adding stirrup to softshell pants?

I'm thinking of somehow adding a stirrup to my bootcut softshell pants. The goal is go get the pants to keep the laces and upper boot covered so that I can ditch the gaiters. The best idea I've had so far is to add a self piercing grommet on each side of the cuff, then run a cord (probably thin bungee) from grommet to grommet.

Has anyone tried this or something similar? What were your results? Any tips?

Best simple solution I've seen is a seam grip "grommet". Put a glob of seam grip or equivalent on the inside and outside of the cuff and let dry. Then heat up a knife or paper clip and melt through the outside seam grip glob, the fabric, and the inside glob. Repeat on the opposite side of the cuff. Tie thin bungee cord through the two holes you made, with appropriate length to hold the cuff down over your boots.

The grommet is the best idea i think. You can get the kit from home depot or any other hardware store. What about sewing in a heavy elastic band? Bring the pants to a taylor and see what kind of elastic they have or bring your own piece staple it in the position/length you want and ask them to bar tack it.

Most of my pants came with them but I have added grommets to a pair of Rab pants. Actually, I paid a seamstress $5 to do it. I then bought bungy cord, knotted one side and put a cord lock on the other. The cord can be inserted when needed and taken out when not.

the grommet kit thing works fine. only caution is if you "over-drive" the two parts of the grommet you can end up with some sharp edges on the inside of the pant - potentially abrading your boot or cutting the bungie cord more quickly than it normally wears out.

otherwise it works fine.

Thank you all for the replies.

I found a 1/4" grommet tapping kit at Home Depot for $7. Here's the results. I don't have the right cordage yet but you get the idea.

Nice job adding the grommets. Definitely run with the stirrups. Gaiters are the devil. They trap moisture on your lower legs and boots. A small amount of ventilation at the bottom of your pants will do wonders to keep everything dry and will keep you warmer.

grommets work well for a small amount of snow. For lots of snow you will still need real gaitors

clay meier wrote:grommets work well for a small amount of snow. For lots of snow you will still need real gaitors

Ray Pinpillage wrote: I've been in a lot of snow without gators. I'm done with gators.

Patrick Carey wrote:Gaiters are the devil. They trap moisture on your lower legs and boots. A small amount of ventilation at the bottom of your pants will do wonders to keep everything dry and will keep you warmer.

I have done this before and it is super burly for my ice craiging pants, but a bit heavy for alpine uses.

1. Stitch a loop of fabric to the inside of the pants right above the hem.
2. Take a small piece of cord and put it through the loop of fabric. The ~4mm cord will be about 2.5 inches long.
3. Take a bungee cord and cut it in 1/2 lengthwise with a razor. Then cut it to length for it to run from one side of your pants to the other to go under your boot. one of these; bungeeco.com/product_detail…
4. Take a piece of shrink tubing and put it over the bungee
5. Attach the bungee to the cord using a Hog ring and a Crimping tool; bungeeco.com/subcategory.ph… & bungeeco.com/product_detail…
6. Pull the shrink tubing over the cord/hot tie/bungee interface and shrink it with a lighter.

PROs;
almost indestructible.

Cons;
heavy
$$
time consuming

jon jugenheimer wrote:I have done this before and it is super burly for my ice craiging pants, but a bit heavy for alpine uses. 1. Stitch a loop of fabric to the inside of the pants right above the hem. 2. Take a small piece of cord and put it through the loop of fabric. The ~4mm cord will be about 2.5 inches long. 3. Take a bungee cord and cut it in 1/2 lengthwise with a razor. Then cut it to length for it to run from one side of your pants to the other to go under your boot. one of these; bungeeco.com/product_detail… 4. Take a piece of shrink tubing and put it over the bungee 5. Attach the bungee to the cord using a Hog ring and a Crimping tool; bungeeco.com/subcategory.ph… & bungeeco.com/product_detail… 6. Pull the shrink tubing over the cord/hot tie/bungee interface and shrink it with a lighter. PROs; almost indestructible. Cons; heavy $$ time consuming

yeah, I can do that. I get home from a work trip this weekend and will put a few up of the tools and final product.

I've done this to 2 sets of pants by adding a loop at the seam instead of the grommet, but it looks like the grommet will work OK, too. When you add the bungee cord, make it so it has 2 strands of loop at the bottom for redundancy, they take a lot of abuse on approaches. The smaller black bungee cord is perfect for this and very lightweight too.

Here is a picture of a pair of pants I had done recently. I had the hem taken up and the grommets added at the same time.
The cord is the same as I do it for all of my pants with grommets; a barrel knot at one end and a cord lock at the other. This way I can remove the cord as needed. I have 100' in my garage so wearing out cord isn't a concern although I have never worn the cord out even doing a lot of scree.

So, on this. I find that there's a lot of cord sticking out, anyone got good advice on this? I've done the same thing with my OR pants.

Cale Hoopes wrote:So, on this. I find that there's a lot of cord sticking out, anyone got good advice on this? I've done the same thing with my OR pants.

Cale Hoopes wrote:So, on this. I find that there's a lot of cord sticking out, anyone got good advice on this? I've done the same thing with my OR pants.