Cub uniform pants - why does no one wear them?

[gungho4scouts]

Growth spurt versus proper uniform? $10 at Wal-Mart gets my vote every time. But as a CMA, I too wear the proper uniform from top to bottom.

 

Suggest blue jeans as the standard uniform pants for the Pack. Durable and inexpensive, still looks great with the blue shirt!

[FScouter]

The great thing about those blue jeans and wal-mart pants is that they are immune to growth spurts.

[zippie2223]

The 10$ pants at Wal-Mart looks exactly like the "official Uniform" pants. Why spend the extra 20$ on pant from the scout shop? I don't agree wearing blue jeans and calling yourself in uniform. Blue jeans are too much of an everyday type thing. Wearing the uniform should be special.

[SWScouter]

Someone help me out here, what is the other method of Cub Scouting?

 

Well, I think I better help myself. The seven methods of Cub Scouting are:

 

1. The Ideals

2. The Den

3. Advancement

4. Family Involvement

5. Activities (yes this is the missing method)

6. Home and Neighborhood Centered

7. The Uniform

 

SWScouter

[gungho4scouts]

The uniform doesn't make the Scouts, it's the ideas and principals that they HELP represent. If a pair of boys official pants will cost me $30.45 (Regular) to $33.50 (Husky) and I can expect a growth spurt of at least twice this year, that's $60. Were as a pair of respectable pair of jeans will cost me $10 to $12; $24. Now I have over $30 to spend on a Den Flag, additional shirts for those who can't even afford that, special patches and awards, materials for the Pack or Den meeting games...

 

What's makes this a fruitless argument for some of you is that even the Council's Scout Stores suggest not buying the pants for the same reasons presented in this thread. If you can afford it, then buy the "official" pants for your Sons, (and possibly for the rest of your Pack.) If that's not possible, at least propose a compromise that helps present a uniform appearance without killing the messenger.

[Rip Van Scouter]

Thanks for the input. Those of you with further interest in this subject may want to refer to the thread with the same title on the UNIFORM forum, where I cross-posted the original posting.

[Rixkidz]

Our packs By Laws specifically say the boys and adults can wear Dark Blue trousers or Dark Blue Jeans.

 

I understand the pet peeves, but as a registered comm member/COR/Treasurer I bought a uniform since our bylaws say I should. BUT everything I have to have costs me money... here I am giving my time etc etc etc and now I am required to BUY a uniform? hmmm Not everyone can afford the expense of the uniform, so that is why we allow jeans.

 

A better WORST pet peeve is women whom DON'T tuck their unifrm into their pants.. My husband has a real hard time with that one.

[dsteele]

I've read this thread a couple of times and the same thought has come to me both times.

 

I see too much thinking like adults and not enough thinking like (or caring for) the feelings of a kid.

 

I can only speak for myself at that age. However, if my parents had bought me a pair of look-alike pants for my Cub Scout uniform, I would have been hurt and angry.

 

We didn't have much money when I was a kid. I had to buy my own first pair of Levi jeans when I turned 18 -- so I finally had jeans that faded. Previous to that, my mother always bought these "tough skin" jeans from Sears. Remember those? I'm dating myself to the 1970's now, but I hated those things. I once took a pair of hounds tooth jeans out to the driveway and put a brick in the legs. Then I rubbed until the fabric wore away. Who knew those were guaranteed?

 

Anyway, when it came time for little Unc to join the Cub Scouts, I wanted to be 100% official. The Cub Scout pants were blue, and so were a lot of other pants, but the buttons on them had the cub scout logo and a Boy Scout logo on the lable inside.

 

My Dad probably choked at the cost of those uniform pants, but he bought them for me because it was important to me. More important than any toy I ever wanted (I didn't always get those) and more important than many other things.

 

I can understand the Walmart pant argument from an adult point of view. I can't understand it from a kid's point of view who wants to be 100% Cub Scout and not a look-alike who's half dressed.

 

I don't believe uniform should be a fighting matter and I agree that economic factors come into play . . . but I think every kid deserves a good uniform.

 

I'm actually a big fan of making every kid earn his way to a uniform -- if he saves the money to buy it, whether he's a Tiger or an Eagle Scout, it's going to mean more to him than if it were given freely.

 

Just a few thoughts and remembrances.

 

Unc.

[pack625]

well i know in our pack we have alot of boys from poor families who can barely afford the shirt muchless the pants that they will out grow every year. wish they would do something to lower the cost of the uniform. so that everyone could afford to buy all the pieces of the uniform. as a den leader i was barely able to afford my sons uniform sorry couldnt get pants much less try to buy all i needed for my uniform.

[bizzybbb]

....."I can't understand it from a kid's point of view who wants to be 100% Cub Scout and not a look-alike who's half dressed.".....

 

Do most kids in Cub Scouts WANT to be 100% Cub Scout? With all of the activities pulling kids today in 5 million directions, is this the exception rather than the rule?

 

I, too, am a firm believer in fully dressed-out Cubs and Leaders. At least with dark blue twill school pants, if not official Boy Scout merchandise. What would our football teams look like if everyone wore just any old pants?

 

I believe, across the board, that the cost of the pants contributes to the problem, but there are other factors at work. Kids today are not used to "dressing up". Have you seen what they wear to CHURCH?! I've seen jeans and collarless t-shirts even in God's house. Shorts and flip-flops, too, and young girls in spaghetti strap dresses, also with flip flops.

 

The Cubs today are, unfortuantely, victims of our society. How can we turn this around? Be an example. Insist on dark blue pants, even if they ARE from Walmart.

 

[bizzybbb]

....."I can't understand it from a kid's point of view who wants to be 100% Cub Scout and not a look-alike who's half dressed.".....

 

Do most kids in Cub Scouts WANT to be 100% Cub Scout? With all of the activities pulling kids today in 5 million directions, is this the exception rather than the rule?

 

I, too, am a firm believer in fully dressed-out Cubs and Leaders. At least with dark blue twill school pants, if not official Boy Scout merchandise. What would our football teams look like if everyone wore just any old pants?

 

I believe, across the board, that the cost of the pants contributes to the problem, but there are other factors at work. Kids today are not used to "dressing up". Have you seen what they wear to CHURCH?! I've seen jeans and collarless t-shirts even in God's house. Shorts and flip-flops, too, and young girls in spaghetti strap dresses, also with flip flops.

 

The Cubs today are, unfortuantely, victims of our society. How can we turn this around? Be an example. Insist on dark blue pants, even if they ARE from Walmart.

 

[paschalljf]

Scouters,

 

This long and laborious debate has covered most of the salient points about what we leaders need to do to set the example for our boys but no one has yet pointed out that National is really the issue here. The BSA uniform is being sold to us and our scouts at well over twice the profit margin of commercial stores. Are we really to beleive that adult cotton shorts cost anywhere near $40 to produce? $56 for long pants? Before we start to scare away would-be scout families by suggesting that they pay up $100 for start-up uniform costs, we should be pretty sure that we are doing right by them and offering a fair product. Scouting is a non-profit but somehow the uniforms are being sold at huge profit. All other arguments aside, it is simply wrong for National to use scouting as a venue to jack up the profit margin on clothing that is simply not expensive to manufacture. We need to push this issue to National to ensure the prices are more realistic before we start forcing our boys to buy over-priced garments.

 

Semper Scouts,

 

CM Pack 683

 

 

[FScouter]

Gee, I wonder what "National" does with the "huge" profits they make on Scout uniforms? Any ideas what the money is used for? What does a non-profit organization do with its "profit"???

[scotiacat]

Our pack has done the same thing, refers those new people joining not to buy the pants that is. They tell them jeans are fine. Beside, it is cheaper to buy the dress blue/Dickies/Chinos or whatever you call them at Wal-Mart, agreed. Sweat pants are NOT allowed. But here is something the boys in the pack have taken a liking to.

 

A good number of them have bought the khaki colored cargo pants. Worn with the blue shirt, the boys look awesome, better than being in all blue. While nothing has come done from the leaders, it seems like that color really has caught the attention of the boys. What started as one or two boys wearing them, turned into 5 and at the last pack meeting, there were 8 boys present in them. Even the parents commented on how "professional" they looked in them. It will be interesting to see how many show up at the pack next time.

 

[Rip Van Scouter]

"Our pack has done the same thing, refers those new people joining not to buy the pants that is. They tell them jeans are fine. Beside, it is cheaper to buy the dress blue/Dickies/Chinos or whatever you call them at Wal-Mart, agreed. Sweat pants are NOT allowed. But here is something the boys in the pack have taken a liking to."

 

Hmmmm, nothing new here so far. Reading the last sentence I was hoping you had found a way to encourage wearing of the "blues".

 

"A good number of them have bought the khaki colored cargo pants. Worn with the blue shirt, the boys look awesome, better than being in all blue." --- In whose opinion? Certainly not by your BSA leaders, by whose graces the Cub Scout program exists. I don't know if by khaki you mean a light tan or an olive green, but neither one is anything close to Cub Scout blue. Now if you were talking about Boy Scouts and they were wearing olive-green cargo pants with their tan uniform shirts, I would say it was a step in the right direction.

 

"While nothing has come done (I guess you mean "down") from the leaders, it seems like that color really has caught the attention of the boys." --- Yes, and so would the wearing of armbands or pierced earings, but we don't let young boys do that in uniform! I certainly hope that nothing will "come done from the leaders" in support of this "movement". More likely, a remonstration is more in order.

 

"What started as one or two boys wearing them, turned into 5 and at the last pack meeting, there were 8 boys present in them." --- Yes, that is the way fads work, if left unchecked.

 

"Even the parents commented on how "professional" they looked in them. It will be interesting to see how many show up at the pack next time." --- Maybe, but Cub Scouts are not "professionals", they are kids. A pinstripe business suite would look "professional", but it would hardly be a Cub Scout uniform! How many parents was that actually, and were they aware of the fact that this was in strict violation of BSA uniform guidlines?

 

You know, I was with you until that second paragraph. Granted there are problems with the official uniform pants. Granted that "unofficial" substitutes can look pretty close to the same thing. But to not only condone, but even to applaud and promote a conscious decision to CONTRAST with the official Cub Scout uniform colors is not only incomprehensible, it is reprehensible!

 

Are you one of the pack leaders? If so, have you been to Basic Leader Training for Cub Leaders? Ask the District staff what they think of this new "uniform". I will bet any money they will not think the new look is so "professional".

 

With so many other solutions and alternatives (education, awareness, color conformity, uniform "recycling", etc.) why would ANYONE think this was an acceptable solution? Yours is the first suggestion I have seen that is so flagrantly in violation of not only the "letter of the law", but its spirit as well. Please read any of the BSA guidelines in handbooks, insignia guide, leader's training, etc. and I hope you will get some idea why this is a really, really, bad idea!