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If you had to wear one pair of pants for the rest of your life, which would you choose? As a guy who has more jeans than mustache hair, you might assume I’d reach for denim. And I’ll understand why: Jeans are durable, timeless, relatively inexpensive, and go with almost everything. But they are absolutely not everything.
Enter the Dickies 874, one of the most important pants in the history of menswear and, for Prime Day, available for just $20. If there’s a better deal on pants this week, I haven’t found it.
Frankly, the 874 needs very little introduction. If you don’t swear by a couple, you probably know six people who do. But if this is the first time you’re hearing about prototype work pants, a little context might be helpful.
The 874 was introduced in 1967, when its starchy cotton-poly twill fabric and classic embossing helped make it popular among blue-collar workers of that era. Ultimately, it became associated with Southern California’s Latino community, which made its crisp folds and straight silhouette a signature of cholo style, before infiltrating the region’s other distinctive style tribes: punks and skaters, who valued its tough clothes and anti-fashion credibility. The 874 is still quite popular on the West Coast, but these days it’s spread far and wide, from the designers in Paris who remix it on the runway to the shop-owners in Philadelphia who see it flying off the shelves.
In 2026, the core appeal of the 874 remains unchanged. It can still serve its original purpose as a work pant made for hard, physical labor; The fight is looking deadly after countless things are dropped on a skateboard. But, importantly, it’s also a great everyday pant – maybe even Great pant for everyday wear- in a way your jeans can never hope to compete.
If your style looks more like a C-suite than a skate rat, the 874 can double as a pair of khakis, ready to coordinate with a sweater and Chelsea boots or an Oxford shirt and loafers. (After thoroughly ironing my pair, I’ve also worn them to a friend’s wedding and, sadly, to another friend’s funeral.) For me, the 874 is the best-fitting pant you can buy without a custom—and with the huge range of waists and inseams available, you can get a taste of that experience if you squint enough.
