow. Okay. And then pocketing So pocketing. yeah, for this one it was like
[00:27:19] Brigham: one of the One of the wants or kind of nothing. I guess you'd call it requirement but we, we did decide that we wanted to just have one cargo pocket which that is similar to the Sawtooth pant. But again we can add because of this pants kind of use case and application. We can add a little bit of volume to that. It's a little bit bigger, the openings a little bit bigger. So there's a little bit more exposed zipper. So it's really it's easier to get in and out of it's yeah, so it's just kind of slightly more usable and, and More functional in the in the mountains. So
[00:28:03] Tayson: you added an internal phone sleeve in there, just on the inside of the pocket and the cargo pocket. There's an internal, like we call a phone mesh pocket that thing's money. Like when you get a, obviously, when you have a cargo pocket, things can slip around and move all over in them, and especially as we've volumized, this one made it a little bit bigger. It's even more easy for things to slip around, move around. Yeah. And that little, that little pocket is Awesome. Like it doesn't really add anything because it's built out of mesh. On top of mesh. But it's, it's super handy. Little feature able to slide your phone in there. I like it
[00:28:42] Tayson: too. Like if you're sitting in Camp or something like that, it's much easier to pull your phone in and out of that pocket versus a an upper pocket. If you're a sportsman and you're up, you know, on a ridge glassing stuff like that, having that pocket is super useful. So really enjoy that. So that's the cargo pocket.
[00:29:02] Brigham: yeah, hand pockets, and pockets in the front two back pockets and where I'm not really a fan, not that. Not that that's the ultimate decision, but like I don't think any of us really wanted zippered back pockets so that there's like an overlap and it works really well. It's like a passive retention and it's it does. If you're somebody likes to keep stuff in your back pockets, I mean it keeps them from falling out, but also makes it quick and easy to get in and out of the pocket without adding, you know, potential bulk or those kind of potential discomfort, that that is added by putting putting zippers back there.
[00:29:44] Tayson: So yeah, super secure actually. I because I wear our Sawtooth Pants so much. like a daily wear, those things all the time, and I'll put a wallet back there, and they have a similar closure on the top and I've just never lost anything out of them. And then I bought a pair of jeans recently and I was wearing them and I, my wallet fell out. I was like, what is this? Why did my, I haven't had anything fall out of my pocket and You know, I was like surprising. So I think that is a super valuable add but all so, the one other thing is when you are designing a mountain pants, Um you sit
[00:30:21] Tayson: in the dirt, you know, you you can collect dirt inside the pocket or debris or even leaves and stuff. So I like it for both keeping stuff out but also keeping stuff in. Yeah. But overall that's a very simple design. It's not we didn't run double cargo pockets. It's a single cargo pocket and then just two hand Pockets, two back pockets. We didn't add a bunch more zippers and awkward pockets and like that's all the rage lately. I've been buying and testing like I've had bought a couple new pair of shorts and things lately. And I'm like, what is this side zipper pocket like that. I'm like, literally thinking like what can I even put
[00:30:56] Tayson: in there it is. Like three inches of the top one inch at the bottom, like is this like a pen pocket like I'm walking around with a pen now? I don't know. It just there's interesting things like that that I think are trendy right now. We want to keep this pant, very simple, very functional because obviously the more complicated you make a pant too. The more You have stuff that doesn't work but also more. So like you have weight, you have complexity, you got costs, which, you know, the goal of this pant was to make it a very affordable pant for the mountains. So,
[00:31:28] Brigham: yeah, it's I mean it you can go into a rabbit hole and talking about just like just design intent and Choices that, you know, revolve around design intent. I mean, because Anybody can really make anything, you know, I mean and it's all just about. What's the attempt, what's it for? And who's it for? Because we're we don't make Everything for everybody, you know, and nobody does or nobody can. So it's and it just so happens that that's that's this design intent and we see a need for it. We see that there's a use case for it and and you know when you mentioned that we wanted them to be on the more affordable side. For
[00:32:15] Brigham: a technical like, you know, Mountain pants. That like, that does play into certain decisions and it's almost a back and forth the way they're designed. Naturally reduces some cost but we also did not want to just add a bunch of stuff because that would just add cost and the cost benefit, you know, is in this case is just, it's not something worth it for us, so yeah.
Editor’s note: The articulated knees, gusset, belt, vents, mesh, pockets, fit, feature count, and affordability comments describe the Altura Dynamic Pants as discussed in August 2025. Verify current product-page specifications, sizing, price, and terms; design rationale is not a guarantee of comfort, fit, ventilation, or durability.
[00:32:47] Tayson: So I think we've covered a lot of the features. Let's kind of get into some of the testing prototyping and just how that that process went along with these to my recollection. And correct me if I'm wrong because you get to put more of your brain energy into just this, this side of work, but looked at a lot of fabrics and made some choices. And I think we got pants in three different Fabrics, as kind of what we after putting our hands on a bunch of them. I think we started with about three ish to begin with. Yeah. And we made a handful of those maybe for four of us initially to to start running
[00:33:29] Tayson: some field time in. Yeah about right?
[00:33:31] Brigham: Yeah, pretty sure.
[00:33:34] Tayson: This year. So this is years in the making. This is a multi-year—it’s basically a three-year project. Three years ago. Yeah. So
[00:33:41] Brigham: yeah. I mean. we yeah, we got first prototypes made and the nice thing was, is that they were, they were very usable. like at the with the first prototype so which which was good because that meant that we could immediately like actually give a valid evaluation of Fabrics or Pockets or pocket angles or the function you know how How they fit and how they function. Like the first couple iterations, you know, I was trying a kind of a different, a different adjustable waistband Arrangement. Then we have now that we ended up with because I wanted to try it and see. if it was viable and and we tried it and like we that's not what
[00:34:34] Brigham: we ended up with and that's that is because you know, we were able to get pants made prototypes made test them and and get multiple opinions and and do that a couple a couple times but with with a lot of testing, a lot of days spent testing and so but for the most part, I mean started out pretty good in terms of like okay like we're not everything from now on you know for from then on was we're gonna do small adjustments here and there to have a and to maybe different
[00:35:10] Tayson: things, features. I think something really interesting about that is when we got those initial ones back and between us and some other guys testing these There was some conversation like man, these are like 80 90% there already like we could almost just roll with these but obviously we wanted to do our due diligence in the field with durability testing and things like that. what I find interesting, I guess with this is that like, we got those years ago and It took us this much time to dial in that last 10 15, 20% of the pan. And I think that's that's like, I like that. We're just a point in our company where we can spend.
[00:35:57] Tayson: Two, three years dialing in the last 10, 20% of a product to try to truly make it as perfect as possible. Because yeah, I just remember like that as we were talking about that. I just remember here in from, I think it was Steve from from Exo that was like These are like almost there like you hit like this, like this first round is amazing, you know, but then we still spent two basically two more years. Yeah, iterating testing perfecting.
[00:36:24] Brigham: Yeah, it. That like, it is that last 10 to 20%. That is the most It's the most challenging but it’s also the most fun or enjoyable part about developing a product and really getting it where you want to be is because you really start to have to pay attention to, in to finer detail and ask more questions of people ask more questions of ourselves and, and part of that was like, one of the initial comments was, they were so comfortable. And But I felt like we had to do some due diligence in that, like, okay. But but, Is this fabric too light? So then we so we kind of basically just kind of had
[00:37:08] Brigham: to prove and then disprove the idea that okay well let's make them with slightly heavier Fabric and just see how we like it and we did that. As we were making other adjustments and tweaks. But like just to really ask that question of like, okay, we seem like we really like this fabric weight or kind of this General weight range and fabric range but let's just make sure that it's not the right thing to do to go with something slightly heavier. So we did that as well. And then along the way, made minor tweaks to fit, minor tweaks, to just a little all the little features and placements. And then
[00:37:55] Tayson: um, you know, I think we we learned a little bit with some of that fabric testing thinking we didn't have any durability issues but maybe You know, there's things that made us almost a little uncomfortable because they were so light. There's some that
[00:38:10] Brigham: some Fabrics that were so just so thin that it we have to give consideration to that as we are going to ship somebody a product, they're going to take it out of a package with kind of this understanding of what we told them about the pants. And then they're going to put their hands on it before they even put it on their body. Like they're going to get a feel and and we wanted to make sure that there that are that the people ordering these pants were going to just take them out of the package and just feel it and say there's no way I'm taking these two XYZ place, you know, because it's just
[00:38:48] Brigham: if it feels so thin because there were some of those Fabrics that we were, you know, a little concerned about even though they had like, dozens of days of very rough testing. Without any like, rips tears, Cuts or anything, where people like we even got feedback from people that did some of the testing that they had those same thoughts like man, do I really want to take these to Alaska for 10 days? You know, and they did and and they were fine but that is a thing. Like it's something that we have to consider is just that that first perception of how something feels because we don't want somebody to like have to prove to themselves. That
[00:39:33] Brigham: the thing they bought for us actually does work. We want them to almost just feel confident from the get-go. You know what I mean? They pick it up and handle it and be like okay yeah, this feels good.
[00:39:42] Tayson: Yeah, yeah. In fact, one of the funny stories along that so kind of like did these initial ones and we tested some things and we did some iterations and we got to Stage wherever like okay we're going to test it in a bigger R&D group or we had about 20 guys. And when we shipped these pants to the 20 guys and one of the guys That was, you know, that little conversation you just had where he's like, I don't think I dare take these to Alaska. These are like pajamas. Like, there's like I put them on. I feel like I'm wearing backcountry pajamas because they’re so mobile, so light, so, It's easy to move in
[00:40:15] Tayson: and things like that and but yeah, he was able to take him to Alaska, run them in Montana and just never had any issues but it's it was like a real thing. And what I am happy to say is that concept of like like backcountry pajamas like that level of comfort Mobility stretch movement. I do feel like we nailed that in the finished product. You know, we continue to iterate on Fabrics even from there. But yeah, I mean you may you may see as occasionally like just jokingly called them back country pajamas because they the mobility is just so exceptional. I never felt like the Sawtooth Pants weren’t mobile. But compared to these, it's a
[00:40:58] Tayson: different ballgame. Different ballgame, Sawtooth Pants or two-way, stretch versus a four-way stretch. And then the way that these are built cut fit, absolutely incredible movement like you could You could do yoga in these things. You could do lots of things like climbing up and over logs. Climbing up faces on ridges. You know. Just whatever it is. You're gonna have plenty of mobility in them as yeah. Yeah. The fabric choice is a big part of that, so test a lot of fabrics and we did. We ran it. So we kind of initially ran it on a smaller group of us and then we did broaden that out. And we got a
[00:41:35] Brigham: Ton of field time in this time. Yeah. I mean it was I I have a written down just because I so I you know, I get a lot of Guys texting me calling me emailing back and just saying yeah I did. This took it here did this and and then I did everyone you know kind of filled out a questionnaire kind of at the end of that testing period but Ballpark figures. Like, I, I added up people's Days. in the field at like, For example, just in Alaska. It was like 75 days of field testing in Alaska and Combining all the rest of the time it was like 265 actual field days like staying out
[00:42:18] Brigham: in the field. You know, days of days of testing between All of us and and that testing group. So it was, it was, it was, it was great. It was, it was a great process.
[00:42:27] Tayson: Yeah. And it was, I think it was awesome to do that for us too, because we don't typically have quite that number of testers running them, or that many days in the field. And I think we learned from that and we'll continue to, you know, utilize that however, we possibly can.
[00:42:43] Brigham: Yeah. And I I think it's important to like just include like the the Hue, the human factor of that is like that. We we built a lot of relationships. We made a lot of connections made new friends, made new friends that we feel like we can trust their opinion and their feedback and and just yeah ton of ton of value there and it's almost like feels wrong to use the word value in terms of like making human connections or friend connections but like but it is true like from a development standpoint, like That aspect was was great.
[00:43:19] Tayson: Yeah. What a lot of excuse me? Mountain athletes just out there running them and I mean, it's valuable feedback when they're people that are really. Spending that much time and have that much field experience. And So it was really, really solid. Yeah,
Editor’s note: The three-year development timeline, tester counts, field-day totals, Alaska use, and durability outcomes are historical Outdoor Vitals and tester accounts from August 2025. Individual use and durability can vary; these claims are not independently verified current guarantees.
[00:43:35] Tayson: so yeah, I mean we at this point we're kind of getting more towards the finish line of the design. The R&D we did continue to iterate on Fabrics, Ended up, you know, kind of continuing to move in a direction of, you know, making sure these things are very durable. You know, I wanted to go a little bit more with with some more, a little bit more, pick resistance, pilling resistance and things like that with the finished fabric. The finished fabric. Is a really cool fabric. I mean lots of stretch, lots of pliability. The outside has a it's a nice feeling of a tighter weave to keep it being pick-resistant, pill-resistant. The inside has
[00:44:18] Tayson: a bit of a texture which we like because obviously something like a texture against your skin it's going to Aid in things like Like with moisture and Vapor like being able to move out of the pant to help, you know, not get that that like, you know, feeling of like a fabric being stuck to your skin.
[00:44:38] Brigham: Yeah, definitely, definitely helps with that.
[00:44:41] Tayson: It's just a really, really impressive fabric. I mean, any other specific fabric, call-outs it ended up being a, you know, a lower percentage of spandex than 10%. So we really liked where that fit in there 175 GSM—grams per square meter. So really lightweight fabric, but just a really lightweight feel to because in fact, like if you were to compare the fabric—which, so, our Sawtooth pant is a similar weight to this. Within like 10 GSM of the 175 but these do have the feel of being even lighter and and like the hand feel like I guess if you receive that or on the body. So really really
[00:45:23] Tayson: good feel. But yeah, any other kind of call outs on the finished
[00:45:27] Brigham: fabric? No. I I'm just I'm happy with it. It's It ended like I mentioned we ended up, testing a bunch of slightly heavier Fabrics or different type of weave or construction and then we where we ended up was. Very close to like the very first fabric that we tested it. Just I I just think it's a little bit better than that so it kind of came full circle but it's it was necessary to take those steps.
[00:46:02] Tayson: So yeah, quick drying. We kind of went through a lot of the features that the feature set. We just we just polished through iterations and really like you know, where all of those landed quick easy to use, you know, Vents and cargo Pockets hand Pockets. You know, I like the cam-lock tensioner because I do like the Locking feature of it. I think the biggest thing with the Locking feature that I really like is the fact that when I take the pant off and I put it on, it stays in the exact same place. Yeah, that's like when I see the most movement on something, like the more Sawtooth Pants, just like a
[00:46:39] Brigham: Yeah, because if you get some looseness just because it's not tightened up tight then that looseness. Yeah, it essentially loosens the band,
[00:46:47] Tayson: I do like that because there are times when like let's say you take them off for the night, you put them back on the next morning. So Sometimes you're kind of trying to dial in that fit right where you want it again versus the cam lock, just it's gonna be the exact same as you left it. So yeah, that's something that I enjoyed some of the other aspects of this pant that we were kind of excited to change up on our line was the actual sizes that we offer.
Editor’s note: The 175 GSM fabric figure, stretch, texture, quick-drying, pick/pill resistance, and moisture-management comments are August 2025 product claims. Verify current materials and specifications; performance varies with use and conditions.
[00:47:10] Brigham: Yeah, I was gonna go into sizing and fit or I guess probably I think probably fit first then size and just to explain I think people probably could kind of extrapolate how they're going to fit based on the comments, we made about comparing it to the Sawtooth pant like if you're not familiar with the Sawtooth pant, this is just a pant to you, right? The Altura pant. Well, By almost. almost like, design, philosophy wise, like We want to avoid as much excess fabric as possible and anything that we make, it's just inefficient, it's a waste of materials. And it creates bulk. It creates flapping and drag in the wind. And and so With that in
[00:47:52] Brigham: mind, these pants they're made for mobility and comfort. So we want them to have adequate room, you know, from the top of the waistline to the bottom of the to the to the leg opening. without just having a bunch of extra room anywhere on the pant so I'd say there is a trim streamlined, fit but there's there's a little bit of room everywhere. That's how I would describe it. Some people will throw the word like athletic fit around and I'm I'd say that might. That might accomplish 80% of how I would just describe the FIT but there I just say they're more. They're more like efficiently trim. So they're they're like a pretty even taper
[00:48:35] Brigham: from like the middle of the thigh all the way to the leg opening. Its a taper. We didn't want a bunch of fabric in the calf or down by where the leg opening is, where it's going to go over your shoe or your boot. We want it to cover that whatever that is. But without just being this big leg opening of this is just gonna brush up against the other leg opening. When you're taking steps all that stuff, just gets in the way. And so that's how I would describe this is like efficiently, trim pant that that you've got a little bit of room to
[00:49:15] Tayson: to move like in rugged terrain. Yeah. It's like what I like about them is that I can layer them a little bit and not feel like they're getting tight on me too. So if I were to throw the Highline leggings under, um, or even Even something heavier than that. They're not like shrinking around my calf, or my or my thigh. Yeah, there's there's more adequate room there so but they are still very efficient, you know, they're not you don't have like a massive leg opening at the bottom that's catching on sticks and debris as you’re passing and just things like that, they're not slapping against each other. That’s only on that athletic side, more
[00:49:56] Tayson: than a big open cargo straight leg pant. Yeah. we also wanted to like, I don't know why sizing has been done like this. I mean I can I can guess what size is not like this but sizing historically is like you buy a 30 pant, 30 waist pant or a 32 or 34 or 36. Well let's face it. Like that's a big jump to go from 32 to 34 or 34 or 36 and for a lot of You know, we deal with more guys, I guess you could say in our business and for a lot of us, we land between sizes. And so then we're we're always like Buying a 32 or 34 and then
[00:50:34] Tayson: being like, okay, is this one gonna fit or do I need to actually return this, buy the other one? But either way, you're not always, if you're someone who land, who just Has a 33 waist it just you're always a little bit dissatisfied
[00:50:45] Brigham: not optimized for that. Yeah it's it's definitely a thing and it's it's kind of obnoxious and it's something that we wanted. I mean again like this sounds really cheesy but like if you want something to perform well you want The you want, you want your how it fits to be as dialed in to your individual body as possible. Now that's not possible for a brand to to Custom Tailor, every piece to everybody. But Going in one-inch size increments. As is a lot closer to that than two. You know what I mean? And when you want something that’s comfortable and built for mobility for rugged terrain, we want people to have like the closest accurate fit
[00:51:29] Brigham: as possible so well, and I would say, in a pant, it
[00:51:32] Tayson: matters the most like, if you're, if you're wearing something that is just full of spandex has a ton of stretch and ton of forgiveness and it's supposed to be form-fitting, you just put a lot of spandex in it works. If you have a top like, you know, you can, you can have a top that's a little bit baggy and it doesn't like Cause issues but on a pant especially on men usually don't have like big butts and stuff like that. To hold the pants up a pant being a little bit big. It becomes very sloppy, it like, certainly actually lose function. It starts to slide down your body. It starts to, or you tighten up
[00:52:05] Tayson: the waist with say our hip tensioner, and then it’s loose in the thigh. You know, there's just different things that happen and so to Me of anything that needs to fit right pants and boots. You know pants and shoes are like the two. Yeah, the ones that just if you have the wrong size, it's gonna it's gonna interfere. And so with this pant, and thankfully from the Sawtooth pant, we have so much more sizing info to be able to know like where sizes are and the the truth of it is There is a massive, massive majority of people that land between a 32 and a 36 size pant. And so what we
[00:52:43] Tayson: chose to do with these are to allow for some of these single-inch sizes. So our waist sizes are roughly and the changes. Maybe a little bit, depending on the inseam, they go 29, 30 32 and then 33 34 35 36. So from 32 to 36, we go on one inch increments And I think that's going to really help a lot of guys out because my whole life. You know, even when I was heavier set years ago, I was like a 35, I wasn't a 36. You know? And so and then now I'm a 33 and not a 34, you know, like and so that I think is gonna be so helpful for people
[00:53:22] Tayson: to really dial in that fit and get exactly. Exactly what they want. Yeah. Along with that, we'll have three different inseams. Ranging from a 30-inch inseam 32-inch inseam at 34-inch inseam. And so you can also get those in the links that you need. So with that I think you're really going to dial in that fit and get exactly what you want and that's just going to equate you liking and enjoying these pants that much more color wise, we do have some colors. Run us through the colors,
[00:53:58] Brigham: So yeah, pants. We've got gray. We've got Stone Brown, Stone Brown is kind of a, it's a play on words, the actual Technical color from the color book that we that we get their color recipe from it's called Stone Gray but we have a great pant and the stone gray. You don't look at it and see Gray. So we call a Stone Brown because it's like it's a really cool color that. Really adapts to what's around it. So, depending on what's around it, you may see more Brown, you may see a little bit of green, kind of like Yeah, there's there's a lot of stones in the mountain that may have some moss on it
[00:54:41] Brigham: or some lichen and they're not necessarily Brown. They're not necessarily green and anyway so that's Stone Brown. Yeah kind of like a like what you put
[00:54:50] Tayson: it next to is seems to look like that. Yeah
[00:54:52] Brigham: yeah so if you put it next to something green it's going to look more green. Put next to something brown. Look more Brown. Cool color. But it's more in the ya Stone Brown. And then like a dark olive green. The
[00:55:07] Tayson: third color. Man, I think we covered. I think we covered it all. Just gonna quickly look. Oh, so like weight-wise the pant in a 30-inch inseam and a 30-inch waist is 11.9 ounces. So still very, very light that's on the lighter side. I would say of any pant out there. oh yeah, I mean I think I think I think we've wrapped up at least all the details that we need to cover. So what I guess. just kind of want to end on with this piece, is It's a super enjoyable and comfortable pant to wear. I'm definitely excited to get it into your guys's hands. Obviously, we've been running it for years
