Is the Lee Men's Extreme Motion Crossroad Cargo Short Worth It?

Here's where your money actually goes: the waistband. Lee calls it an athletic flex waistband, and the mechanism is simple once you see it. Instead of a fixed waist with a button doing all the work, there's a stretch panel built into the sides of the waist itself, the same idea as the gusset in athletic pants. That panel expands when you sit, bend, or squat, then pulls back into shape when you stand up. Pair that with the comfort stretch fabric used throughout the short, a woven blend that flexes with your body instead of resisting it, and you get a garment that moves the way sweatpants do but still looks like a regular short. That's the whole trick: the comfort isn't in the cut, it's in two separate stretch systems working together, one at the waist and one across the whole fabric. The seven pockets, including the cell phone pocket, are just storage. The relaxed fit hitting at the knee is just proportion. The waistband and fabric stretch are what make you forget you're wearing them by hour three.