Last year, making some regular money again and with a view towards a summer trip to China (to celebrate our wedding there, with the Chinese family, finally…), I decided to spring for Arc’teryx Veilance’s Voronoi pants in their light summer version.

These Voronoi pants have been changed from their earlier cotton-nylon material, which seemed the same as the material used in the cargo pants that simply disintegrated with use, to a ‘plainer’ nylon as is also used for the Blazer LT.

(Arc’teryx describes it as “Stretch woven plain weave: 94% nylon, 6% elastane”)

I’d had the earlier Cargo Pants (and Voronoi), and they put me off Veilance pants just as the Spec pants had left me interested in them.

(Whenever I travel into cities or mountains in the cold, it’s still the Spec pants with their windstopper material and on-thigh cargo pockets I happily unpack and use.)

Then I got a Blazer LT in black (and another one from an outlet in Sand color) for the summer and liked that material enough to want to see about the Voronoi in the same fabric.

Veilance Voronoi Pant

These pants, surprisingly enough considering the issues I’d had with both the material and the cut of the earlier ones, turned out just about perfect for my needs and wants.

They are very light and quick-drying, but also durable, meaning that it is no problem to wear them in the heat and humidity of Southern China’s summers, look good, and be pretty comfortable.

With their peculiar pattern and cut, they are not your ordinary pair of pants, but the peculiarity (and luxury, considering the price) of them is nicely hidden in the details; there is nothing that would scream “special” to the person who doesn’t already know what they are seeing.

Unlike other recent Veilance pants, these Voronoi are not cut so tight (“tapered”) in the lower leg that a runner like me can’t fit, let alone lift his knee, in them anymore.

The pocket configuration here is ordinary, if integrated nicely into the special cut pattern, not giving quite the technical menswear versatility I would have liked, but fitting into a normal “technical apparel” wardrobe all the better for it.

All around good, then – and you can still/again get them this spring/summer season.

Veilance Align Pant

Spring/summer 2017, Arc’teryx released a new version of thei Align pants, with a rather more special (seemingly) cargo pocket-inspired design, too.

I thought I might really like that, but there was also yet another of the cotton-nylon blends similar to the dangerous first generation Voronoi and/or Cargo Pants…

It seemed a gamble, but I thought I’d try; the return policy is good enough.

Well, as you can see and hear in my review video, here Veilance experimented far too badly again, in my opinion:

The material might be more durable this time around, or it might not be, but they definitely only work for you if you have very thin lower legs and do not mind sitting on almost anything you put into the cargo/back pockets.

Not for me.

Let’s see now.

I still have the oldest pair of Thunderbolt Sportswear’s softshell jeans in all of Europe, probably, a MarkII version of those, the Spec and Voronoi pants… and there are quite a few technical menswear specialists around, so I should either do with what I have now, or check out something from another brand.

Recommendations? Wishes?