What should you look for when buying sweatpants? As with anything, really, it’s important to consider the quality of the fabric, the construction involved, and, most importantly, your personal taste. Should sweatpants be slim or baggy? That’s up to you, bud! Relaxed-fit sweatpants are certainly more classic, but some old-school sweats are designed without pockets—you might be wearing yours strictly for chilling, but having a pocket to hold your phone is probably a good idea.
Regardless of how they fit, though, sweatpants are also distinguished by their elastic waistbands—and the best of the bunch should come with a drawstring, too. Eventually, the elasticity of the fabric inside the waistband will deteriorate and lose its stretch, so that drawstring will help extend the life of your sweats.
As a final rule of thumb, the more details a product’s description has, the better. Luckily, every single one of the top-shelf sweats below comes with details in spades. So without further ado, let’s get into straight into them.
The Best Sweatpants from the Sweats Specialists
The details help to separate Reigning Champ’s sweats from the pack: reinforced seams, a gentle taper, and a wide waistband with a thick, sturdy drawstring that sits right on your hips instead of below them. But it’s the custom-milled Canadian-made fleece itself—burly and tough on the outside, brushed and soft on the inside, with plenty of gorgeous texture—that really earns them a spot on this list. The only thing gripe we have is that it’s hard to choose between all the different variations. From the lightweight iterations to elastic cuffed versions to loose fit iterations with open hems, Reigning Champ’s roster of sweatpants is a candy shop of cozy options. The upside? You can’t go wrong with any of them.
The Best Budget Sweatpants
At this stage, you might be thinking: OK, GQ, these fancy-pants sweats are all fine and dandy. But what about sweatpants for sweatpants’ sake? The kind you spend next to nothing on, wear into the ground, and don’t mind occasionally wiping off your Cheeto dust on? These are those sweats. Russell has been in the athleticwear game since the early 1900s, and its standard-fit, open-bottom sweatpants continue to deliver some of the absolute best value in the business. You won’t find a better basic sweatpant for under $30.
The Best Sweatpants for the Gym
Lululemon’s sweats ain’t no slouch (though, they’re clearly great for getting nothing done other than watching Netflix and consuming calories). They’ve got a healthy amount of elastane with four-way stretch for deep squats and advanced yoga poses, fast-drying, moisture-wicking properties to keep you cool through the most heart-pumping workouts, and a comfy and secure media pocket to keep your phone in place through every move. We like the fact that they come in a bunch of different colors, but love that the ABC joggers come in three different lengths.
The Best Heavyweight Sweatpants
Camber’s dedication to making the highest-quality, burliest hoodies and crewnecks thankfully extends to sweatpants, too. These are made from the same heavy-duty cotton blend Cross Knit fabric that Camber uses for its legendary hoodies, so you can bet you’ll be wearing ’em well into the next decade. But don’t expect these to be baby-soft right out of the package: That burly reputation means it’ll take several washes and wears to get them to Saturday lounge-ready. They’re available in waist sizes up to 6XL as well as regular and tall lengths. However, the regular inseam starts at 32 inches which can be a bit long for some people.
The Best Old-School Sweatpants
The truth is…they don’t really make ‘em like they used to. That’s why vintage obsessives rove from estate sale to defunct general store to Goodwill and back again, in search of that decades-old piece of garment history. But thanks to a handful of even more obsessive artisanal brands, there are sweatpants on the market that look effectively identical to a deadstock pair of sweats from the mid-century. The foremost among the repro brands is The Real McCoy’s, whose over-the-top meticulousness has earned them legions of fans in search of everything from WWII-era jeans to 1930s horsehide jackets. Their loopwheel sweatpants are knit on rare antique knitting machines which knit at a deliberately slow pace, using the natural force of gravity as the tension for the machine. The result is not only a sublime balance of density and softness, but a smooth, seamless outer leg, just like they used to make way back when.
The Best Slim-But-Not-Skinny Sweatpants
Todd Snyder’s longstanding collaboration with Champion is responsible for our favorite crewneck sweatshirt, so it stands to reason that they also make a top-notch sweatpant. For once, an assumption won’t make an ass out of you and me—but it will make your ass look mighty damn fine. (Sorry.) Because, of course, the Todd Snyder + Champion line’s sweatpants are great, and for many of the same reasons as their upper body counterpart: the fit is tailored and on point, the details are handsome and vintage-inspired—plus the French terry fabric has just the right mix of structure and softness. If you’re looking for a simple, classic pair of sweatpants executed flawlessly, these are the way to go.
The Best Sweatpants That Are More Like Pants, TBH
Let’s say you love the feel of sweatpants, but just can’t bring yourself to wear them out in the open. where all the judgment can get you. There exists a kind of sweatpant for this exact debilitating conundrum, a pair of sweats that has one leg in the Lounge Land and the other in Upstanding Citizen-opolis. Manufacturers have gotten real good at making sweatpants that look a hell of a lot more like regular, everyday, out-of-the-house pants. And the best among them comes from Los Angeles-based brand Lady White Co., whose very particulary, very meticulous approach to clothes is focused solely on knitwear, specifically sweats and jersey. They aren’t your average basement brand hawking screen-printed hoodies. From source to sewing, LWC’s eagle-eyed design is so good, it’s subconsciously obvious, though you may not be able to articulate exactly why.
The Best Capital-D Designer Sweatpants
When they launched in 2013, John Elliott’s Escobar pants quickly came to define the athleisure movement, and paved the way for men getting away with wearing what was once workout gear in public without looking lazy. Times have…changed. Where the Escobar was aggressively tapered and overly engineered, the LA is cut roomy and relaxed, with an elastic cinch cord at the waist that doesn’t bunch—giving the normally sloppy sweat a cleaner look. Crafted from a dense, proprietary French terry cotton, they’ll actually get comfier the more you wear them, which is really saying something since they start out pretty darn cozy as it is.
Plus 10 More Sweatpants We Love
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