What is an Inseam? The Complete Guide

If you don’t know what inseam is from outseam, you’ve come to the right place! If you’re fed up with different brands fitting differently or some pants hitting your ankle while others hit the floor, chances are you’re ignoring your inseam.

With our complete guide, you’ll know what an inseam is, what it means for you, and how you can use it to find the best fit.

What is an inseam?

An inseam runs from the top of your thigh to the bottom of your pants. More specifically, your inseam starts at the bottom of the zipper on a pair of jeans and runs right down to the leg opening.

If you’re not sure what an inseam is, take a look at a pair of jeans now and you’ll see it straight away. Jeans are a useful garment for identifying inseams because denim jeans typically feature stitching of a contrasting color, so it’s easy to see exactly where it starts and ends.

While other styles of pants have inseams also, these may be hidden on the inside and stitched using a thread that’s the same color as the fabric. Although the inseam is still there, it’s not as easy to see as it is on a standard pair of denim jeans.

Why does an inseam matter?

You might think that you don’t need to give your inseam a second thought, unless it’s come apart, of course. However, your inseam tells you more about your pants than almost anything else.

The right inseam is going to make sure your pants fit properly and hang right, so it’s important to get it right.

When the inseam is too long, the legs of your pants are effectively going to be longer than you need them to be. This means they’ll trail across the floor or the leg of your pants will bunch up.

If you’re wearing tight over the knee boots and your inseam is too long, for example, you’ll get those irritating ripples on the leg of your pants because there’s too much fabric.

Alternatively, an inseam that’s too short will mean that the legs of your pants are too short as well. While you might be able to cover this with boots, you won’t want to wear boots all of the time.

If your pants are too short, it’s going to restrict how and when you can wear them, as well as the comfort levels they offer.

What’s your inseam?

To find your inseam, you can measure from the top of the inside of your thigh down just below your ankle. When measuring your inseam, don’t measure to the floor if you’re barefoot or wearing socks, as this would make your pants too long.

However, the easiest way to measure your inseam is to find a pair of jeans or pants that fit really well.

If you have pants that you love the look of, lay them out on a flat surface so that they’re taut. Then, find the inseam and use a tape measure to measure it.

Now that you know what your inseam is, it’s time to know why it matters and how to find it so that you can start to understand a little more about how to use it.

Using your inseam measurement

Your inseam measurement, sometimes known as your inside leg measurement, tells you how long your pants need to be to give you the perfect fit. When you’re shopping for jeans or pants, you’ll want to determine what the inside leg measurement is before you consider buying anything.