The first and most significant similarity between these two pairs of pants is that they both have a gusseted crotch. A gusseted crotch is a small, diamond-shaped patch in the place of a traditional crotch seam, intended to make pants more comfortable to wear, as well as to offer a greater range of motion — a detail that one really appreciates on transatlantic flights or when standing on one’s feet for 12 hours at a time.
The crotch is a defining feature of Lululemon’s pants (ABC stands for Anti–Ball Crushing). The previous-generation Kirkland performance pants lacked this feature, and its inclusion in the latest version brings these pants much more in line with the ABC pants.
Then there are the many other, smaller construction details. Both pants use the same exact kind of YKK zippers, and both pants are sewn with roughly 11 or 12 stitches per inch at the seams. Both pants have a reinforced button: The ABC pants have a thin strip of grosgrain fabric on the inside of the waistband to support the button attachment, as do the Kirkland pants.
Kirkland also seems to have copied the way Lululemon stitches the seam running along the inside of the leg. On most pants, this flat felled seam results in a flap of fabric inside the leg of the garment. Lululemon stitches this flap down, presumably for comfort; Kirkland’s pants have the same sewn-down flap.
The pockets of the two pants have similar geometries, and while Kirkland’s pockets have a slightly longer opening, they are visually similar, from the placement of the rivets to the nearly identical construction of the watch pockets. (However, the major downside of copying an entire garment is that the design flaws also get copied: Both pants have a zippered back pocket that’s too shallow for a regular-size wallet or a passport, which makes it functionally useless, in my opinion.)
But what really stood out was the difference between these two pants — and in comparing them, I noticed just how thoughtfully Lululemon’s pants were designed.
Whereas Kirkland uses an exposed elastic waistband, Lululemon has a double-lined waistband that uses the same Warpstreme fabric as the rest of the pants. That extra fabric on the ABC pants creates a more substantial waistband that is likely to last a lot longer and less likely to bag out or crumple in on itself.
Smaller details also shine in the ABC pants. Lululemon uses an anodized-metal button, whereas Kirkland uses a painted-metal button (which was flaking before I put it on). The ABC pants have a reinforced bar tack on the opposite side of the belt loops — an invisible little detail that will make them far more durable and is absent on Kirkland’s pants. (Though it hasn’t happened to me, I would not be surprised if the first point of failure on Kirkland’s pants were a belt loop ripping off.)
The ABC pants have a cleaner overall finish. They have no loose threads anywhere, and even the inner seams are sewn more cleanly and neatly than in the Kirkland pants. Kirkland’s inner seams are messy, and both back pockets have long loose threads. Lululemon appears to have spent considerable time refining its design in ways that would require extra manufacturing steps, resulting in a really polished, well-finished garment.
