At a glance, it seems like an easy decision. You have a painting gig. You need painter’s gear, starting with a brush — not covered in this blog — and some kind of leg coverings.
You can’t leave the house without pants (or shorts). It’s just a rule.
But what sort of leggings should you buy? And from where?
There are three factors to consider when choosing leg coverage for painting:
Gig – Is it a formal or informal job? Are you the boss or an employee? Does that matter?
Environment – This is easy, snow or sand? Office or home?
Personal taste – You have to wear this stuff, maybe for long hours. Your comfort matters to you. It had better.
As it turns out, we’re big fans of painter’s wear at All Seasons Uniforms. We even wrote this big ol’ blog on why painters wear white, which you might dig, but wait.
Don’t read it now.
Let’s focus on getting you legs pointed in the right direction for the coming painting season. We’ll get into your options from a broad perspective and then drill down into some specific options.
Either grab a pen and paper or plan to click on some links.
Painter’s shorts; short, sweet & free
Erm, that’s free in the sense of Braveheart, not in the sense of opening a checking account.
If you work someplace cold, like polar vortex land, you know this feeling of freedom.
“They may take our lives, but they‘ll never take our [shorts]!”
Mel Gibson in Braveheart
It’s what happens during that early spring thaw. You reach deep into the drawer to pull out your heftiest shorts because man, it’s only 50 degrees outside!
But, it sure seems like a balmy July day by contrast.
Sliding those shorts on, it feels like something you shouldn’t be doing, making the prospect of wearing them outside even more taboo.
So you do.
Like a first cup of coffee in the morning, the first shorts of summer are the best. It’s a one-time experience, a feeling you try to get back every subsequent shorts day.
Once you have them on, it goes like this: There’s a tickle on your leg, and gusts of cool air updraft parts of your body that haven’t left the cave since autumn.
Yup. Your knees are exposed and it’s wonderful. You feeling like breakdancing. (Not recommended.)
Chasing this feeling every day is why you have to wear shorts on your painting gig if you can get away with it.
Now… Let’s get real. There’s a downside.
Even if you’re a seasoned painter, you’re gonna get speckles on your legs. Depending on the paint, those speckles might be there for a while. (I’m looking at you oil-based reds and blues.)
If you’re wearing painter’s shorts, it because the job is a casual one, not set in a professional environment like an office.
Also, you’d better be good at painting, as in you make few mistakes. And you’ll have to like wearing shorts. Otherwise, why would you?
To recap, consider the following: Only if they’re gig appropriate, if the environment is playing nicely, and you want to wear them. Otherwise, skip to the next subsection.
Stan Ray painter’s shorts rule the roost
In our catalog, Stan Ray are the best and only option in the category of American made painter’s shorts.
We carry a Dickies relaxed fit version, which are stellar if you’re on a budget. We rarely, if ever, receive requests for Carhartt brand painter’s shorts.
Why is Stan Ray on top? They come in shorter cuts, which is not always the fashion for men. Fortunately, cuts for men have come up in length.
Stan Ray’s 6-inch painter’s short may be too short for some fellas, but they make a 7.5-inch and a 10-inch version too.
If you want to go shorter than 6-inch, you’re gonna have to cozy up to a tailor.
Why you should strongly consider painter’s pants
Few styles of workwear pants have enjoyed more comebacks than painter’s pants, not even cargos.
Overalls do occasionally make appearances on fashion industry catwalks, but painter’s pants are always a classic.
You can immediately recognize them by that loop on the side. They don’t even have to be white, but if you can pull off stark white painter’s pants in public, chances are you’re not really a painter.
Rest assured, pants are your Goldilocks perfect middle between shorts and bibs.
They look professional enough to cover you when painting someone’s office or home, but won’t overheat like bibs if you have to wear them in the summer heat. They’re perfect for noobs and skilled painters alike.
There are a couple of tiers to painters pants.
You can get into a pair of Dickies painters pants for pretty cheap by comparison. They’re not at all cheap feeling, but they might feel lightweight compared to the Portwest or Stan Ray Versions.
Dickies pants: These all come in a relaxed, straight fit, meaning no boot cuts or tight pants. They make standard, premium, and double-knee versions.
We carry Dickie’s women’s versions too. You’ll get out under $25 in each of these as of this writing, which is handy for new painters on a budget.
Stan Ray Pants: Because they’re an American made brand, Stan Ray runs a boutique operation. If expediency is of importance to your order, contact us before trying to order a week’s worth of these awesome pants.
They’re 8.5-ounce, 100% cotton pants with plenty of room and reinforcements, but sometimes we don’t have every size in sufficient quantity. Also, know that you’ll pay twice as much for these as Dickies.
Portwest pants: They make one pair worth considering, a few bucks more than the Dickies, these are 9-ounce preshrunk cotton, with more pockets than most other pants in this category.
The Portwest version have a half-elastic waist so they’ll always fit no matter how many burgers you ate over the weekend.
Why painter’s overalls reign supreme
Nothing will cover you better white painter’s bib overalls, not even black ones. You’d have to go full HAZMAT suit to best your coverage in the classic look of painter’s overalls, and we don’t carry those.
Not yet.
From chest to ankle, bib overalls will allow you to paint with abandon.
Are you a sloppy painter or noob? These are the pantaloons for you. You could still potentially splash paint on your shoulders or parts of your back, but a fresh pair of white painter’s overalls could help you be a better painter.
At the end of the day, they can identify what parts of your body are the ones you need to mind the most. The parts of your overall with the paint smeared on them?
Yeah, those. That’s where you keep running into your work.
If you work someplace chilly or one of those polar vortex zones, which may not yet be July-toasty when the painting season starts, bib overalls will be your saving grace.
It might not seem like much, but remember our shorts example from earlier.
If losing the bottom half of your pants to make shorts can make your legs feel air-conditioned, adding a bib to those pants can tip the variable of warmth in your favor too.
So…Dickies or Carhartt?
This is a classic battle. We wrote about it in this piece, pitting the two brands head to head in an all out battle royale.
It wasn’t pretty, but someone had to do it.
If you want to know who wins in the Carhartt painter’s overalls versus Dickies match up, you only need to review our overalls options and sort by brand.
We love Carhartt, but Carhartt’s reputation isn’t strong enough to carry them in this specific category: painter’s whites. So, it’s Dickies all day long.
Their standard bib overall, which we sell in only one color (guess which one), is a 8.75-ounce, 100% cotton classic.
They come with wide, elastic shoulder straps for massive comfort, and have plenty of pockets, plus triple-stitched seams to take all the punishment you can dish out.
If you’re looking for a made in America option of painter’s bibs, Round House produces a competitively priced and good quality painter’s bib overall.
It’s a little heavier than the Dickies version at 9.5-ounces, but they’re darn sturdy. As a fine point, the Round House bibs are not stark white, but an off-white which is nice for those of us who collect dust like it was a hobby.
For more conservative, professional environments, we recommend these Round House painting bibs anything else.
If painting is your gig for any length of time, you’ll want to rotate in versions of all the above.
For now, do your best to pick what you think will work best. We can always ship out more of whatever you need when you need it.
About the Author
Nick Warrick
Nick Warrick is the Sales Manager at All Seasons Uniforms. With over 15 years of experience in the work uniform business, he has worked with hundreds of clients across 20 different industries. Holding bachelor’s degrees in both Business Administration and Information Technology, Nick revamped the company’s online presence, offering its customers a new uniform shopping experience.