Adults in snow pants: Dorky or practical?

You can hear their constant swish-swishing whenever you're outside. You can feel their bulkiness on the crammed bus in the seat next to you. They're tough to avoid in a city this cold. So, are snow pants on adults essential or dorky?

CBC News · Posted: Jan 17, 2019 10:10 AM EST | Last Updated: January 17, 2019

For fun, someone stood up this fake child's snow pants and sneakers in a tall snow drift after a heavy snowfall in Ohio in February 2007. Snow pants on adults, though: essential or dorky? (Amy Sancette/AP)

Adults in snow pants.

They're everywhere in Ottawa in the winter months.

You can hear their constant swish-swishing pretty much every time you step outside.

You can feel their bulkiness on the crammed bus in the seat next to you.

They're tough to avoid in a city this cold.

So, are snow pants on adults heading to work essential or dorky? Realistic or embarassing? Sexy, or the opposite of that?

CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning asked this on the air this chilly Thursday, and the debate got, well, heated.

Get them away from me

My granddaughter who’s in grade 8 says wearing snowpants is social suicide. Hilarious.
—@JKergommeaux

<a href="https://twitter.com/OttawaMorning?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OttawaMorning</a> lips that commute with snow pants will never touch mine!
—@Glenny_Baby

I have never worn snowpants to work, and I often walk the 45 minutes each way. However, I do wear merino wool long gitch (<a href="https://twitter.com/StanfieldsLtd?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StanfieldsLtd</a> product placement).
—@CreativeTweets

How dare you diss my puffy pants

<a href="https://twitter.com/OttawaMorning?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OttawaMorning</a> it is cool to be warm! wear the snow pants! Dorky is defined by the folks who look like ice cubes in ankle baring pants and stylish booties, dorky is winging about how cold you are when you get to the office. It's January in Canada!
—@EvelynePR

I wear them to walk the dog in anything south of -25 and I don’t care how dorky I look. (Only after dark tho, I mean come on)
—@Don_inFarrhaven

<a href="https://twitter.com/OttawaMorning?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OttawaMorning</a> you’d better believe I’m wearing snow pants today! I’m either standing at bus stops waiting for buses that are running late, or I’m walking about 1 km to and from the transitway. Either way, it’s cold. Judge away. I do not care.
—@EllEmmMay

<a href="https://t.co/Fy6wlZKbbv">pic.twitter.com/Fy6wlZKbbv</a>
—@EllEmmMay

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

With files from CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News

Corrections and clarifications|Submit a news tip|

Adults in snow pants: Dorky or practical?

Social Sharing

Get them away from me

How dare you diss my puffy pants