You can never go wrong with a good pair of chinos. Many we have reviewed are priced at $100+, but J.Crew hits at a nice price point and balancing quality. With trends moving towards wide pants, J.Crew brought their Giant Fit Chino out. I originally tried a pair of those, but found them too wide (the name is perfect). After returning them, I picked up a pair of the Classic Chino and they quickly became my go-to pants for work.

Materials

These are 100% cotton. The fabric is quite substantial, but not so much so that they feel like they’d be uncomfortable in warm weather. They feel durable and stay crisp. A few other nice touches are the YKK zipper and nice quality buttons.

Fit & Style

J.Crew describes the fit and style as “inspired by the original 1940s military-issued pairs that crossed over into civilian life – especially on college campuses where they evolved into a quintessential element of Ivy style. Relaxed through the hip and thigh with a full leg.”

I’d say this is spot on. These feel like the chinos you’d see your grandfather wearing on a college campus, classic ivy. As compared to the Giant fit, these play better for an everyday Ivy style, and I don’t find them too wide. Another benefit of the cut is that they never restrict movement, even though they have no stretch.

The back pockets are both flap style, which is a great touch. The pants also feature a French fly.

Performance

Not much to cover on the performance side — these pants feel durable, wearable year-round, and the cut makes them extremely comfortable.

I’ve had my oldest pair for about three months, and they show no signs of fading, stretching out, or anything of that sort. I find that I get quite a few wears out of these between washes, which also helps. They are dryer safe, so the care is easy. I find they look great coming out of the dryer as long as you don’t let them sit for long before hanging them up.

Overall

I love these chinos, and I have three pairs. They present a good value at their full price of $98; but often are on sale (I’ve paid between $32 and full price). Highly recommended (and check out the Dill color).

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In my life, the way I signal “yeah, I’m done for the day” is to climb into a comfortable pair of joggers before finding an equally comfortable place in the house to nestle into. One pair I love to wear is the Ponto Performance Jogger from Vuori.

You’ve likely seen the brand marketed all over, they do a good job of that, and if you know what you are getting into, the joggers can fill a nice niche for you.

Materials

The Ponto is made from Vuori’s ‘DreamKnit™’ fabric which is a fancy branding of: 89% Recycled Polyester, 11% Elastane. It feels exactly how that composition sounds: insanely soft with a lot of 4-way stretch. It has a slight brushing to the fabric to increase the softness.

These are not heavyweight joggers though. The material is about as thick as a standard polo shirt might be, and offers not much in the way of warmth. It’s a solid offering for a jogger that is focusing on comfort.

Fit & Style

This is a pretty standard jogger cut, with a strong taper to the ankles and a narrow calf. The thigh area fits me well, but that’s rarely an issue I run into. The waistband is comfortable and the drawstring is needed as the elastic isn’t overly strong.

Both pockets have small zippers which help to keep rather clean lines overall when they are zipped shut. The main issue with the fit is the lack of heft in the fabric means that anything behind the material is easily telegraphed through the material. That’s not to say you can see through them, but you can make out the shapes of say things in your pockets, pretty readily. Because of that, at least for me and a few other people I know who own these, they are strictly ‘in the house with no guest’ type of pants. This works out as this isn’t a style I would want to wear outside the home to begin with.

I will say that Vuori needs a slightly longer length in these, they are at the edge of wearability for me.

Performance

There’s two primary performance claims here: ‘ultra-comfort’ and moisture wicking. I’ll tackle those plus durability individually:

• ‘Ultra-comfort’: I would be outright lying if I were to disagree with this. These are indeed ultra comfortable to wear. They move really well, and they are very soft. They never heat you up, but they will help dash a slight chill.
• Moisture Wicking: I am rather dubious of this. It’s not that these don’t wick moisture, it’s that I don’t think they do it well. They can and do get damp if you are resting a non-permeable item on your lap (laptops, iPads, etc) and that feels pretty gross. When they get wet they don’t dry slow, but they also don’t dry that fast. Overall this is average at best.
• Durability: these have held up well in the year I have owned them. The material face has a touch of pilling, but I also wash them right-side-out instead of inside-out as the instructions indicate. Perhaps that would keep this at bay, but generally it’s not enough to bother me.

The performance you should expect from these is purely comfort. Anything else is just extra, but shouldn’t be expected. I do find the strength of the waistband to be very welcoming, even though you need to use the drawstring, it means that the pants don’t feel like they are trying to squeeze you to death.

Overall

As I mentioned at the outset: I am a big fan of these. Not because they are a performance jogger, but because they are the most comfortable jogger I’ve tried. I love wearing these, and the $98 price tag doesn’t bother me that much, though I do think they are an instant buy if you can snag them at a discount.

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I’m of the belief that everyone should own a hoodie, and I further believe that said hoodie should be full-zip in nature. I, for one, certainly do not look particularly coordinated taking off a pullover hoodie, and thus a full-zip is the correct choice for me. In my search for a new hoodie, Reigning Champ was recommended as a very nice premium feeling take on the classic.

Yes, it is a very nice premium feeling hoodie. After owning this for over a year now, I can confidently say that this is a fantastic hoodie.

Materials

This is a 100% cotton hoodie. Reigning Champ makes these in several weights, cuts, and some varied materials. The interior on this is a terry cloth finish, so there’s no real fuzz to this. All of the seams are flatlock and the cut is trim with semi-raglan sleeves. The zipper is a two-way design, and is smooth to operate, but a touch rough to slide your hand against.

The cuffs, hem, and side panels are ribbed and they feel robust and really nice. Perhaps the nicest ribbed material I have on any garments right now. The hood is dual layer with a ribbed interior — this makes the hood quite heavy, so it tends to sit down nicely on your back.

All in all, the materials and construction are top notch. The hand feel on this is perfect, smooth and soft.

Fit & Style

This is a classic hoodie, updated with a trimmer fit. It comes in two cuts: slim and classic. I have the classic cut, and it still wears trimmer than most hoodies you would go out and buy. This is a great look if you want to toss it over a t-shirt and look put together. But a poor fit if you want to layer it, or have something that looks slouchier.

Because of how this cotton material faces up, it looks quite premium in nature. There’s no pill to the face of this, and thus it looks a little more polished all around than a standard hoodie. It’s still a hoodie in formality, but it’s a classier take on a hoodie.

Performance

There’s not a lot of performance attributes here, but there are a few points worth talking about more, as items like this can be really hit or miss in quality.

• Fade Resistance: my hoodie is black, and black cotton tends to fade out over time. And all of my black hoodies before this, did just that. Here I cannot detect any fading, and this gets a lot of wearing and washes. I am impressed by the fade resistance of this.
• Stretch Resistance: one thing which can happen with the ribbing on hoodies is that they stretch and deform over time. Or they are so restrictive that you wish they would stretch and deform. Neither is the case here. The ribbing has held its shape and stretch, while also not being overly tight around the cuffs. These are spot on, I wouldn’t change them at all.
• Ease of Care & Durability: I mentioned before, but it is worth mentioning again, there is no pilling on this item. I can’t see any notable signs of wear on this. For some (like me) this is a huge plus, for others this isn’t what they want from this type of item. I’ve tossed this in the wash as normal, and hung it to dry — no issues or fuss for me.
• The Hood: I have a love hate relationship with this hood. It’s very heavy, so when you are walking around, this is great as it lays nicely on your shoulder blades and looks clean. But if you bend forward it tends to flop rather aggressively forward. And if you sit back on the hood, it’s quite bulky. I would much prefer a lighter composition to the hood here.
• The Zippers: yes they are a touch scratchy if you scrape your skin across them, but I am not bothered by them. They move cleanly and offer no issues. What I don’t love is the dual zip nature of them. I find that this makes it a little more fiddly to zip the hoodie up, and a single zipper would be much easier for me to work with.

The warmth rating on this, I would put in the ‘light layer’ section. It’s not adding a ton of warmth, and there is not pile to the fabric to really retain heat. So it’s a solid layer for warmer climates, where you still might want to ward off a mild chill.

Overall

I am not sure I would spend the full $160 retail on this, but it’s decently easy to find these for upwards of 20% off MSRP. And if you can get one under $130, it’s spot on for the price. It’s a really nice hoodie, which looks clean and wears well. I’m a big fan of the material, and I’ll keep wearing this for some time to come.

Buy here, $160

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I’ve long been wanting a warmer vest to wear stand alone, or as a layer. The Filson Ultralight Vest kept coming up top on my search, so I picked up a navy version on a sale at the start of the year.

This vest is excellent, and quite warm.

Materials

This vest has vertical baffles which house 60-gram PrimaLoft® Gold insulation inside a shell of 1.5 oz. Cordura® ripstop nylon. The inside of the collar, and the hand warmer pockets are lined with moleskin cotton.

The entire vest can be compressed well enough to make this a nice item for travel. While still being warm enough and performant in nature for the city. I was worried about the durability of the shell, but it’s proven to not be a problem at all.

Fit & Style

This vest is firmly in the outdoor style of vests. The cut and wear of this is low-bulk — this is not a puffy vest — while also wearing a touch thicker than a standard fleece vest. At the same time, it wears substantially warmer than a fleece vest, but not so warm that you find yourself wanting to shed it when you start to become more active.

Most reviewers note that this runs large, and while I wear a large in most items, I picked this up in a medium. It fits well except the shoulders being a touch short. If you want to layer under this vest, I’d buy your normal size, otherwise you can likely size down safely.

Performance

I am very impressed with this vest overall. The moleskin is a nice touch, and makes the collar feel very cozy and comfortable against my neck. The hand warmer pockets are nice, and placed well, and the interior zipped pocket is useful without being too in the way.

The warmth is exceptional on this. And with Primaloft Gold, there’s little worry about losing performance when getting wet or compressed in your bag. It compresses well into your gear when you need to pack it away, but is ready to go when you toss it on. There’s no water resistance on this, so you’ll need another layer in wet weather. I find this a better option to pack for the performance it provides versus the bulk it packs down to when comparing to a standard fleece vest for travel. However, the downside is you trade off on style with this, since it lends more to outdoors and workwear adjacent.

Overall

I would wear this vest more if I wasn’t in Texas, but as it is I take it with me whenever I travel to the much colder northern states. It’s warm, and easy to toss on.

I’m a big fan.

Buy here, $165

NOTE: where possible all product links on this site may earn the site money when you buy using those links.