When it comes to mass-market denim, the best jeans on Amazon closely parallel the best affordable jeans, period. Look, we know that shopping for clothing on Amazon isn’t always the most seamless experience—if you don’t fine-tune your search just right, you could wind up sifting through an endless assortment of brands with names that sound like they were made in a cocktail shaker. The sheer volume of product is also a little daunting, as is the way the entire layout is organized. But we still do it, because Amazon crushes certain categories, and denim just so happens to be one of them.
Which, to be clear, is great news for anyone in need of a new pair of jeans. (We really do mean anyone.) When it comes to denim, Amazon healthily stocks many of the labels you probably already love: Levi’s, Lee, Dickies, AG Adriano Goldschmied, Carhartt, Rag & Bone, and more. (Do they have a secret stash of freakier stuff? Not really, but if you want some Kapital patchwork joints you can find those elsewhere.)
So whether you used to frequent Superfuture’s denim forum or you just need some new workhorse dungarees, the Everything Store’s got you covered. To make it even easier, we rounded up 8 pairs of GQ-approved jeans on Amazon that you can score with your Prime membership—and enjoy that sweet, sweet free overnight shipping, too.
The Best Men’s Jeans on Amazon, According to GQ
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Best Jeans on Amazon Overall: Levi’s 501 Original Fit Jeans
The jeans that started, well, jeans still look as good as they ever have. And while it’s not a requirement that every guy have a pair of 501s to turn to, we can’t think of a single instance in which it wouldn’t be advantageous to have them on deck. Invented by Levi Strauss himself (co-credit goes to Latvian tailor Jacob Davis), the 501 has perhaps the most iconic silhouette in all of menswear—straight leg, mid-rise—and the modern iteration still features the signature love-it-or-hate-it button fly (we love it) and other design details informed by 150 years of R&D. If you’re looking to replace a well-loved pair or merely have a 501-sized hole in your closet, Amazon’s got you covered.
Best Sub-$50 Jeans: Dickies Regular-Fit 5-Pocket Jeans
If you don’t expect much out of a $30 pair of jeans, there’s a good chance that you’ve never encountered a pair of Dickies Regular-Fits. Built to last from a heavyweight 100% cotton denim twill, with heavy-duty brass hardware, these Dickies jeans (yes, jeans) workabout as hard as any five times (or more) their price. They even have a coin pocket large enough, the brand unsettlingly says, for a pocket knife. Also, like the rest of the workwear legend’s catalog, the fit on these are killer—think medium rise, slightly roomy leg, and a seat that’s tailored to flatter. And with a wide range of sizes available, just about all of you should be able to find a pair that fits.
Best Jeans for Budding Denimheads: Naked & Famous True Guy Left Hand Twill Selvedge Jeans
If you’re looking to explore the indigo-rich waters but don’t feel like diving headfirst into the pricey, Osaka 5-tinted deep end, this pair of True Guys will let you wade in with some aplomb. Made in Canada from 13.75 oz. selvedge fabric—an indigo rope-dyed ditty that was milled in Japan—they’ve got a straight leg, a medium rise and just a bit of extra room in the seat for full mobility right out of the box, which means they’re primed and ready for some masterpiece fades.
Best Baggy Jeans: Carhartt Loose-Fit Utility Logger Jeans
You know how we mentioned pedigree up top? Carhartt was founded in the 1800s, specifically to outfit working class Americans and migrants. And if you’ve wandered into a vintage, surplus or workwear store at any point in the past decade (or owned some yourself), you’d know that their reputation for hard-wearing, long-lasting, better-with-age clothing is rightly earned. When it comes to denim, Carhartt’s Logger Pant reflects everything the brand does well and then some. The 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 supports if you’re ever actually doing some work.
Best Slim-Fit Jeans: A.P.C. New Standard Jeans
Not long ago, these were THE jeans, and for many of us, they were our first foray into the raw denim arena. For those wondering—or anyone suffering from flowy fatigue—they’re still a great slim-fitting option. The straight leg works with a ton of footwear options, there’s a touch of extra room in the thighs, and the mid-rise makes them easier to wear than they might otherwise be, considering the rigidity of the fabric. Plus, for anyone who likes to deeply research the things they own, there might not be a single pair of jeans with more dedicated literature on the entire internet, including care tips, fading advice and more. (Oh, and if you’re still looking for ‘em skinny, skinny, the Petit iteration is also available.)
Best Bootcut Jeans: Wrangler 13MWZ Cowboy Cut Original Fit Jeans
There’s been no shortage of great Western wear in recent years: brands both big and small have been churning out impeccable repros, contemporary riffs and catalog classics at an astounding rate. And while the trucker jackets, Western shirts and cowboy boots have been hitting extra hard, bootcut jeans remain something of a rarity. Lucky for you, maybe the best of the bunch are made by Wrangler, available on Amazon, and still stand as the go-to jeans for many a real-deal cowboy thanks to their high rise, roomy thigh, slightly flared leg to fit easily over a pair of boots, and hip-hugging top block. (Wrangler butts drive ‘em nuts, as they say.)
For those curious about durability, these were made with a hardy 14.75oz. denim that’ll take a bit of time to break in, but will be incredible in a few wears, and keep you plenty warm. Anyways, if you haven’t signed on to the yeehaw agenda yet, you can do so with two-day shipping. Giddyup.
The Best Heavyweight Jeans: Unbranded UB221 Indigo Selvedge Jeans
The phrases “Well-priced” and “raw selvedge denim” basically never overlap in the Venn diagram, and this is especially the case when you add “well-made” to the mix. But The Unbranded Brand (say it five times fast) has been bucking that notion for years, making specialty selvedge denim without charging specialty prices. These, in particular, employ a preposterously heavyweight selvedge denim—21 oz.!—and are outfitted with a cowhide leather patch, copper hardware, and a trimmer, more tapered fit than others on this list. Will these break in quickly? Absolutely not, but the Prime shipping is sweetness, the stiffness adds undeniable character, and once they do break in, they might outlast us all.
Best Grail-Worthy Jeans: Sugar Cane SC40401N Japanese Selvedge Denim Jeans
It’s unclear why you can buy a pair of Sugar Cane jeans on Amazon, but you can, and considering the mission of this guide (helping you find the best jeans on Amazon), not including the actual best jeans available makes no sense. Yes, the price on these is more than twice any other pair on the list, but the outlay comes with outrageous quality. These are made in Japan from a slow-loomed selvedge denim fabric, spare zero expenses when it comes to hardware, and will probably outlast any other pants in your closet. Anyways, as we mentioned above, there are better venues to buy some Fancy Denim™, but if you so insist, you should start here.
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.
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.)
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.
