# Small Pockets in Men's Pants **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061 "2017-10-05T21:37:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/21 "2017-10-06T00:39:37Z")
I keep my keys in it. I don’t have many, so it’s just the right size for now. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/22 "2017-10-06T01:26:20Z")
When I was a lad, people often carried cigarette lighters in that pocket. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/23 "2017-10-06T01:27:25Z")
If you’re a pool boy at an expensive resort and a hot woman gives you her room key, you hide it in there. So when the [del]goons[/del]associates of her boyfriend/husband/father search you, they can’t find it. I saw a documentary on TV about this once. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/24 "2017-10-06T01:33:32Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Pocket watch. Don’t people still use them? 🙂 I do (I refuse to wear anything on my wrists or hands) and mine won’t fit in that pocket. I keep it in the fishing vest I usually wear, but I believe that well-dressed men of the past kept them in a vest/waistcoat pocket and the chain would link to the button holes. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/25 "2017-10-06T01:36:26Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > I used to carry a pocket watch, and used that pocket for it, but now I use my phone as a fancy watch (which lives in my left front pocket) and keep change in the watch pocket. So the new Millennial style for jeans should include a suitably-sized-and-positioned iPocket. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/26 "2017-10-06T05:44:46Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So the new Millennial style for jeans should include a suitably-sized-and-positioned iPocket. My jeans have a cell phone pocket. However it seems sized for a small flip phone and won’t hold an average sized smartphone. Also it seems to be positioned so I would sit on the phone if I kept it in there. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/27 "2017-10-06T13:39:23Z")
> [@UncleFred](#): > > Jeans still have small pockets (above the front right pocket) that I assume harken back to pocket watches. And many dress pants have small pockets down inside the front right pocket. … These are two very different pockets for two very different purposes. As said by many posters above, the first is a vestigial watch pocket. Now re-purposed for change, guitar picks, etc. The second is an invention of the last 10 years: a mobile phone pocket. By holding the phone on the inside of the pocket and above the bottom it reduces the bulge. Which makes dress pants hang better. And yes, if your phone doesn’t fit the inner pocket then it’s mostly a nuisance that catches loose change and other hard-to-extract items. As said by other posters above, these pockets have mostly not kept pace with the recent growth in the size of smartphones. Whether they’ll catch up or wither away instead is an open question. Likewise whether phones will keep getting bigger or we’re about to see the opposite trend; some kind of wearable replacement for the screen and a phone more the size of the old flip phones but slim. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/28 "2017-10-06T14:27:34Z")
On a late night rerun of the old I’ve Got a Secret game show I saw an Army officer whose secret was that he had saved the government a lot of money by specifying that the obsolete watch pocket be eliminated on uniforms … saved something like 10 cents on each pair of pants. The show was from the late 50s or early 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/29 "2017-10-06T14:48:01Z")
A Fancy Man would keep his pocket watch in a vest pocket, a chain linking it to a vest button or buttonhole, as **Ascenray** said. If no vest, the chain would be linked to a belt-loop and the watch kept in the front right trouser pocket, the chain creating a graceful swoop up the right side of your pants. A workingman wearing five-pocket jeans would have his watch on a worn leather fob, which hangs out of the fifth pocket. You yank the watch out by the fob to check the time, then slip the watch back in. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/30 "2017-10-06T14:51:43Z")
You hook your thumb in the pocket while leaning against a lamp post on a rain-slickened street corner while saxophone music spills out of the jazz club across the street. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/31 "2017-10-06T14:55:17Z")
Zoot Suits didn’t come with vests, and the Zoot Suiters favored long, long watchchains (complementing the exaggerations of the suit). These were also a source of entertainment, as you could nonchalantly swing it in a circle while leaning against a lamp post and eyeballing the skirts walking by. > **[Evil-Eye Fleegle (Character) - Comic Vine](https://comicvine.gamespot.com/evil-eye-fleegle/4005-67696/)** > > You want to stay clear of his triple whammy, for that matter you want to stay clear of a single whammy. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/32 "2017-10-06T14:59:30Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Actually, the pockets seem to be shrinking – the watch pockets on some of my jeans are definitely smaller than others. > > … Yes I have noticed that. Some are perfect for change, others are just too small/deep to get at what one needs. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/33 "2017-10-06T15:22:35Z")
> [@Crazy\_Canuck](#): > > I call those “lighter pockets.” They’re usually the perfect shape for a zippo. This is what I’ve always used it for. Carried a zippo in there when I carried zippos, now I carry a Bic but it’s still in that same pocket. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/34 "2017-10-06T15:52:56Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So the new Millennial style for jeans should include a suitably-sized-and-positioned iPocket. Actually the fifth pocket is the perfect size for my iPod Nano. So it’s already sort of an iPocket. (No way you could fit a phone in there though.) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/35 "2017-10-06T16:33:56Z")
Weed. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/36 "2017-10-06T17:05:45Z")
Kids these days, its for a condom. You put one in there when you go to a singles bar. At least that what we used them for in my twenties. Girls would poke their fingers in them to see if you had one, if you didn’t you asked around for one because you found a sure thing. ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/37 "2017-10-06T17:45:22Z")
Can’t believe this [picture of Steve Jobs](http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/150479/steve-jobs.jpg) dramatically revealing the ipod Nano for that pocket hasn’t been posted. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/38 "2017-10-06T18:13:59Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Back when I carried pocket watches I almost always carried them in the fifth pocket. I don’t remember ever owning any jeans in which the pocket was too small. I have to retract this, at least a little. In the late 1990s I bought at least one pair of jeans in which the fifth pocket would have been far too small for a watch. At the time I already owned a couple more pairs of the same jeans, having bought them several years earlier. I noticed later that the older pairs had been manufactured in the United States, while the newer pair had been made offshore. The fifth pocket on the new pair was so small I wondered if they’d somehow gotten the production lines for kids’ and adults’ jeans mixed up. The company was Guess, by the way. I think this is about when they started to go south, both literally and figuratively ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/39 "2017-10-06T18:30:59Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Zoot Suits didn’t come with vests, and the Zoot Suiters favored long, long watchchains (complementing the exaggerations of the suit). These were also a source of entertainment, as you could nonchalantly swing it in a circle while leaning against a lamp post and eyeballing the skirts walking by. > > [https://comicvine.gamespot.com/evil-eye-fleegle/4005-67696/](https://comicvine.gamespot.com/evil-eye-fleegle/4005-67696/) But that guy is using his chain for a key, not a watch. And I always thought zoot suit chains were for wallets, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2017, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061/40 "2017-10-07T05:21:05Z")
I carry a hard case aluminum wallet. It only holds cards and not cash. Folding cash I put in the small pocket in my jeans. Coins and keys go in the deep pocket. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-pockets-in-mens-pants/798061.md?page=3)