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The 14 Best Jacket Brands for Men
All our favorites from high-end fashion to low-cost workwear.
This is why we get dressed. I hate to sound like the “Can’t wait for fall so I can be dressing” guy, but weather that permits a jacket really does open up your wardrobe. The jacket could be a suit jacket with jeans—technically a faux-pas tacky look, but I love it. The jacket could be a $4,500 denim jacket. It could be a $400 Filson trucker. Point is, it’s okay to be obsessed with jackets the same way we’re obsessed with denim and tailoring. If you’re not on this level, let me get you started with some of the best places guys can buy jackets.
I’ve got workwear classics on this list like the Carhartt Detroit. I’ve got high-end futuristic brands like C.P. Company. There is something that’s been endorsed by Esquire to fit any taste and budget. So, if you’re looking for your signature fall 2025 purchase, these are the 16 best places to start.
I mean, what more is there to say about Carhartt jackets? Your granddad had one. Your dad had one. If you don’t have one, you’ve seen it on Austin Butler or your local barista. I prefer this classic Detroit; it’s a good mix between rugged and fashion-y. But if that’s not you, there’s a plethora of chore coats, heavyweight hoodies, and more in the lineup.
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If you are going to get a technical rain shell, make it an Arc'teryx. Everything is lightweight and fully waterproof, and all the seams are taped to prevent leakage.
In my opinion, this is high-level outdoor clothing. Half the people walking this earth with Arc'teryx jackets won’t get the full intended use of them, but that’s okay. If you lean into the outdoors thing, you look sick, and this jacket will last a lifetime.
Canada Goose is a world-renowned (for quality and price) brand that has been creating insulated jackets for more than 5o years. It’s one of the rare widely coveted brands from which you get what you pay for. The jackets, coats, and parkas are made to look good and have become a bit of a status symbol because of it. But at the end of the day, these are just incredible jackets. Everything the brand makes is built to keep the elements at bay.
I love a Baracuta G9. It’s the original Harrington, a great windbreaker, a foundational piece of athletic wear. It’s an iconic part of the British wardrobe, and I love mixing it in with more-American outfits.
The jackets are still made in the UK from the highest quality materials. If you buy on Amazon, you can get it in the classic poly-cotton twill. But if you shop the actual Baracuta website, the G9 has been reinterpreted with all sorts of fabrics like suede, waxed cotton, and wool.
Stylistically, Patagonia has gotten way too many associations with software engineers wearing the company’s logo on a vest. In truth, the down jackets are well made and warm, and these Nano Puff alternatives are affordable and incredibly easy to pack.
And if you want less-technical stuff, just dig into the retro fleeces, hemp canvases, and fair-trade cottons. Patagonia isn’t going to refresh its lineup every year in the name of “fashion.” It’s going to keep doubling down on its core range of outdoor and work apparel.
| Location | Ventura, CA |
| Price | $$-$$$ |
Made in the good ol’ U.S. of A., Flint and Tinder crafts top-quality durable jackets that happen to be some of our Esquire editor’s favorites. Unlike most of the other Waxed Truckers on the market, its best-selling jacket feels out of the box but still gets that beautiful waxed-jacket patina. For the price, quality, and versatility of its products, the brand really can’t be beat.
| Location | Austin, TX |
| Price | $$-$$$$ |
I recently wrote 1,000 words on this jacket, but I’d say all of that for pretty much everything in the Filson lineup. The brand started as an outfitter for the Klondike gold rush, and even though it’s become more of a menswear mainstay, it’s still built on truly rugged apparel.
Filson has this Pacific Northwest connotation, and Barbour is decidedly British. But Tom Beckbe, a newer name in the business, has a really good Southern take on the waxed jacket. The brand is from Birmingham, Alabama, and makes its wildly popular jackets in the U.S.A.
A lot of guys will find it very similar to Barbour in look, but I find a sort of laid-back attitude in Tom Beckbe that I associate really fondly with where I grew up. Sure, the Tom Beckbe guy pheasant-hunts and fly-fishes for trout, but he’d be just as happy going after doves or spin-fishing for largemouth.
RRL, the vintage-inspired sub brand inspired by Ralph and Ricky Lauren’s Colorado ranch, is the absolute best place to buy Americana clothing. I have a RRL Type III denim trucker jacket, and I’d do a lot of bad stuff to get my hands on this roughout trucker. Depending on the season, the offering may lean more Western, more military, or more coastal. No matter which cycle you’re in right now, the product is second to none.
I say this with so much affection: Fortela is the Spaghetti Western of menswear. Alessandro Squarzi’s brainchild is all about good denim and vintage military wear. But it doesn’t have the corn-cobby feel you get from Americana brands. Similar to how Sergio Leone took John Ford’s vision and made it darker, moodier, Fortela takes an elegant Italian brush to these working-class American shapes.
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Of the Massimo Osti-founded brands, I prefer the older C.P. Company. Part of that is down to, well, it was the original, but a big chunk is because Lorenzo Osti, son of the brand’s founder, is still the president. Modern Stone Island is also amazing, but I feel like it has more of a hype connotation. C.P. Company still does all the crazy overdyeing and fabric innovating, but it’s for the real heads.
With most military designs, I say surplus is always the way to go. Buzz Rickson’s is the exception. The Japanese brand makes freakishly accurate military reproductions, most of which are jackets. Oftentimes the brand will invest deeply in its production partners and take years to perfect things exactly to the original specifications. It’s great for history nerds, great for jacket nerds.
Speaking of Osti brands, Ten-C was founded by two Stone Island and C.P. Company alums. It has so much of that DNA built in. The shapes are inspired by real military and mountaineering wear, and there’s an absurd obsession with textile innovation. The lineup is made for guys going to fashion weeks, but it looks like it’s made for scientists going to the edge of the known world.
If you really want to get nerdy, the brand has pioneered its own fabric—Original Japanese Jersey (OJJ)—and has a whole section of the site dedicated to it. There’s just so much to dig into that I don’t have the space to talk about here.
If you want something like Canada Goose but don’t want the Russian-tourist-in-Canada-Goose look, I’d recommend Canadian brand Nobis. The jackets are made to go to the Arctic and back, but everything about the design and branding is subtle. It makes fashionable clothing, but the focus here, first and foremost, is function.
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