When it comes to denim, Carhartt’s Logger Pant reflects everything the brand does well and then some. The 13 oz. denim is tough even after a thrashing, there are pockets aplenty—even a secure cell phone pocket on the right—and the double-knee construction isn’t just a durability play: that little opening at the bottom is for slipping in some knee pads if you’re ever actually doing some work.
What to Look for in a Great Pair of Jeans on Amazon
Just because top-quality jeans exist at Maison Bezos, that doesn’t mean that everything you’ll find there is worth your time. If you don’t have the microscopic eye of a denim nerd, then we’ve got your back. Well, your quads, in this case. So before adding to cart, check for the following:
Fabric: Ideally, we’re looking for 100% cotton jeans with a decent weight (at a minimum, 11-ounce fabric, though a heavyweight 13-14-ounce is nice, too). A tiny bit of stretch isn’t disqualifying, but the best jeans tend to be all-cotton: they last longer and age better. If you’re looking for the primo stuff—raw denim, selvedge denim, Japanese denim—it’s best to stick to stores specializing in the genre, but Amazon does stock pretty much everything, so there are a few solid options in the mix.
Stretch: We know some of you prefer stretch denim for comfort, but the highest-quality jeans don’t usually have any at all—though some can have a little, as a treat. Stretch-laden denim wears out much faster when compared to all-cotton pairs, and also fades less consistently over time, and our rubric for quality is primarily anchored in durability and aging potential, so avoid it if you can.
Style: You won’t find many skinny jeans in this guide, but if you’ve been outside in the past few years, that won’t be a surprise. For the sake of this guide, we’re favoring straight-leg pants that sit at the waist, and the occasional (so-called) slim-fit pants that are on the roomier end of the spectrum. Also: be sure to choose colors and washes of denim that will work well with your existing wardrobe. Purple jeans might sound cool in the moment, but can often turn into a shelf-based reminder of regret.
Brand: There are times and places to take fliers on unknown brands—we do all the time—but Amazon can be a little tricky. Normally, a store stocking a brand indicates some level of belief in said brand: if you trust the store, you can trust the brand. But when it’s a giant Amazon-sized marketplace, it is best to lean on brands with some pedigree, if only to reduce the odds of disappointment. If you don’t know the label and can’t find much info on it elsewhere, bang that Buy Now button at your own risk.
What Are the Best Jeans Brands on Amazon?
A.P.C.: An easy way to set yourself up for failure is to declare your hero product to be the “New Standard” of a very popular genre. But APC did just that, and then delivered on the promise a few different times. Years later, the quality of the jeans hasn’t waned in the slightest, despite the space getting a little more crowded in the interim. Known for high-contrast, highly-personalized fades, natural indigo dyes, minimal detailing, a slim silhouette and copious amounts of internet lore, A.P.C.’s are the kind of jeans that can shoulder a bit of obsessing.
Carhartt: You might not think of “denim” or “jeans” when you think of Carhartt, but considering that a) denim is one of the longest-tenured workwear fabrics and b) Carhartt is one of the oldest workwear brands still doing their thing, it should come as no surprise they know how to make a pair of jeans. Or a few, to be more precise. And while their signature double-knees are the undisputed headliner, the classic 5 Pockets are nothing to scoff at.
Levi’s: You know them, you love them, you can get them with Prime shipping. The first name in denim has been on Amazon for a little while now, which means that replacing a well-worn pair or figuring out what the 160 years of fuss is about for the very first time has never been easier. While the 501’s will always be the default, don’t sleep on the 505s or the 550s either.
Naked & Famous: Made entirely in Canada out of some of the world’s finest denim, it’s hard to find a better value proposition than Naked & Famous, who also works hand-in-hand with mills to create some of the most bonkers fabric—i.e. glow in the dark denim—ever concocted. It just so happens that they also make incredibly good pairs that are more down the middle, too.
Rag & Bone: Ok, so rag & bone jeans do occasionally violate the stretch rule up top, but if the stretch is done well, we’ll allow it—and rag & bone does it well when they do it. And regardless of elasticity, all the jeans are super soft, comfortable out of the gate, feature the kind of washes that go with an entire closet and are made to last in ways that most other jeans of their ilk aren’t.
Wrangler: There’s a list of reasons that cowboys have been wearing Wranglers for generations, and “Insanely Durable,” “Preposterously Affordable” and “Makes the Butt Look Good” are at the top of that list. If you’re looking to dabble in the world of bootcut jeans, Wrangler is a great place to start, but don’t sleep on the rest of their hard-wearing catalog either.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there’s bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ’s testing process here.)
