Wide leg, barrel, flare or straight: picking a sweatpant cut

Almost nothing in the ATHMILE bottoms range is a tapered jogger with a cuff. The brand builds volume instead, and the volume is placed differently in each cut. That placement decides how the pants read with a shoe, how they read with an oversized top, and whether they make you look longer or shorter.

Wide leg

Straight from the hip to the hem at a consistent width. The most common cut here and the easiest to wear. It hides the thigh, skims the calf and finishes flat on the shoe.

• Works with: a fitted or cropped top, since the volume is all below the waist.
• Falls down with: an equally oversized sweatshirt. Volume on both halves flattens the outline.
• Length: drafted long. Under five foot four, expect a hem or a thicker sole.

Barrel leg

Curves out through the thigh and back in towards the ankle, so the leg has a rounded profile rather than a straight one. It is the newer shape in the range and the one that photographs as deliberate rather than as a lounge pant.

Because the taper narrows at the bottom, barrel pants sit on top of a shoe instead of covering it. That makes the shoe part of the outfit, which is either the point or the problem depending on what is on your feet. They work with a chunky sneaker and look unfinished with a slipper.

Flare

Narrow through the thigh, opening from the knee down, cut extra long on purpose. This is the cut with the strongest effect on the line of the leg and the least forgiveness about height.

• The hem is meant to cover most of the shoe and stop just above the floor.
• On a shorter frame it drags. Either hem it properly or wear a platform.
• It reads dressier than the other three, which is why it turns up in the range at the higher price.

Straight leg

The quiet one. Even width from hip to hem, no flare, no curve. Fewer listings and less attention, but it is the cut that behaves in a normal room with normal shoes and does not need thinking about.

The waistband matters more than the cut

Several listings put the drawstring inside the waistband rather than out. That detail is worth looking for. An interior drawstring does not print through a fitted top, does not press into you under a coat, and does not leave two ties dangling under a cropped sweatshirt. The listing name usually says interior drawstring when it is there.

High waisted here means genuinely high, sitting above the navel. Measure your waist where the band will actually land, not at the hip, or the size will come out a letter small.

Lined or unlined

Roughly half the sweatpants in the catalog are fleece lined. The lined pairs cost about five dollars more and are a different garment in practice: thick enough to wear with nothing underneath in a cold house, too warm for a heated office. The unlined pairs are a single layer of knit, lighter, better over leggings and better in spring.

Pockets

Not standard across the range. Where they exist the listing name says so, and they are side seam pockets deep enough for a phone. If pockets matter to you, treat their absence from the name as a no rather than an omission.

Picking one

1. For most days at home: wide leg, unlined, interior drawstring.
2. For a cold house: wide leg or straight, fleece lined.
3. For going out in: barrel with a visible sneaker, or flare with a platform.
4. For over leggings at a gym: unlined wide leg, one size as measured.