Product types: the bottom-wear category map

Jeggings

A jegging is a legging cut and constructed like a pant, then finished with denim-style styling details (a waistband, belt loops or faux belt loops, and pocket stitching printed or sewn onto the surface) on a fabric that is knit rather than woven. The base cloth is almost always a cotton/polyester or cotton/rayon jersey or ponte knit carrying elastane, not a woven denim twill. That knit base is what separates a jegging from a pair of stretch jeans that happens to look slim: a woven fabric, however much elastane it holds, still has a warp and a weft and a maximum recovery stretch; a knit stretches in every direction because its structure is interlocking loops, not crossed threads.

Pull-on jeans

Pull-on jeans are woven denim (or a denim-look woven twill) constructed with an elastic or wide waistband instead of a button-and-zip fly, so the garment goes on the way a jegging does but the leg fabric itself is woven, not knit. This is the key distinction from a jegging: pinch the fabric of the leg -- a woven denim has a visible crossed thread structure and stretches mainly in one direction (usually crosswise, along the weft), while a jegging’s knit stretches everywhere.

Stretch jeans

Stretch jeans are traditional woven denim jeans with a working button-and-zip fly, built from a fabric that carries enough elastane to add give without changing the fundamental construction of a classic jean. They are the closest category on this site to what most people picture when they hear "jeans" -- the difference from a rigid jean is entirely in the fabric’s fiber content, not in the pattern or closures.

Ponte pants

Ponte pants are made from ponte di Roma, a dense double-knit fabric with a firmer, less see-through hand than a light jersey. Unlike jeggings, ponte pants are usually styled and cut as trousers rather than as denim-look leg coverings -- a tailored or straight leg, sometimes a seam crease, and a waistband finished to look closer to a trouser than a jean.

Leggings

Leggings are a knit garment with no denim or trouser styling at all -- no fly, no belt loops, generally no pockets, and no attempt to imitate woven-garment construction. They sit at the far end of the stretch spectrum from rigid denim: a high-elastane knit (commonly 10% or more) that is meant to move with the body rather than hold any independent shape.

Travel pants

Travel pants are a use-case category rather than a distinct construction: they are marketed around wrinkle resistance, packability and all-day sitting comfort for flights, trains and long days of walking, and can be built on top of several different structural bases (ponte knit, a stretch-woven trouser fabric, or occasionally a jegging-style knit). What defines the category is the combination of features aimed at travel, not a single fabric or waistband type the way jeggings or leggings are defined.

Comfortable work pants

Comfortable work pants are a use-case category built around presenting as office- or workplace-appropriate while adding stretch comfort -- most commonly realized as a ponte-knit or stretch-woven trouser styled with a trouser silhouette (straight or tapered leg, no denim styling, often a front crease). Like travel pants, this is a use case layered on top of one of the structural fabric categories rather than a distinct construction of its own.

Fleece-lined pants

Fleece-lined pants are a cold-weather use-case category: any of the structural categories above (most often jeggings or leggings, occasionally pull-on jeans) built with a brushed fleece backing on the inside face of the fabric for warmth. The defining feature is the interior fleece layer, not the exterior construction, which otherwise follows whichever base category the garment belongs to.