A common problem for those who have switched to wearing minimalist shoes such as Vibram Five Fingers or Terra Plana Vivo Barefoots is that the wearer quickly discovers that lacking the lift provided by the copious heels of their regular shoes results in their pants or jeans dragging on the ground behind their heels. Next thing you know, your jeans are covered in dirt, wet, and fraying.
This can be an annoying problem*. Though it’s great to feel the ground beneath your feet, it’s irritating to feel the hem of your pants under-heel.
Fortunately, there is a cheap solution — under $5 — that’s accessible to anyone.
Using an S-Biner to lift your pant leg hems and keep them off the ground
The quick fix to your pants-on-the-ground problems is the S-Biner:
The #2 S-Biner is 2″ long and lightweight. It has two hinges for ease of attachment to any loop on your shoe. Then, using the secondary, lower hinge, you can simply slide in the hem of your jeans or pants. This creates a lower limit anchor point that holds up the hem of your pants off the ground.
Here’s what it looks like when attached to a pair of KSOs from underneath — note the S-Biner doesn’t actually stick out as it looks here, it’s only doing this as my hem has risen (knee bent):
Of course, the question remains: does it actually keep your pants off the ground? Yes! And it’s incognito, to boot. Putting the S-Biner in place is simple, and thanks to the double-hinge, it is pretty easy take off. Mind, your pants will now be attached to your shoes, but since the S-Biner can rotate around whatever loop it’s attached to, when you sit down (causing your pant leg to rise), it affords enough upper extension so as not to cause a problem with pulling on your jeans.
Using the S-Biner with other VFFs and Minimalist shoes
The S-Biner can also be used to hold up your pants while wearing other Vibram Five Fingers models as well as other barefoot shoes — the only requirement is that there be some attachment point at the heel.
Here’s the same S-Biner hack used to hold up my jeans when wearing the Terra Plana Vivo Barefoot Aquas:
And here are examples of how you can attach the S-Biner to various shoes including the Vivo Barefoot Aqua and the Vibram Five Fingers KSO as well as the Flow, KSO Trek, Sprint, and Classic (So long as you haven’t removed your Five Fingers Classic strap**!):
If you want to pick up a #2 S-Biner, there’s a great chance you can find one at a local store — I found these at a gas station of all places. If you’re hunting online, here’s a link to where you can get them at Rock/Creek (Get the #2).
Finally, there are other ways to accomplish this hem-holding minimalist shoe hack. The most obvious, indeed my original solution, was a simple caribiner. So simply for completeness, the caribiners (also each about 2″ long) to the right will also get the job done, but not as eloquently or as minimally (or as non-obviously!).
Now you have one less excuse to wear your Vibram Five Fingers out and about with your normal everyday clothes! And if you’re still considering forgoing this mod, I’ll just leave you with a (at least somewhat) tune by a fellow Atlantan, General Larry Platt:
Happy VFF’ing!
* Terra Plana has even developed the “Trip Clip” to help ameliorate the issue — Click here to see a photo. But at $15 plus shipping, the Trip Clip is a bit out of reach for most of us — simply not worth the bother.
** I find I don’t often wear my Classics with jeans or pants due to the mismatch between the hemline and the short upper vamp of the Classic, so this really isn’t a problem for me.
41 replies on “Pants on the Ground? A cheap and quick fix to stop jeans from dragging behind your heels while wearing Vibram Five Fingers and other Minimalist Shoes.”
I actually bought some Terra Plana Trip Clips a while back and really wasn’t impressed. They don’t offer any adjustment for length and my trousers still ended up dragging on the ground. Also the wire dug into the front of my ankle in a rather uncomfortable way. I ended up returning them.
Your solution seems much more flexible, less intrusive and cheaper.
After 2 years all of my trousers are the right length for minimalist shoes (either through wear or alteration), but i will keep s-biners in mind incase i get any longer ones.
Awesome.
Awesome tip! I’ve been dragging along my nice jeans, or resorting to using jeans that I previously put aside since they did not fit! I’m going to try and find some of these locally since shipping online kind of makes them expensive. I did find a version of the #2 that amazon does sell directly – http://amzn.com/B000WUIGYA
Good if you have amazon prime(free shipping).
Thanks David — I had actually found that one, too, but it’s selling for 2x the price it should sell for (It’s priced close to $4 when it should be $2!).
A couple thoughts for more elegant solutions.. since I can see an S-biner being uncomfortable and falling off or looking a bit wrinkled/bulky at the back. I haven’t tried it yet (so maybe I shouldn’t say anything)
-Sew velcro inside the pants, a strip up the back of the soft side of velcro (or several strips all around and a tab of the ‘sticky’ side at the bottom and you may be able to fold them up inside…
– Alternately that could be done with a snap or strap and button.
The S-Biner is pretty tiny and non-obtrusive. I don’t think it would fall off (slight chance the hem slides out of the hinge, but that’s not a major problem).
Velcro or buttons are both solid ideas, both of which I like it except for the fact that they require modding the shoes or VFFs permanently.
“…But at $15 plus shipping, the Trip Clip is a bit out of reach for most of us — simply not worth the bother.”
As are nearly every pair of their shoes. The minimalist shoe movement has really grown thanks to the exposure from VFF’s, but it’s never going to get anywhere if “barefoot” shoe options cost $150+.
Justin, the Trip clips are $15 each ($30 a pair) plus shipping on the Terra Plana site.
Talk about mark-up!
Good idea with the s clips. But we’ve just been buying shorter pants.
Justin,
You lost me after “Pants on the Ground”….Larry Platt is a modern day Midas! 🙂
Excellent idea w/the S-Biner. Another throwback (to the 90’s at least) solution that will guarantee plenty of laughs would be to “peg” your jeans. LOL! If you bust out a pic w/the pegged jeans and a Members Only jacket, I’m posterizing it.
Small binder clips work pretty good for me. I just squeeze together the Vibram’s pull on loop and the bottom of my jeans and clip one on. Once on i just pop off the metal tabs and you can’t even tell they are there.
You know what works?
Folding the hem up.
If you’re sufficiently ‘retro’ you could even do the ‘tight roll’.
One could also use a large safety pin or two; accordian-fold the pants in the back, then use the pin to hold the inside fold together (so the pin doesn’t show).
Like this:
Fold up a flap in the back that’s about two or three inches long. Use the safety pin to attach it to the rest of the pant leg, a bit under half-way up the flap from the fold. Let the flap fall back down, so the wrong side (seam side) is no longer showing and the safety pin is hidden.
Saw this and decided to try another option: medium sized paper clip. They’re cheap and if you lose one, no biggie. Works ok. Just unfold the clip into and S shape, loop the larger end through the loop on the back and squeeze closed, the stick the hem of pant into the other end of the clip and give it a squeeze. Not too secure but does work ok.
I wear my KSO’s all the time including to work where I am a front of house manager for an Italian Bistro. I have used staples to raise my hem on my dress pants! Simple non-obtrusive and very cost effective.
Wow that is awesome, I just went down to REI and bought a few #2 S-Biners, I’m so glad this was posted!!! This was the only issue keeping me from wearing my VFFs all the time! Now I’m all squared away, Thanks!
@Justin : Awesome idea !
I’m going to buy a pair of S-biner but have you ever try the #0 or #1 size ? or the plastic model instead of the stainless steel one ?
Thanks for your reply and your comment.
Regards,
Piotr.
Just a note, you don’t need an “S” biner for this to work. Any of the small keychain biners will work. Just clip them to the pull tab, then flip them so the opening gate is down. Clip your pants the same way and go. You can find those a bit easier than the s-biners
I am trying this for the first time today and so far, it is a great idea!! I have been having to roll a few pairs of pants with my V5Fs, but for one or two of them, I think this looks much better. I do not even realize that the s-biners are there.
Bought the #1 S-biner and it worked great for keeping my pants off the ground. Don’t have size #2 to compare so I don’t know which size is optimal.
Very inventive solution! I haven’t bought my vffs yet. But why not just roll your pants up? That’s what I do when I wear my sandals.
Love the idea, but where do you get these s biners? No luck at walmart, dick’s, or lowe’s… I’d rather not order online.
All i wear anymore is Vff’s, so i just hem my pants now, that way i don’t have to worry about clipping anything to anything.
I tried the s-biner mod for a while, and while it worked well to keep the pants from dragging on the ground, it had the opposite effect whenever I sat down in that the pants then pulled UP on the tab. Not wanting to spend the $$ on the Trip Clip, I decided to make my own version. A quick visit to Walmart scored me a pack of 12 badge clips and a 14 count XL hair elastics. Combine the two together, and viola! Trip Clip-esque pants holding, at a cost of under $7 for a DOZEN! Check out my blog site for pictures and give it a shot. 🙂
Genius
For my KSO’s, I’ve been using the vamp-strap to on the front of my pants hem.. I pull it tight on my heel, so no more heel dragging.
I’ll try some of these ideas to see if I like it better, but it’s hard to beat free..
Home Depot has s-biners for $1.28 apiece. They are in a plastic bin next to the keys.
Excellent post! I detest jeans that are tattered, especialy since my jean generally cost $50-$60. My local mountaineering store carries the Nite Ize S-biner brand so I can’t wait to try these out.
This is friggin brilliant. Got mine yesterday pants off the floor and no cuffing today. Nicely done!
You all need SkillClipz.
That is the real shit! Forget about everything else!!
Peter
I know it’s $10 bucks, but I bought a while back a set of those add a button for you jeans if you’ve gotten bigger, or smaller, that I use for a lot of different projects. They are removable and reusable and they look like a jean button. I just fold my pants under and put it on. You could use more than one if you want, but one works fine for me. They work like large pierced earings. Find them at WalMart, Rite Aid, CVS, Kmart…
how about using a nice cheap safety pin and just pin your jeans up?
Showing my age here but couldn’t you just “peg” your jeans a al late 1980s?
So I found a couple of ideas. I went to Walmart and bought a couple of 1/8″ quick links, threaded it through the pull loop and put a paper binder clip (size mini) to it which held the pants up nicely. I also went one size larger with the binder clip (size small), removed the silver arm so I could wrap it around the loop and then re-attached. Both work great.
The first method gave a little more room for movement for the jeans. the second held them real nice and tight. to your ankle
What would be a good solution to keeping my pants off the ground with a pair of VFF Speeds. Unfortunately the Speeds don’t have that nifty loop for an S-Biner
very clever guide…will need to find some!
So i just unfortuanitly realized this does not work with the clissics….
Rubber band + binder clip works. Clip a small fold on the inside of your jeans, so it won’t show from the outside.
If your shoes don’t have a loop, then you can just put the rubber band on your ankle.
What do you do for El-X’s?
You could also just hem your pants. Then you can just put on your shoes and go, no need to spend more time hassling with a clip.
Just got the new KSO and they do not have a attachment point at the heel. Any suggestions on being able to wear pants with them. Thanks
Great life hack, but have you heard of a tailor? A tailor is a person who specialises in making alterations to clothing so that they fit you better and last longer. Pretty amazing right?