Like blue jeans, chinos are a classic — with a lineage that stretches from British soldiers in colonial India to John F. Kennedy and just about every frat brother in creation. Chinos’ longevity is a testament to the power of simple ideas: Wear them to work or wear them to run with the bulls in Pamplona and nobody will hassle you.

So leave it to the likes of Banana Republic and L.L. Bean to give the noble chino an identity crisis. Think you know what color khaki is? The pants we ordered turned out to be anything from off-white to light coffee. To confuse matters, Web sites offered us alternative shades like “British khaki,” “dark” and the enigmatic “new khaki.”

Adding to our confusion was the question of style and cut. On its Web site, Brooks Brothers offers four types of twill for its chinos, ranging from “stretch” to something called “enzyme washed” with little explanation of why you’d choose one over the other. J.Crew offers four cuts of chinos, though its Web site explains just how they’re supposed to fit and what kind of mood they’re meant to evoke.

To keep things simple, we ordered the most basic chino each catalog site offered. We picked a classic model with pleats and cuffs (when possible) and went for the color that’s labeled, or most closely resembles, khaki. And we ordered each in the same size 34.

But when the pants arrived, something grabbed us: Almost every pair was either too tight, too baggy or too long. Banana Republic’s chino was tight-waisted with nearly two extra inches on the inseam. The best fit came from L.L. Bean, which isn’t surprising since its site allows you to download a measuring tape.

How do you test a pair of chinos? We gave them a tumble in the washer, loaded up the pockets and took a very spoiled dachshund for five Sunday walks. We wore each pair for a stretch at the office with a jacket and tie, too. This led us to the following chino doctrine: Wash first, judge later. To our amazement, all of the pants that were too long shrunk to an acceptable range. The laundry also revealed a lot about fabric: Our stonewashed J.Crew pants came out wrinkly, while the Banana Republic pair seemed to take a firmer shape.

Two pairs seemed like candidates for early retirement. Our Brooks Brothers entry left us sore even before we tried them on — the overnight shipping charge was a whopping $21 — and we never ended up warming to them. Nice engineering touches like a reinforced leg seam didn’t keep these chinos from looking lumpy and uninspired. J.Crew’s roomy pants didn’t shrink at all in the wash, but came out feeling floppy.

We had a tough time deciding between our two finalists, Polo‘s Andrew Pant and Banana Republic’s Smithfield Chino. The Polos overcame some long odds out of the box: Until we washed them, their deep pleats made them look like parachute pants. We loved Polo’s coffee color and superior cotton, and they won the coat-and-tie competition hands down.

The Banana Republic chinos felt durable, with two front buttons and a reinforced waistband. Shallow pleats and pocket flaps gave them a modern look. One problem: Our 34′s were disco tight. But for $8 less than the Polos, we’ll happily order a bigger size, and name these our Best Overall.