I've reached the age where I've pretty much stopped caring what people think about the way I look, what I wear, the sort of car I drive, etc... Well... at least most people, most of the time. So, I like to wear overalls because they're comfortable (no belt!) and durable and they have lots of pockets for stuff. However, it's HARD to find ANY overalls in a physical store these days (at least where I live, in Los Angeles, where they're admittedly not so popular). If you can even find an army/navy store, you're lucky if they have even one brand, and if you happen to not be a super-popular size, you've probably wasted the drive. Thus, I've usually been buying my overalls from thrift stores... bigger ones with a clean, well-organized selection like Blue Iguana on Hollywood Blvd. But even temples to re-use like BI usually have no more than a dozen or two pair, of various brands/sizes/conditions, so there's still a lot of luck involved in finding a decent pair that fits, and they'll still wind up costing you $30+ even used. That's where Amazon comes in of course. Not to disparage our host, but I'm actually not a huge fan of online shopping (or shopping in general), ecommerce, or Mr. Bezos. But I need (OK: I *want*) overalls, so I squelch my distaste for consumerism and buy them here. Carhartts, though well-made, are WAY too expensive and to be honest, I'd feel like a trust-fund Brooklyn tech-bro hipster wearing that label in public here (which is a fault of mine of course, not of the brand). Dickies are a good, more reasonably-priced alternative, and there was a time (back when Sears and K-Mart still had physical stores here in SoCal) when you might actually FIND a pair of Dickies on a store shelf in the right size, but that was a while ago. Which mostly just leaves Liberty men's bib overalls, which are frankly kind of awesome! :-) They're basically just like Dickies more or less, except Liberty overalls have that green zippered pocket across the chest, no matter what color the overalls are. I happen to LIKE that detail, though I suppose you might not. The price is fair for the quality (about $35ish usually, at least in/around my size) and jeez, are they comfortable! As mentioned, I'm too old to care about fashion, so I've even been buying them with a waist size a few inches bigger than absolutely necessary (at least, so far ;-)) and aside from a slight bit of excess baggyness, it hardly matters, plus: they're SO DAMN COMFORTABLE! Did I say that already? My ONLY complaint is the lack of color choices... in my size, it's just denim, duck brown, and grey. Don't get me wrong: I'm *grateful* to have the grey (they're my favorites actually) and some brands don't even have three colors in my size, but I'd buy MORE of these if they came in more colors. They don't come in that blue/white stripey pattern at all (I forget what that's called... something to do with railroads maybe?), and black is not an option in my size. :-( IMO, there should be a rustic, desaturated orange, a darker brown, and two or three greens (say: olive, sage, and forest). If there were, I'd have one of each. At least. Of course, economies of scale and all that, blah, blah, blah... So: just a few colors to choose from (at most). Other than that, Liberty men's bib overalls are highly recommended by me, a noted curmudgeon. -Scott :-)
