Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

DEAR COLUMBIA, I'll be glad to evaluate future designs targeted at older men who are used to comfortable, well-made, functional clothing and don't care about making a fashion statement. We have a reasonable amount of money to spend and would like our clothes back, please. Shorts for middle-aged Men, even those willing to spend more than $17 at the local department/clothing/grocery store, are in a "crisis situation", to borrow a favorite phrase from the media. I have thoroughly enjoyed the pair of Columbia cargo shorts in the photos for years. Having found that today's fashion in short pants mimics skinny suits targeted at metro males, I was excited to the Columbia Men's Brewha short that I mistakenly thought were the same shorts still in production today because they look nearly identical. Forty bucks isn't a bargain, but would have been a solid VALUE for more shorts like I have that are getting on in years. I found that Columbia has succumbed to the skinny craze. The first photo, darker color are my originals, shows how much fabric - and comfort - has been removed from the seat. There things bind. I'm 5'6, 175 LB, and the darker pair of Mediums are very comfortable; not so with the new ones that are going back from whence they came. What's the first word in the Cargo Shorts phrase? Cargo. Abandon any hope of carrying capacity here. The old pockets are 8" deep at their shallowest area toward the side of the shorts; these new ones are only 6.25" deep. The pocket photo, with the waist band bottoms aligned, shows the entirely unsatisfactory shortening of the pocket. I wouldn't want either my keys or phone in one of those shallow pocket-like contraptions. And forget the useless thing called something like a beverage pocket. I did successfully jam a half-liter water bottle in, but not while I was wearing them, and can imagine what that would feel like. Maybe a juice pouch... Columbia even replaced the rugged YKK zipper on the right in the zipper detail photo with a delicate YKK zipper that belongs on a lady's dress, with a correspondingly-dainty little pull that's about a third the old size. These may suit you fine if you enjoy skinny suits and buy "cargo shorts" for fashion and not the potential to comfortably carry much - and don't mind your phone sticking out of the top of the pocket. Look elsewhere if you're a man who enjoys comfortable, functional cargo shorts. I wish I could recommend that place, but I've come up empty. Not to be totally negative (honesty sounds that way sometimes, doesn't it?), the fabric on the old and new pair feel to be of similar weight, but that's after the old pair has had an untold number of washings over the years. There - you've been either warned or encouraged. My job here is done.