# Are sweatpants considered "sloppy" when worn in public?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 12, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203 "2010-05-12T18:54:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/41 "2010-05-12T20:20:26Z")
> [@cantara](#):
>
> Thank god he wasn’t wearing [these](http://otomix.stores.yahoo.net/rawopa.html).
Dear God, why?
I don’t wear sweats, pretty much ever, but I will equate them to my pajama pants. I wear them indoors to be comfy, and maybe to take out the trash. On rare, rare occasion I will wear them if I am feeling terrible and just running a quick errand that usually doesn’t require I get out of the car for more than a minute.
---
### Author:  [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/42 "2010-05-12T20:24:46Z")
> [@cantara](#):
>
> Thank god he wasn’t wearing [these](http://otomix.stores.yahoo.net/rawopa.html). These types of pants are a travesty. I can’t believe my eyes when I see people wearing these…in public! Oddly, I see them (too) frequently worn by the scalpers working the corners around downtown.
1984 called and it wants its pants back.
IMHO, sweatpants aren’t even good for working out- they’re usually cotton, which is a terrible fabric for workout gear b/c it absorbs moisture. The only good purpose for sweatpants is wearing them in the winter, after you have changed out of your work clothes at the end of the day and you want to lounge in front of the TV. And yes, whenever I see someone out in public in sweats, I assume that they’re telling the world they have stopped caring about their appearance.
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/43 "2010-05-12T20:30:06Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I agree with the others. Yes, I’ll occasionally make a quick run down to the mini-mart on a Saturday morning while wearing sweat pants, but i do consider them inappropriate for ‘being out in public’. Not that I care what people think, but I prefer to at least wear jeans or even fatigue pants.
>
> The larger issue as I see it is that Oni no Husband knows it bothers you when he wears sweats in public, and he insists on wearing them anyway. Seems disrespectful, IYAM.
A man may disrespect his wife by how he dresses? Man, if you turned that around, you’d be seriously sexist.
I probably wouldn’t wear sweats out apartment hunting, but I don’t think it would really matter. I’m the consumer in those situations–they’re there to impress me, not the other way around. Then again, there’s something of a housing glut where I live–lots of cheap land west of town with more infrastructure than we know what to do with. It might be different in New York or San Francisco.
---
### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/44 "2010-05-12T20:33:12Z")
> [@StusBlues](#):
>
> A man may disrespect his wife by how he dresses? Man, if you turned that around, you’d be seriously sexist.
Really? So if I were your wife and wore very skimpy trashy clothes, that wouldn’t be disrespectful to you? How about if you feel very strongly that I shouldn’t do something, and I had no consideration for your feelings about it whatsover, and just continued to blunder along stubbornly, claiming my rights to do so as the consumer? Not disrespectful?
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/45 "2010-05-12T20:35:56Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#):
>
> Really? So if I were your wife and wore very skimpy trashy clothes, that wouldn’t be disrespectful to you? How about if you feel very strongly that I shouldn’t do something, and I had no consideration for your feelings about it whatsover, and just continued to blunder along stubbornly, claiming my rights to do so as the consumer? Not disrespectful?
Hey, you said it, not me.
---
### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/46 "2010-05-12T20:37:21Z")
That’s not an answer. Do you think those things would not be disrespectful to you?
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/47 "2010-05-12T20:39:29Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#):
>
> That’s not an answer. Do you think those things would not be disrespectful to you?
Nope. Her life, her choice.
---
### Author:  [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/48 "2010-05-12T20:40:20Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> Close the thread. Asked and answered.
>
> Edit: In regard to post #2, that is, although #3 is fine too.
Ditto.
---
### Author:  [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/49 "2010-05-12T20:41:19Z")
> [@StusBlues](#):
>
> Nope. Her life, her choice.
Your wife, your choice, too, I guess, but I rather like consideration for my thoughts and feelings in a spouse. I’m goofy like that.
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/50 "2010-05-12T20:44:28Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#):
>
> Your wife, your choice, too, I guess, but I rather like consideration for my thoughts and feelings in a spouse. I’m goofy like that.
Ma’am, it’s sweatpants, not pimp-slapping your mother.
More to the point, any woman who tries to “make me go home and change” can consider herself dumped. I rather like consideration for my thoughts and feelings in a spouse as well.
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/51 "2010-05-12T20:47:09Z")
> [@StusBlues](#):
>
> A man may disrespect his wife by how he dresses? Man, if you turned that around, you’d be seriously sexist.
>
> I probably wouldn’t wear sweats out apartment hunting, but I don’t think it would really matter. I’m the consumer in those situations–they’re there to impress me, not the other way around. Then again, there’s something of a housing glut where I live–lots of cheap land west of town with more infrastructure than we know what to do with. It might be different in New York or San Francisco.
Just to clarify my remarks: if the OP really means that her spouse was seriously endangering their opportunity for a nice place, then I do agree with her. That makes a diffrerence.
---
### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/52 "2010-05-12T20:56:05Z")
A landlord is not going to rent to a guy in sweatpants? I could see that at a high end place but maybe not most places.
---
### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/53 "2010-05-12T21:00:51Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#):
>
> A landlord is not going to rent to a guy in sweatpants? I could see that at a high end place but maybe not most places.
A landlord is concerned about how potential renters will care for his/her property. They don’t want to rent to careless slobs. Wearing sweatpants in public (in most cases) makes you look like a careless slob.
Yes, a landlord might rent to a person in sweats, but wearing them will probably hurt your chances of getting the place you want.
---
### Author:  [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/54 "2010-05-12T21:09:42Z")
> [@Shodan](#):
>
> Unless the Dope is willing to add “while out for a late walk around the subdivision” to Appropriate Times to Wear Sweatpants, I am in trouble.
>
> But I am hard pressed to come up with an occasion where jeans would be appropriate and sweats would not. I am talking about slop jeans, not the dress kind. And I tend in the direction of over-dressed rather than under.
>
> Regards,
> Shodan
The first part of your post gets a pass. I will walk to the corner store at 7 am for milk wearing sweat pants. The second well, I wear jeans most of the time Im not at work, usually with a blouse or a sweater. At work I wear uniforms. Church, or interviews, or dinners out get dressy pants. I think jeans and a blouse with shoes not flip flops would be acceptable for apartment housing.
---
### Author:  [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/55 "2010-05-12T21:21:35Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#):
>
> A landlord is concerned about how potential renters will care for his/her property. They don’t want to rent to careless slobs. Wearing sweatpants in public (in most cases) makes you look like a careless slob.
>
> Yes, a landlord might rent to a person in sweats, but wearing them will probably hurt your chances of getting the place you want.
I do think there’s a culture gap on this issue. In major metro areas, housing is at such a premium that landlords may have multiple applicants for every single unit they have open. In that case, it’s more like a job interview, and wearing sweats may well be suicidal.
I’ve never lived in a major metro. I’ve lived in small midwestern cities my whole life–with the exception of a very unfortunate 18 months in Erie, Pennsylvania, which is only a few miles from being midwestern. In these towns, land tends to be cheap (there’s always some farmer on the outskirts of town who retires and sells his spread to a housing developer) and housing is plentiful. The last place I rented I got on a phone call and leased sight unseen–granted, I knew the place already. As such, landlords are really working hard for full occupancy. It’s a buyers’ market, and it really doesn’t matter what you’re wearing.
---
### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/56 "2010-05-12T21:27:39Z")
Sweatpants are awful. I don’t even own any. Weirdly enough my most comfortable pair of pants is also one of my nicest–I have these designer skinny jeans in black that look awesome but are super soft (they’re technically not jeans, I guess, because there’s no denim but they look like jeans).
---
### Author:  [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/57 "2010-05-12T21:27:45Z")
When I rented places there was always a surplus so I doubt they cared much about who they rented to. As long as you didn’t look like death warmed over or were bleeding you got the place.
---
### Author:  [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/58 "2010-05-12T22:46:30Z")
I didn’t even own a pair for a decade. Then I had surgery and it was so much easier to wear them while I recovered. I had nice-ish ones that I wore to work until I wasn’t afraid of a zipper rubbing on my scars.
I have a couple pairs now. They are for working out, doing stuff around the house, or emergency back up on laundry day.
Even really nice, really expensive ones just to me are ugly. I don’t care if your sweats cost more than my outfit, to me it still looks trashy.
And the trend seems to be winding down, but I LOATHED the ones that were fashionable for a while with the words across the ass. Hey. you’re not juicy if you’re an adult on a date wearing sweats to a nice restaurant.
---
### Author:  [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/59 "2010-05-12T23:03:10Z")
Can I wear my [cute yoga capris](http://www.greenappleactive.com/index.php?page=product&product=36&cart=0) out in public? Need answer fast!
---
### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [May 12, 2010, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203/60 "2010-05-12T23:10:00Z")
Screw you guys. I heart flip-flops and I will continue to wear them everywhere I go. Well, except work. They get grumpy when I do that.
But sweatpants? Ew.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203.md?page=2)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-sweatpants-considered-sloppy-when-worn-in-public/539203.md?page=4)