Roots Sweatpants
My gal pal Sadie is a real sweatpant aficionado. I, on the other hand, am not. When I wear "sweats" I'm in like, my Zella yoga pants and a cute top, or maybe even a really comfy dress. See, I like to look slightly pulled together. I'm not saying I look good all the time (hardly), but I am saying that I always look like I put in a little effort. And to me, that always meant no sweatpants, at least in the classic sense.
But I also have fibromyalgia, and that means I spend a lot of time wearing comfy clothes and resting/recuperating (I think this might be why I like to put in a little more effort when I actually go out into the world). My pajama/lay around pants are these great Calvin Klein pants, but the downside is that as you wear them they stretch out a lot. I'm not about to wash my freaking pajamas after every wearing (Bitch please, I don't even do that to my regular clothes), but it was impossible to wear my Calvins to actually sleep in. They just got all stretched out while I slept, and then I'd take Hero out in the morning and have to be hiking up my pants all the time... it was a mess. And we've established that I cannot stand being a mess. It was getting colder. I wanted to wear comfy pants AND sleep in them. I needed legit sweatpants. So, back to Sadie. She raved about Roots sweatpants to me months ago, and I was like yeah, yeah, I don't do sweatpants, but bully for you. I remembered this convo when I was struggling with my comfy pants identity, and THEN I remembered that I live right down the road from a brick and mortar Roots store. Done deal.
I went to Roots with my mom (AKA my personal shopping assistant) when she was here visiting for the holidays. I tried on both the Original Sweatpants and the Boyfriend Sweatpants (both with pockets). I went with the Boyfriend fit. They were slightly more fitted, and, as far as sweatpants go, had the more "pulled together" look that I crave. Here's where we get into PSA territory (Where I recommend something, but I can't give you to easy out and just link to it, so you'll have to go hunting for this amazing thing yourself, as seen in my post about Frye OTK Campus Boots). The Boyfriend Fit isn't available online. Not in ANY of the online Roots stores! Not the Canada site, not the US, not International. BUT, they're readily available in all the stores. I had a couple of colors to choose from, and when they didn't have the color I wanted in my size the salesperson just called up another store and had them charge-send them to me. So if you can, go to a Roots store and try on a few different styles to see what suits you. If you're like, "Whatever," then you're in luck, and can just order a pair of the Originals online.
Roots sweatpants in all styles come in a myriad of colors. I got my pair in "Black Pepper," which I'd call more of a dark gray. They don't have this color in women's online (of course) but they do have it in men's here. I got the impression that the Originals come in more colors than the Boyfriend, but that could have just been the case at my store, which seemed to specialize in leather goods more than clothes (Maybe all Roots are like this? I can't say).
I've washed and dried my Roots sweatpants twice now and they don't pill or shrink. They're warm, super comfy, and if you're serious about your loungewear, totally worth the money. I don't always take other people's recommendations seriously (because people rarely take them as seriously as I do. I mean, I have a blog all about recommending things. I don't take this shit lightly), but my girl Sadie was right on the money. Roots sweatpants truly are the best.
Roots Original Pocket Sweatpants/Boyfriend Fit Pocket Sweatpants: Both $64