preference: too loose or too tight?

shrinking requires heat and water and that damages the wash. loosening requires simple wear and does no damage to the pants. i would say, go tighter. of course, there is a level of tightness and looseness that is just too much but we're having to pick between two non ideal choices...

 

final answer: tighter.

Yup. Easier to stretch than to shrink.

While it may be easier to stretch than shrink, I'd rather wear jeans that are too loose than too tight. For me, I would get the smaller size only if I knew the wash stretches a fair bit.
 

I'd go tighter, but I like tight anyway!

It's a careful balance, and worth considering too that too tight can lead to blowout in not-flattering areas.

If there was a wash I absolutely HAD to have, I would probably buy larger and try and grow into them.

 

Sure it may be easier to stretch tight jeans, but they only stretch so much before they just look skin tight and silly. Baggy pants just seem more passable than tight leggings for men.. so yeah. Also, from my experience sizing up 1 usually will not be overly baggy, while sizing down 1 can often mean the difference between a good fit and some skin tight leggings.

It depends on the brand and cut. If its Diesel, better to go small as it will stretch slightly. When jeans are to loose, especially premium denim, it tends to look sloppy. Then again, it depends on the look you are going for. For example in Diesel, too loose thanaz would look damn ugly especially at the waist, but I have seen some guys sport and carry off a slightly looser zathan. But it really sucks when you cant find your specific size!

I would go tighter...but it all depends on situations. I go tighter for myself as I could always lose some weight, because I am naturally big.

too tight unless its Dior Homme stretch denim or elastarell from Diesel. Those will never stretch out even though they stretch while you wear them

Loose. I wanna breath!

talking about stretching jeans

how long do you think it will take to stretch jeans to a comfortable level?should one day be enough or more like a week or so ?

Depends, I had jeans which stretched after 1-2 times wearing.... other one after 1 month wearing, 10+ times.

I'd go tight, cuz no matter what kind of jeans they eventually stretch to your size, some on the 2nd time (like stretch jeans), others 10th or even 15th time.