The perfect children’s joggers

Joggers, tracksuit trousers, sweats, whatever you call them and however much you’re not a fan, they’re definitely good for childrenswear. But where to find the best fit for children’s joggers that will last.

Read my thoughts on boys and sportswear (when they’re older)

They’re easy to wear, simple for children to put on and take off, and are perfect for anywhere that you don’t want them to mess up nice clothes.  I love them for putting in his nursery bag for spare clothing.

But crikey, it’s hard to find a decent pair.  N’s not skinny but we struggle with keeping trousers up without the adjustable buttons which obviously joggers don’t have.  And while he’s not particularly short, he does tend to have a problem with tops being too short for his body, and trousers being too long for his legs.

Children’s joggers don’t tend to have drawstring waists (presumably for safety reasons) which means they can often fall down.  I dread to think what trousers are like for slimmer children, or those who’re out of nappies and don’t have the extra padding to keep them up.

Then for the legs, many of them don’t have elasticated ankles which means they either drag on the floor or flap around.  Neither are a good look!

And of course, the colour choices.  For me it has to be navy, black or at a push dark grey, but although some shops do packs of 2 pairs, quite often the second colour is a vile beige colour or pale grey.  I guess marl grey is a classic colour, but not really practical for mud loving children!

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N’s been through quite a few from different shops so I’d say we’re quite a connoisseur of jogging trousers.  At the moment we’ve got 3 pairs on the go.

1. Mini club (Boots) – have fitted him for a while in the leg length, so definitely a shorter length than most others in his size.  They’re a brighter blue colour than true navy which is nice, but open legs rather than elasticated mean they’re a pain for putting wellies on, and weren’t that great when they were longer.

2. H&M – these aren’t bad.  For £4.99 they’re a good price, and I bought them as they had the elasticated ankles.  Turns out they also have a drawstring that actually pulls in the waist too, so that’s a result.  Apart from that there’s nothing fancy, just a plain reasonable pair of jogging trousers.

3. Gap.  Our favourite pair.  They’re pretty cool as they’ve got the Gap logo on the back of the waistband, and they’re quite a slim fit so no flapping all over the place.  The waist fits nicely (no ‘hipster’ look with loads of nappy showing), without being too elasticated and tight.  And the leg length is perfect for him with gathered ankles.  I will definitely be stocking up on more Gap pairs in different sizes as he grows.

We’ve also had pairs from supermarkets and Matalan (because I’m loathed to spend lots of money on really basic clothing that are likely going to be worn around the farm) which have tended to have no elasticated ankles, so length has always been a problem…either miles too long or too short depending on N’s height at the time of wearing.

I’m really impressed by the Gap ones we have now, so would recommend them to anyone having similar issues to us.

:Once they’re older children, we’re still fans of Gap, but also like Marks & Spencer (you can buy a pair together) for more regular fit. For slimmer fit we like Next.