I'll gladly throw in my two cents worth! I like the Kins vinyl pants, the 6 mil mid weight.
I feel the 4 mil gave them the bad reputation for plastic pants that don't last. Yes the 4 mil pants (10300V) are supremely comfortable, I would characterise them as feeling as if they were made of silk, rather than a plastic! But they are fragile and could tear easily and didn't last but a few wear cycles before the vinyl would start to stiffen.
The six mil mid weight pants (20300V) is far better. The vinyl is smooth on both sides, seams are heat sealed and the leg and waist elastics are the nice gentle Lycra. I rotate several pair and I get a year at least, before some stiffening begins.
The same pants can be had with encased elastic (50300V) and tho they do not wick any wetness onto the sheets, the elastics are not Lycra inside, rather a regular elastic which I find a bit stronger....so while I wear a Large size with the Lycra bands, I find I need the Extra Large size in the encased for the elastics to be "not too tight".
With the Tuffy pants (21300V) I find the waist a bit tight, even tho the elastic is wide and cushioned. That may not bother most folks, I am overly sensitive to elastic bands. I think you might find the Tuffy a bit deeper, ie they come up higher on the back waist, good for larger cloth diapers perhaps.
Going the other way, for something to wear over a pull on cloth diaper or a disposable, the Low Rider (40300V) is a much briefer cut, said to be 2" lower in the waist and I think the crotch is about half what it is on the regular cut vinyl pants.
For non plastic pants, they offer very nice nylon (10300)....but they are a bit noisy, as you found the PUL to be. They are just like the lightweight 4 mil vinyl pants but they stay soft and last a long time!
And NO, I sure don't work for Kins; I just like their stuff and once I discovered what they had, I pretty much left Gary behind....which includes Leakmaster, made by Gary.
One more thought: plastic pants that are not vinyl and stand up "forever" are polyurethane / urethane plastic. Not nearly as common as vinyl pants and with PUL (polyurethane laminate) the pants made from the sheet version of polyurethane may be harder to find....I got mine from Gary many years ago. They are thin, about 4 mils and tough! For me they are not as slippery as vinyl and I need more powder to reduce rub / chaff in the crotch when walking. Again, different folks may have different results in comfort. And urethane pants are noisier than vinyl but any noisy pant can be silenced with cotton underwear worn over it. But super light weight, wear forever and unaffected by oils....which is what stiffens vinyl....even your natural skin oil will take it's toll but if you have to use a rash cream, that really kills vinyl pants but has no effect on urethane pants. Oh, and that's why the non-plastic pants like the nylon are great when using rash cream...the waterproofing is urethane....the coating on the nylon to waterproof it is a thin coating of urethane / polyurethane (same thing different terms). I think Fetware might have urethane; they have an incredible assortment of waterproof pants!
Good luck, DDS, hopefully you'll get even more responses and ideas to ponder! JoeK
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