Aldi motorcycle Kevlar jeans versus Hood | Do you need to pay £100 more?

£29.99 | www.aldi.co.uk | 0800 042 0800 | Tested by Bob Pickett

Hood jeans cost £119.99 (up to £149.99 if supplied with the D30 armour). You can get a pair of Kevlar-lined jeans from ALDI for just £29.99, including knee armour, in their annual motorcycle clothing sale.

So what makes a pair of Hood jeans worth a hundred quid more? Take a look at the photos. The ALDI jeans have a minimal amount of Kevlar in place. The Hood jeans are lined for the length of the jean.

The other issue is that the Aldi jeans come in one leg size. If, like my wife Laura, you are a shorter person, or like me have short legs (29” despite being 5’10”) that means the knee armour is not going to sit in the right place out of the saddle/ if you come off the bike.  Hood jeans are adjusted to fit as part of the cost, so the knee and hip armour will be in the right place if needed.

The Aldi jeans are not bad, but in my opinion the Hood jeans are definitely the way to go if you use them all the time.

£149.99 (£119.99 without D3O armour) | www.hoodjeans.co.uk | 01953 861166 | Tested by Laura Pickett

My previous pair of Hood K7 denim jeans lasted the best part of 10 years before they were destroyed when the heat shield on an aftermarket exhaust set them on fire. My leg was saved from nothing more than light marking by the para-aramid lining. Without it I’m sure I would have been facing a trip to A&E.

Being just 5’ ½” tall with a 25” inside leg, off-the-peg jeans are of no use to me as no-one makes them that short. But Hood alters leg length as part of the price and also adjusts other items like the placement of knee pockets for armour accordingly. The more detailed the measurements you supply, the more accurate they can make the jeans.

All Hood jeans come fully lined with K-tech Para-aramid – a military-grade fibre similar to Kevlar that’s five times stronger than steel. The company’s denim garments have a thicker knitted aramid liner, with a lighter weight (though still high performance) Jersey knit of two thicknesses in the poly/cotton clothing.

I needed some new jeans urgently, and as Hood can make poly/cotton garments very quickly in their Norfolk factory (denim takes slightly longer as it has to be sent away for stonewashing after sewing), I went for K7s with the knitted aramid, but a poly/cotton outer. This fabric is quite stiff initially but soon softens up, and it should be kept in mind that it doesn’t ‘give’ in the same way as denim, so getting the measurements spot on is essential. The poly-cotton is cooler to wear than denim and dries faster if you’re caught out in a summer shower. The downside is it’s colder during winter, but I slip a pair of leggings underneath to compensate.

Those unlucky enough to crash in Hood jeans have sworn by the performance, which is helped by the ‘continuous yarn’ design of the ballistic grade protection. I wouldn’t trust protecting my legs to anything other than Hood, and for anyone with shorter legs, the length adjustment as part of the price is a must.