From Outside Online
For the past few years, Mountain Khakis, the upstart pant maker out of Jackson, Wyoming, had the market cornered on tough-but-casual pants. In case you’re not familiar, they’re basically a cross between Gap chinos and Carhartts. Stylish and low-key enough to wear to the office or bar, but tough enough, thanks to their durable ten-ounce cotton canvas material and things like triple-stitching and reinforced rear cuffs, to stand up to weekends of abuse outdoors. (Note: If you bought a pair when they first came out, like I did, the legs were tapered a bit, not nearly as bad as your old Gramiccis, but not quite wide enough to fit over Sorels…in any event, they’ve since relaxed the cut a bit.)
And now they’ve got some competition with Brooklyn, NY¬based Oxen Workwear, Inc. 
Whereas Mountain Khakis’ reinforcements are more subtle, making them look more like Gap chinos than Carhartts, Oxen Workwear’s Double Knee Carpenter Pants ($74), with their double panels on the knees, are more akin to Carhartts. But unlike Carhartts, Oxen’s pants aren’t as stiff as cardboard when you buy them and they have a looser cut than the originals.
Now hold on a minute. Perhaps you’re thinking: Gimme a break, working-man pants marketed at hipsters, wanna-be carpenters, and urban-dwelling, slack-jawed, iPhone-owning posers? These represent everything that’s wrong with America! Well, if that’s the case, you’re probably being a bit melodramatic. They’re just pants, after all, and, if you’re like me, and don’t have any hang-ups about your manhood or profession, you’d probably get a lot of use out of sturdy pants like these. (Second note: As with Mountain Khakis, they also have a few other styles, including jeans.) We just got a few pairs sent here in the office. And while they fit great, if a bit too low on the hips on the scrawnier guys here, we haven’t yet had enough time to test their durability. Look for a pants smackdown in the future—in which we put a bunch of pants head-to-head in a durability test—but our initial impression is two thumbs up. —Sam Moulton