These Waterproof Over Trousers for Hillwalking UK Keep Walkers Dry. Cyclists Aren't So Sure.

Where the 4.3 Badge and the Fresh Reviews Split

Amazon shows a 4.3-star lifetime average built from 1,471 ratings. That figure is reassuring and slightly misleading, because it blends years of sales into one number. The 100 most recent reviews tell you what is landing on doorsteps now, and they average 3.87. Of those 100, sixty are 5-star and seven are 4-star, so two thirds of recent buyers are pleased. The drag comes from the bottom: ten 3-star, six 2-star and seventeen 1-star reviews. Ninety-nine of the hundred are verified purchases, and every single one is from the United Kingdom, so this is British weather doing the judging. The 100 span about fifteen months of sales, from spring 2025 to July 2026, so the wet reviews are not one bad batch: they turn up steadily across the whole run.

We went through those 100 and counted the complaints by type. The largest single cluster, by a clear margin, is water getting in: 15 reviewers describe rain reaching their legs, against roughly six who flag sizing and four or five who report stitching coming apart. For a garment whose one job is keeping water out, a 15-in-100 failure rate on the core function is the number to weigh against all those five-star ratings. It is not a reason to walk away on its own, but it is why the recent average sits well below the lifetime badge, and it is why the rest of this review is mostly about who gets wet and who stays dry.

What 5000mm Buys You in a British Downpour

The listing images put hard numbers on the fabric: a 5000mm waterproof rating and 5000 g/m²/24hr breathability, with a windproof shell and, per one infographic, fully taped seams. One buyer, Karl, confirms it from the garment itself: Very waterproof, label states 5000hh. So the spec is real. What does 5000mm actually mean? Hydrostatic head measures how tall a column of water, in millimetres, the fabric can hold back before it starts to seep through. Around 1500mm is the usual bar for a fabric to be called waterproof at all. Serious mountain shells run 10,000mm to 20,000mm.

At 5000mm, these sit in the budget-to-mid band. That is plenty for showers, drizzle and a couple of hours of steady rain, which is exactly where the happy reviews live. It is marginal for a full day pinned under Lakeland or Highland rain, and that is exactly where several of the failures live. The breathability figure matters too: 5000 g/m²/24hr is middling, so in mild, muggy rain you will feel some clamminess. Mark Proud noticed his did get fairly warm in heavy rain at 17C, while another buyer wore his through a nine-hour shift and came out drier underneath than his usual pair. Treat the taped-seam and 5000mm claims as a promise the fabric can keep in normal British rain, not a guarantee for a mountain epic.

On Foot, the Reports Mostly Hold

For the walking crowd, the picture is better than the average suggests. The most vivid report comes from philb, who wore them at Sandy Park in Exeter through 2 hours of torrential rain whilst sitting fully exposed to the elements and came out, in his words, Bone dry. AJ took them up higher: Used on a rainy day climb at Snowdon and held up throughout. Another buyer took a pair on a Duke of Edinburgh silver expedition and reported they did their job on the first trip. Several dog owners walking daily through a wet British winter say the same, praising how fast the thin shell drips dry once it is hung up. Sandra Hudson bought a pair for her partner, who walked cliffs and muddy paths in the drizzle and just wiped them down with a damp cloth at the door, and Diane's husband takes his border collie up hill and down in whatever the sky is doing.

The pattern is that upright, moving use in normal rain is where these perform. Rain hits the shoulders and sheds off the legs, the taped seams hold, and you stay dry. Even the more critical Scottish Highlands buyer, Sharon Hyde, got two walks out of hers before the heavy stuff started coming through, which tells you the ceiling is real but not bottomless. If your use is a few hours on a fell, a coast path or a muddy field with the dog, these are doing what most buyers wanted. The caveats start when you sit down, and when you ask them to keep performing after a year of use.

Fifteen Buyers, One Recurring Soaking

Now the bad news, and it is specific. Within those 15 wetting-out reports, one sub-pattern repeats: the forward-facing zip pockets. One buyer lays it out plainly: The pockets are constructed facing forward, and even when fully closed they allow water to enter. In wet conditions, water runs straight into the pockets and through the garment. Another says the zip flap sits on the wrong side, funnelling water down the leg. Read the soakings in order and the specific ones mostly name the crotch, seat or pocket zone, and skew toward cyclists and motorcyclists, folded forward with water collecting exactly there. Robert R sums up the divide: his legs stayed dry on foot, but his seated area got soaked once he was on the bike.

To be fair to the fabric, the fifteen are not all riders: martin got soaked walking dogs and Sharon's pair leaked on a Highland walk, so wetting-out is a risk on foot too, just a smaller and slower one than it is in the saddle.

The second failure mode is time. Stevie bought his for golf, left them in the bag for months, then got caught in a downpour: Within 15 minutes, the waterproofing completely gave way around the crotch and thigh, and by then he was outside the return window. A handful of others report the coating wearing off after days or a season. Karl, a bike courier who still rates them, points at the fix: keep them clean, skip the laundry detergent, and reproof when the water stops beading. That is standard care for any coated waterproof, but it confirms the 5000mm finish is not fit-and-forget.

There is a smaller durability cluster worth flagging too. Four or five buyers report stitching giving way, usually at the crotch: one found the seams had Split along seams, another had the stitching come undone after seven gentle wears with no walking involved. That is separate from the waterproofing. Taped seams seal against water, they do not make the thread stronger, and at this weight the fabric is thin. Karl raised the same worry before it happened to him, having split cheaper pairs at the crotch in the past. It is a minority, but if you are hard on your kit, price it in.

Sizing, the Boot Zip and Other Details

Sizing is the second-biggest gripe, and it runs in one direction: large and long. Around six reviewers flag it. The blunt example is yachty1949, who ordered a 3XL, found there was no way they would fit me, and handed them to a size-12 woman who wore them fine. Others just found the legs too long for a shorter frame. The counterweight is that buyers who used the size chart landed well: Karl matched a 34-inch waist to a medium-long and called the fit spot on, and another put a medium over his own trousers at the same waist. Buy for the layer underneath, check the chart rather than defaulting to your usual size, and if you are between lengths or riding a bike, go up.

The hardware is better thought through than the price hints. There is a half-length leg zip so you can pull them on over boots, which M E singled out: I like the high zip on the leg to get boots on and off. The ankles cinch with velcro tabs to stop the hems dragging in mud, there is reflective piping down the leg for dark lanes, and the waist runs on both elastic and a drawstring, a combination one buyer bought them specifically for. Two zipped hand pockets keep keys and phone reachable. The shell is thin and light enough to stuff in a pack, which is why one reviewer ended up grateful to have them through North Atlantic storms he had not packed for. One recurring plus in the five-star reviews is warmth: several buyers call them warmer than a shell this thin has any right to be, which suits a cold, wet walk but adds to the clamminess if you are working hard.

Our Take: A Walker's Waterproof, Not a Rider's

So where does this leave you? These are a mid-spec waterproof at a budget price, and the recent reviews reward them roughly in line with that: 3.87 on average, sixty happy buyers in the last hundred, fifteen wet ones. We land on 3.8 out of 5. That is below the 4.3 lifetime badge on purpose, because the number that describes the trousers being posted out today is the recent one, and the recent one carries a real 15-in-100 chance the core job disappoints you.

Buy them if you walk. For hillwalking, dog walks, a Duke of Edinburgh expedition, festival fields or throwing on over jeans when a shower rolls in, they do what most buyers wanted, especially if you reproof once the water stops beading. Think twice if you cycle or ride a motorbike and need the pockets and seat to stay sealed while you are folded forward, or if you want one pair to survive years of daily abuse: those are the buyers writing the 1-star reviews. Match these to walking, look after the coating, and the 5000mm shell holds up. Ask them to be a mountaineering-grade or all-day cycling layer and you are shopping in the wrong price bracket. At this end of the market they are one of the cheaper taped-seam options going, and for occasional rain that is the whole appeal. Spend more only when your days out get longer, wetter or faster.