I’m not entirely sure, but I believe that the leggings in Minecraft are named this way to avoid confusion between British and American English. In the U.S., people often use “leggings” and “pants” interchangeably, which is perfectly acceptable. However, in Britain, “pants” refers to underwear, so if they encountered a term related to undergarments in Minecraft Bedrock, it would likely cause outrage or at least embarrassment. Overall, understanding a bit about the mentality of the UK is essential when shopping there to prevent awkward situations.
In Minecraft Pocket Edition, crafting leggings is quite simple. You need seven pieces of leather, iron, gold, or diamond, arranged around the crafting grid’s perimeter, leaving the bottom slot empty. If you prefer not to spend resources, you can search chests; upon death, some zombies, skeletons, or zombie pigmen drop leggings. Occasionally, they may even drop chainmail armor, which cannot be crafted but can be repaired using iron ingots.
Armor was intended to be part of the game from the very beginning. Initially, developers planned to include only two types: those made with iron and steel. However, after an update in February 2010, players discovered that five types were actually introduced: leather, gold, iron, chainmail, and diamond. At first, these varied significantly, but over time, improvements were made in version 1.0.0, introducing a multi-tiered system where increased levels enhanced protection efficiency and duration.
Each type of leggings provides several armor points, indicated by half-shields above the health bar. Each half-shield reduces damage by four percent, meaning full armor, with all 20 half-shields restored, absorbs up to 80 percent of damage. There’s also a factor called toughness, applicable only to diamond armor, but we’ll discuss that another time, perhaps next week.
In the real world, the earliest known pants were found on two mummies in northwestern China, dating back to between the 13th and 10th centuries BC. They were made of wool, featured straight legs, and were likely designed for horseback riding.
Initially, both men and women wore pants. However, looking at modern history, we see that for much of the time, pants were predominantly worn by men. At times, women were officially prohibited from wearing them, and violating this rule could lead to legal consequences. In the 1850s, many cities in the U.S. enacted anti-cross-dressing laws criminalizing public appearances in “attire not belonging to one’s gender.” These laws persisted into the 20th century—Cincinnati, Ohio, upheld them as late as 1974.
Today, many of these sexist laws have been repealed, though perhaps not as recently as one might think. Women weren’t allowed to wear pants on the floor of the U.S. Senate until 1993. Additionally, strict regulations regarding what women can wear still exist in various parts of the world.
At Minecraft, we believe everyone should be able to wear leggings, regardless of their character’s era or gender. Which ones do you like best? Those made of leather, gold, iron, chainmail, or diamond? We once had a humorous idea to suggest adding spider silk leggings, but then realized that would be quite impractical, as flies would get stuck to your legs. If you have any ideas, feel free to email us at Minecraft.
