Today, we’re gonna talk about the absolute best chore coats, at least in my world, and I feel like 99% of people drool over one of these chore coats. Shockingly expensive online, but I found some on eBay for a good deal. It does live up to the hype. There’s a little cut on the inside of the jacket on that panel. I love that. I love that detail.

This is some of the softest denim I’ve ever felt. All of the pockets are lined with an even softer flannel. There are just so many details like this that show a mastery of fit and sizing. My personal experience with the brand: I opened the box, and I was like, “I don’t see the big deal,” and then I put the chore coat on, and I was like, “I am the hottest man.”

People go absolutely feral for one of these bad boys. They sell out in about 2 minutes, 800 of them. There’s a New York Times article about them.

You don’t own just one thing from this brand; you own three or four. I own three things from this brand.

Let’s Talk Chore Coat History

But this is where the problem arises. There’s a great history of chore coats, but there is no official historical chore coat.

They got standardized and more generic during the Industrial Revolution because you wanted to buy 80 of them instead of having one made specifically for you.

So if we’re trying to get one now that is more specifically for you, there are certain things we need to pay attention to, like cuffs, like pocket style, like length, like thickness that when you put everything together, you could see what brands are referencing historically.

For example, some cuffs require an extra step when being made versus something like more standard cuffs, and we can get into the nerdy historical reason about manufacturing time and trying to get stuff out and different professions and stuff like that, and it gets a lot more fun.

The Ultimate Chore Coat Comparison

Carhartt: The American Classic

Exhibit A: Carhartt short coat. And if you’re saying, “Michael, technically that’s actually a barn coat,” just stop it. You’re screwing me up. You win this round. Whatever. What we need to focus on: triple stitched seams, normally every stress point would be riveted out the butt.

It uses the duck canvas instead of the bright blue moleskin that the French kind of perfected. Why? Personally, I think it’s because of the climate in Britain and France, but we’ll get into that.

The Undisputed King From France

And then, of course, we have the undisputed king of chore jackets, the French powerhouse, the chore jacket, the Creator.

And I do have to say, after putting this coat on, yes, I can totally see why they are the undisputed king. It is not made of denim or canvas; it’s furry fuzzy moleskin, a French staple, a European staple really.

Today’s Mission: Chore Coat Breakdown

Okay so the goal for this article is to take a chore coat, blow it up, split up into any bitty pieces, see what pieces you like, what you don’t, what I like, what I don’t, what we want to throw out, and then we’ll be doing that by going over six to seven chore coats that we have today.

I actually can’t remember if I brought six or seven cuz there is one really weird one that I don’t—technically it is a chore coat, but still. Yeah, that’s that.

Pointer: The Reddit Darling

First on the list is one of my favorite jackets from the list: Pointer, Pointer, Pointer, Pointer. Technically, it’s L.C. King. Pointer is the brand; L.C. King is the manufacturer.

If you were on Reddit from 2013 to 2017 or something like that while Portlandia was airing, which is embroidered on the back of this collar, you knew about the Pointer.

Pointer was the hottest brand. Everybody wanted a pointer. It was the chore jacket. You know, including me.

I was looking at it like, “Wow, I need that jacket more than anything in my life. I wish they made it skinnier.”

This is a 12-oz duck canvas from Mount Vernon. It is very, very tightly woven. It’s the same canvas that Carhartt uses from the same place for the made in America stuff, so it’s going to age the same, and it’s going to look beautiful.

I’m a really big fan of it. It does get wet; water still gets in, but it’s very, very tightly woven tough stuff.

This jacket is cut much more like a rider jacket, like a trucker type two, you know, just a shorter jacket.

I think, based off of L.C. King’s website, this I’m assuming was a promotional thing for Portlandia, maybe for the cast or something, because the sewing is done really, really simple—it’s quick, there’s no top stitching, no extra details.

What’s a bummer, though, is that the Pointer brand, I believe, got sold by L.C. King, and L.C. King still made similar jackets, but now, recently, it looks like they may have closed up shop. They could be moving warehouses or something like that. I’m not sure, but that’s the only bummer.

That being said, seriously, if you know someone at L.C. King or Pointer, please connect them with me because I would love to do something together. I think that would be a lot of fun. This is like—there was Carhartt, there was Levis, and then there was Pointer and L.C. King. It’s that foundational to American workware, so I think it’s so cool.

Buck Mason is a cool brand. Everybody knows that. But for some reason, the women love this chore coat in particular. I should note that I got these for free from Buck Mason.

They did not pay me to say that or pay me at all. They do so much advertising that I figured people would want to know how Buck Mason is.

My girlfriend, Taylor, and I were heading to the grocery store yesterday, so I just tossed this coat on.

I walked outside, and like 4 seconds later, some woman was like, “That’s a really nice coat,” and I was like, “Thanks.” And then I got to the grocery store, and Taylor was talking to her friends, and they were both like, “That’s a really nice coat.”

This is the Buck Mason version of the ever-famous P41. If you fought in World War II, you probably recognize this jacket because this is what the Americans wore as a uniform, albeit buttoned and with a big belt, but that is the P41. So that’s what they’re referencing here.

The BM boys call this a lightweight fabric, and it makes me think, “Buck Mason, do you know what other brands consider to be a lightweight fabric?”

Not that this is a heavyweight fabric by any means- I’d probably say midweight- but it’s woven so densely that it has some nice structure.

It stands on its own, and apparently, I look very handsome in it, which is always nice to hear.

Also, a small detail that I like that just shows, you know, going the extra mile on your garments is there’s some extra fabric inside of the jacket on stress points so that way, you know, if you’re really pulling on your pocket, you don’t have to worry.

Since this fabric is lighter weight, you don’t have to worry about ripping it.

And then this is a weird coat.

This there—it’s still Buck Mason. This is their felted chore coat, but I got it in the mail, and I was like, “What is this?” I don’t mean weird in a bad way; I just mean unique. This is like if a sports coat, a chore coat, and a cardigan all got together and had one baby.

The first really unique thing about it is the yarn. So obviously you can ply yarn, which is kind of, you know, putting multiple strands together. This is a bouclé yarn. So instead of it just being three uniform strands, you have one strand of yarn, a strong like center core one, then you loop one around it all crazy and nuts, and then you put one more around it that kind of secures that crazy and nut thing to the yarn. And what you get is just this wet and wild super-textured puffy lofty yarn.

The interesting, crazy part, though, is that this is a knit fabric, not a woven one.

So a sweater, not jeans. And it has a ton of stretch. But Buck Mason double felts it, and felting locks wool together because of all the little barbs on wool.

So it’s still stretchy, but if you pull it, you can hear all of the little barbs kind of splitting apart. It’s still not woven, so it’s a lot more stretchy, but felting it strengthens it up and tightens everything, so it’s—hybrid isn’t the right word, but it tightens it up more to be a really, really tight knit.

This, to me, screams that Buck Mason is a California brand. California Brands, usually, I find, like everything they make, is a little lighter weight than what I would wear in New England.

This is a perfect example of them switching the fabric type, so they’re boiling a knit so it’s more breathable, and it’s a little easier to wear in different weather. It’s spring now, so it’s 50. I feel like it’s very California weather, and this is perfect for that.

This is a little tiny brand called Carhartt, and putting on this jacket feels like putting on an old baseball mitt. I do want to say this is the only heavily worn-in thing in this article because I snagged it on eBay, so the fabric flows a little bit better; it’s a little bit softer.

Basically, all these jackets will do the same thing as they’re worn and torn down. You just need to wear them a lot.

Carhartt, Levis, Pointer—everybody had their own thing in the US when they were making chore coats. Carhartt’s big thing was just insanely durable stuff. So, triple-stitch seams are Carhartt’s signature. Really oversized fits.

Levi’s is that too, but obviously, they are transitioning to fashion now. And then corduroy collar, that’s the glowing Carhartt thing. Totally classic Carhartt.

There’s a reason why Carhartt advertises their chore coats all the time—100 Years of chore coats, or now it’s over 100, 105 years of chore coat. It’s just cuz it’s something that’s not broken. They don’t need to fix it. The longer you wear it, the better it gets. That’s what’s so great.

Paynter jackets. If you are into Paynter, you know what I’m talking about when I say this. It is just so clear that they are fashion industry veterans.

They definitely make some of the best chore coats I’ve seen. It’s a two-person company, a husband and wife duo. Everything they do is top-notch and executed perfectly. Everything is done perfectly. All their stuff, the aesthetic, it all blends, everything is great.

It feels like when you are on the Paynters website or looking at their marketing, it feels like you live in this little perfect cartoon fantasy world where everything is happy and people just go drink coffee and walk around all the time. They’re so good at that.

They have little notes that are like, “There’s no care instructions, just take care of yourself.” They have a limited-edition patch with every drop. They hand number every single one of their jackets. They also use dyed corozo nut buttons.

There are some things you need to know about Paynter jackets. Number one, all of their sales are done in batches. This is apparently a batch 14 jacket, although I can’t find anything on their website showing this color or this sizing. They make 800 jackets a quarter.

All the jackets are different, so you won’t get another batch 14 like this configuration specifically, and they usually sell out in about 1 minute or less. I think they do pre-sales via email, so you can sign up for that.

This blue is very famous. Paynter calls it Bill’s blue after Bill Cunningham, a New York Times photographer who just wore a jacket like this day in and day out. But the whole thing is—much like denim—chore coats should fade.

Usually, the French ones are moleskin, and they don’t use Indigo; they use benzoate dyes, so they would fade to a really vibrant blue over time. Other manufacturers made them in different shades of blue. But if you toss on your Bill’s blue chore coat, you toss on your red beanie, you’re in that cartoon.

And now, the king Le Mont St. Michel. Definitely the highest quality—well, maybe not definitely, but probably the highest quality short coat we have on this list for a specific reason, which is fascinating.

You don’t usually see fabric like this in workware, and I don’t mean moleskin. Le Mont St. Michel hit the ground running with their advertising. It looks like, you know, they’re about to start singing to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

What’s interesting is that this is fundamentally different from USA-based workware, which was a big fan of denim and duck canvas. And this is where we can get nerdy.

I think this was originally—well, not originally called—nicknamed the Brittan work jacket based on Brittany, France. This heavyweight moleskin jacket was an icon of this area of France.

I was wondering to myself, why does France and Europe in general like moleskin so much and the US doesn’t? We don’t really use it that much.

We use it in the pockets of the prologue jacket, which is coming back soon.

The key here is Brittany because at first I looked up online, “What’s the climate of France?” And it was like, “France is pretty big, Michael.” But if this is nicknamed the Brittan work jacket or Breton, I better check. Either way, that allowed us to narrow it down, and Brittan is typically a temperate, mild climate.

Winters don’t get too cold; it’s very windy and very rainy, though. And I was like, “Oh!”

Moleskin is a very tightly woven cotton fabric that is then brushed, napped, and shorn. You know, it depends. It’s essentially fluffy.

Some people even call it peached. Carhartt was Detroit, and Levis is California, but you know, things varied a lot more, and the landscape was a lot more expansive than just one focused place.

So Carhartt and Levis would line their jackets with different things depending on where the workers were and stuff like that.

And denim and canvas were just kind of a great thing to put over as your outer tough layer.

But if you live somewhere where the winters are never really going to get that crazy and you have to worry about wind and rain, and that’s about it, maybe you layer slightly differently as the weather changes, and you use a more all-purpose fabric. This is all you need. Brush it, nap it, shore it a little bit, make it a little bit warmer at least to the touch, a little quicker to warm up in—boom, that’s it.

The last big thing about Le Mont St. Michel that really differentiated them, and it’s kind of different now because it just—technology made it easier to produce fabric, nice fabric over time, but Le Mont St. Michel said, “Hey, if we’re going to make a coat, we’re going to make it out of the highest quality fabric that we possibly can use.”

So this is a longer staple combed cotton multiply yarn. So it’s very nice and should wear for a very long time. That is why the CEO said you could just grab one from the 30s and 40s, toss it on, and go back to work. So that’s what really differentiated them as a brand in France during that time and even now. This is probably the best feeling jacket on the list. It’s the heaviest, and it feels the burliest, but yeah, I do want to break it in a lot more.

And finally, the greatest, in my opinion, modern reinterpretation of the chore coat around the $700 symbol of the working class, the Drake’s chore coat.

This is one of my favorite chore coats. I actually love all the chore coats equally.

I have now toured manufacturers all over the world, and I’m very familiar with the fact that if you go to a manufacturer, typically they will say, “Here is where we make a $7,000 sweatshirt, and here is where we make a $50 sweatshirt.”

I’m really not saying Drake’s is doing any of that.

I’m not accusing them of anything.

What I’m actually saying is, knowing all that, I still put this on and was like, “Wow, this is from Drake’s.” You could just tell a lot of thought went into every single detail about this jacket and the person that would be wearing it, which is probably a Drake’s person that would, you know, they would wear a very fancy outfit with it.

But my favorite details are such.

We have some rapid-fire things that we have touched on already.

All of the pockets are lined, and they’re also all riveted. It’s a small detail, but it has a nickel button outer and a copper interior. I like that. I wish the Cuffs were like a Detroit buttoning cuff or something like that. That’s my only thing. Nice interior pockets and selvedge denim.

But what I really like are a few things that stick out right away.

We have triple stitching here at the top of the shoulder that ends both at the back of the shoulder and at the front here. I feel like that’s a cool way of adding extra durability only where you need it and flexibility and comfort everywhere else.

The other cool thing is actually in the same spot. It’s a panel right on the shoulder tops. Obviously, I didn’t design this jacket. My name is Michael, not Drake.

That’s your first clue. But these are actually two layers of denim across the shoulder that give you a solid amount more durability for this jacket in the long term. I like that.

But also, look, there’s a little cut right on the inside of the jacket on that panel. And I love that. I love that detail.

I always associate Drake’s with just heavy, heavy layering, so this could just make it a little bit smoother to toss this jacket over some of their other jackets or shirts or whatever it may be.

It could also be a way of shaping the jacket better so it sits on you in a very pleasing “Drake’s” way. And also, finally, a lot of these things are very, very similar, but, you know, slightly different reasons.

Finally, it could be a dart gusset-type hybrid thing. I don’t know the exact construction of it to give you the most flexibility without having the jacket balloon out and be huge like a Carhartt. And that to me, that’s what you pay for with Drake’s.

Obviously, the materials and the construction, everything like that, is top-notch, and everything is super classy, but those little details that you don’t really notice when you toss it on feel extra good. That’s what you pay for with Drake’s.

Watch This Review

Thank You!

Anyway, thank you very much for reading my take on the best chore coats out there. I don’t feel like I thank you enough, and I should, so thank you very much. See you next time!