I do and don't like windpants.
I grew up in the time when it was the 90s and pretty much all athletic pants were noisy swishy nylon windpants. I own a ton of them. Both unlined and lined. I love them for lounging around and doing light workouts. But for running, eh, not really. When I was on my XC team, we pretty had them, and they were alright. They were unlined, and I remember during the end of the season when it was cold, they were useless, unless you wore tights under them.
One thing that I look for in windpants that the bottom part has elastic. Straight cut is annoying when running. Anything else it's fine, but when running it's very annoying to have straight cut. I also like unlined windpants, but that's just me. The lined ones are like wearing two pairs of pants, unless it is cold, but then you layer anyways.
Now it's either tights (or capris), or shorts for me. The advances they have made in tights are amazing, and best of all some have more storage than pants! I got a pair of UA tights that have two rear/side pockets that can easily fit most huge phones, and two leg pockets that can also fit phones or other stuff. Plus when you are moving around they aren't jostling around creating an annoyance.
Lastly, I think windpants look old and kind of lazy/trashy. Then again, that's just my 90s opinions coming out. lol
I think a nice pair of tights on a reasonably fit guy/gal is much better looking than baggy windpants.
