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We love us some fun, comfortable, FUNCTIONAL clothing designed with outdoor adventure in mind. Especially clothing that solves a problem or fills a need. Which is why from the first time we put on a pair of Gnara Go There Hiking Pants, we knew it was not only brand we could stand behind, but one that made high quality products, too. So when the brand recently launched their Gnara Go Free 7/8 Leggings, we knew we had to try them immediately to see if we were as obsessed with them as we are the Hiking Pants and Shorts.
What’s the big deal with Gnara products to begin with? Easy: they design pants and shorts specifically for people who squat to pee and would rather not get half naked in order to do so in the great outdoors. So all their products include their patented GoFly technology: an extra zipper that starts below the normal zipper fly (on the hiking pants and shorts) and extends all the way to the back waistband. It allows you to go to the bathroom outdoors simply by unzipping and assuming your preferred position. No pants around your ankles, no exposing yourself to passing Boy Scouts, no holding it till you get back to the trailhead or dehydrating yourself so you won’t have to pee while you’re in the wilderness. Just an easy, discreet way to pee outside.
The leggings are similar in design, but feature a few tweaks to the zipper that make more sense for form-fitting leggings. The best part? Now you can layer your Go Free Leggings under your Go There Pants for warmth and still enjoy easy bathroom breaks in cold weather! Brilliant! We tested the new Go Free Leggings to see how they functioned.
Gnara Leggings Review
Who Are the Go Free Leggings For?
The Gnara Go Free Leggings are designed for anyone and everyone who squats to pee and would rather not get caught with their pants around their ankles when they stop for a pee break on the trail, while climbing, or at work outdoors. In fact, they let you pee with confidence without exposing yourself at all.
I love the patented GoFly technology (what Gnara dubs their zipper tech) for backpacking, hiking, any activities where you have to wear a harness (no one wants to have to remove their harness to go to the bathroom), even when traveling when you find yourself in less-than-ideal bathroom situations.
Frankly, the option to keep your pants up while relieving yourself is a game-changer. And yes, it works beautifully with a female urination device or pee funnel. And no, you don’t have to be shy about peeing in the woods to love them. I’m not, but dang if having a pee zipper doesn’t make it faster and easier. You don’t even have to take off your backpack!
Function
But how do they work? These leggings do precisely what they are designed to do: make peeing outdoors easier whether you’re wearing them on their own or as part of a layering system. The small, invisible zipper starts right at the front of your crotch, the zipper pull tucks into a little fabric flap Gnara calls the zipper garage, and the zipper extends all the way to the back waistband. It makes for a nice wide opening out of which to pee.
That said, not only is the zipper smaller, so is the zipper pull. And because of the combo of stretchy material, no strong seams like on the hiking pants, and a much smaller pull, the zipper was harder to operate while wearing even thin liner gloves. It was also hard to grab with numb bare fingers, but that could be at least partially solved by adding on a longer or bulkier pull or piece of cord, which is an easy DIY and something hikers with larger bodies may need to do anyway to help them reach.
Also, the zipper pull got wedged in the garage on multiple occasions so that I had to dig around to get it out. Not ideal when you have to pee. Also, if you have particularly large fingers, you may have some difficulty tucking it in and finagling it out.
The zipper also takes two hands to operate, unlike the Go There Pants and Shorts, which I could easily zip and unzip with one hand. With the leggings you have to pull up on the back seam to create tension in order to zip the fly closed. So the zippers take a bit of getting used to and aren’t quite as easily useable in all situations. But what about other features?
I also appreciate the deep side pockets–there are two. Maybe “appreciate” isn’t the right word, because I refuse to even consider leggings without pockets. And Gnara gets that. There was plenty of room in them for an iPhone 15 Pro or snacks.
Fabric
These new leggings are made of a lovely durable, thick, snag-resistant material. It’s some of the nicest we’ve tested when it comes to hiking tights. Not soft-to-the-touch like a fluffy koala, per se, but definitely smooth. It’s dense, so better for cool-weather adventures, and not overly stretchy. By which I mean it’s more compressive activewear than it is loungewear. There’s still plenty of stretch and give, though, and I loved the functionality for cool hikes and lifting sessions.
The material is made out of recycled materials, which is also a plus.
Look
Straight up, these leggings make my legs look fire. The compressive material and seams are perfect for sculpting and smoothing and I love the way they look. HOWEVER! There are a few things I didn’t love as much as I hoped. And most of it had to do with the zipper.
For starters–and this is absolutely preference-based–the placement of the zipper all the way up the back of the pants tended to bubble out just a touch on me. This could be a personal fit issue, but it seems worth noting, especially given the popularity of leggings that are designed to really accentuate your cheeks. They don’t do that. Not from the middle, anyway.
But more importantly, I hoped to be able to use these for layering on winter hikes AND on their own at the gym, but I got pretty self conscious when wearing them by themselves. Here’s why: the zipper pull not only doesn’t always stay put in it’s garage, but anyone standing within 10 feet can see the bumps and ridges the zipper and pull create right on your crotch. They’d have to be looking closely, but if I’m wearing leggings in public, I always assume someone is looking closely. And I was super self-conscious about it.
The only thing worse than having a tiny zipper pull dangling visibly from your crotch (which is visible from more than 10 feet away) is trying to tuck it back in without anyone noticing. It was awkward. But again, if that doesn’t bother you, then get after it!
Fit
The one thing we think could be improved on these leggings is fit. And we’re not the only ones who think so. We compared our experience to other reviews and it seems that anyone with an average leg-to-waist ratio OR with large thighs but a thinner waist has trouble with these. That includes me.
But first things first: sizing isn’t comparable to other Gnara products. I wear the smallest size Gnara makes in their pants and shorts (00) and they fit well, but if they were a centimeter wider they’d be too large. I tried an XS in the Go Free Leggings after consulting the size chart and couldn’t even get my feet through the ankle holes (because the fabric is so nice and dense). So I sized up to a small. The high waist fits perfectly–not too big or too small–but the legs are still too tight.
On the upside (and this is a huge plus), the leggings are available up to a 3XL. Gnara is committed to making apparel for all bodies, and that includes leggings.
But back to fit. Because the legs were too tight, it meant when I pulled them up where they were supposed to sit on my waist and near my crotch, they feel nice and fitted. The waist wasn’t too tight or too loose. Perfect. But! Within minutes they started to sag. That’s because the waist isn’t tight enough to keep them up and the legs are so tight they are seeking the path of least resistance and sliding downward toward my calves. As a result, every five minutes I had to grab a handful of the fabric around my thighs and yank upward so the crotch doesn’t end up halfway down my legs.
I hope that with time and wear they’ll loosen up a bit, but given the high quality and density of the fabric, I’m not holing my breath.
Do take this with a grain of salt, of course, because this doesn’t seem to be women’s experience across the board. In fact, if you have thinner legs and a larger waist, you’ll probably be just fine. But thanks to the combination of the cut and super compressive fabric, they won’t fit perfectly on all bodies. And if you’re especially tall and slim, some reviewers found the hem was rather short.
Underwear or Commando?
But let’s get to the question on everyone’s mind: can you wear them commando or do you have to wear underwear? Well, that’s up to you. Personally, I never wear leggings without underwear, it makes me nervous. And it’s no different with the Go Free Leggings. Not because I’m afraid they’ll be see-through (they’re not) or will pop open (highly doubt it), it’s just personal preference. Plus the liner takes some getting used to, feel-wise.
Yes, the liner that separates your body from the zipper is soft and smooth, but you can still feel the slight irregularities of the zipper and the extra fabric against your sensitive bits if the leggings are tight against your body or if you sit down. If you’re cool with how that feels, you do you. You probably don’t need to worry about zipping anything up on accident. But it definitely doesn’t feel as smooth and comfortable as regular leggings. And I wouldn’t ride a bike in them because you’d be sitting right on the zipper.
Gnara Leggings Review: Bottom Line
While I love Gnara’s Go There Hiking Pants, I couldn’t quite fall in love with the leggings. The bumpy zipper garage made me self conscious when wearing them as leggings to the gym, the zipper pull often popped out and I had to figure out how to surreptitiously tuck it back in, and the legs were too tight so they caused the leggings to sag constantly. The zipper wasn’t quite as easy to use in the cold as I hoped, either.
That said, when snowshoeing, I absolutely appreciated that I didn’t have to yank multiple layers of fabric down and back up again in order to pee. It wasn’t as fast a process as just using the Go There Hiking Pants on their own, but it was much quicker than I managed to go when I was wearing “regular” pants and leggings. And let me tell you how nice it is not to expose your whole butt to the cold winter wind!
So basically, if you are able to try on a pair and find the leggings fit you perfectly and don’t sag, they make an excellent layering piece. In fact, I think they’re better for layering than wearing on their own given the zipper garage bulge. But again, if that doesn’t make you self conscious, then they’re also a sturdy, comfortable, durable pair of leggings that are designed for adventure and I can recommend them whole-heartedly.
Alisha is a freelance outdoor journalist and photographer based in Ogden, UT. She loves backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking and snowboarding (even though she’s terrible at it). She’s also pretty sure she’s addicted to coffee. alishamcdarris.com