Where fleeces were once the exclusive remit of easygoing dads and crunchy climber types with pro tips on sleeping in a Subaru’s trunk, the best men’s fleece jacket is now a closet staple for everyone. A lot of that comes down to how the outdoor-inspired gorpcore movement, perhaps prompted by a fear in 2020 that the world was ending, pushed the fashion world to start dressing like they were midway through a weeklong canoe trip in Maine.
But as gorpcore has receded, an interesting thing has happened: Fleece jackets haven’t gone anywhere. When you think about it, it makes sense that we’re unwilling to let them go: No item of clothing feels as much like a cozy hug, or delivers as much warmth while staying so impressively lightweight.
All of this means that we’ve got more cuddly options than ever before. So many, that it’s easy to get your base layers in a bunch just trying to narrow it down. That’s where we come in: We rounded up 17 of the best men’s fleece jackets on the market, from versatile daily drivers to high-quality backpacking-ready versions to playful designer riffs.
The Best Men’s Fleece Jackets, According to GQ
Arc’teryx Kyanite Jacket
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Kapital Bone Boa Reversible Fleece
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Nike Windproof Cotton Wool Full-Zip Fleece
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Todd Snyder Sherpa Chore Jacket
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In This Guide
Best Fleece Jacket Overall: Patagonia Classic Retro-X Fleece Jacket
Patagonia
Classic Retro-X Fleece Jacket
Pros
- Fluffy texture
- Classic retro design
- Recycled materials
Cons
- Funky colorways aren’t for everyone
Patagonia invented the fleece as we know it. Truly, every fleece on this list owes a debt of gratitude to the Retro-X, and you’ll know why when you pull it on for the first (or the 51st) time. The mountaineering OGs were the first to bring synthetic pile into outdoors wear in the ‘70s, the first to fix its problematic pilling by developing its signature Synchilla fabric in the ’80s, and the first to icon status when it dropped this, the Retro-X fleece, later that decade. The Retro-X is the Air Jordan 3 of fluffy zip-ups: instantly recognizable and eternally in style. The shaggy sherpa exterior, built from 50% recycled materials, is moisture-wicking and quick-drying, with a mesh lining that’s wind-resistant and controls odors. You’ve got hand pockets and a chest pocket for your granola bar, and you’ve also got a bunch of color combinations to choose from, though this is my favorite this fall.
Best Lightweight Fleece Jacket: Arc’teryx Kyanite Jacket
Pros
- Lightweight and sleek
- Good warmth to weight ratio
Cons
If fleece has one serious drawback, it’s that it can be tough to layer. Not impossible! But it’s fluffy, and has all the snaggy, grabby abilities of the soft side of the Velcro, making it hard to enjoy fleece as a mid-layer. So Arc’teryx did that thing where it innovated, again, on techy outerwear with Kyanite AR jacket, made of a warm, lightweight, stretchy PolarTec Pro fabric that’s light on the static electricity and heavy on keeping you toasty. In other words, a fleece that’s actually designed to layer.
Best Fleece Jacket for Fashion Guys: Kapital Bone Boa Reversible Fleece
Kapital
Bone Boa Reversible Fleece
When the legendary brand Kapital sets out to impose their vision on a classic piece of menswear, you can bet that what comes out on the other side is nothing short of wild. Persimmon-dyed jeans with reptile-like texture, puffer jackets made from weaving strips of insulated nylon, it’s all a part of Kapital’s freaky midas touch. And then there’s the fleece. Kapital has iterated on the fleece jacket in multiple ways over the years, but this one is about as archive-worthy as it gets. If the luscious deep-pile fleece wasn’t enough to catch your attention, the brand’s iconic memento mori skeleton print will grab everyone else’s.
Nike
Windproof Cotton Wool Full-Zip Fleece
Pros
- Heat-trapping materials
- Incredibly plush
- Cute colors
Cons
The ACG in Nike’s ACG line stands for All Conditions Gear. And true to its acronym, this ACG fleece—designed with the frosty conditions of Alaska’s Canwell Glacier in mind—is made with a technical fabric that traps body heat, and has an elastic hem with bungee adjusters to keep the wind far from your vitals. That would all be enough to fend off the cold, but Nike also chose to make it extra plush and cozy, and dress it up in sweet colors reminiscent of your childhood teddy. Let winter bring its worst.
Best Fleece Jacket for the Office: Todd Snyder Sherpa Chore Jacket
Todd Snyder
Sherpa Chore Jacket
Pros
- Virgin wool fabrication
- Grown-up design
Cons
- No zip means not as much neck and chin protection
One of life’s cruel ironies is that your office can sometimes be the coldest place you spend time, while also being the place you can’t really wear your coziest, warmest gear. Todd Snyder is here to help, delivering a fleece this season that looks, to the outside world, like a chore jacket. (Hell, they even called it one to help you out.) sourced from Italy, in a super soft and curly virgin-wool, sherpa fleece fabric, the result is a refined, mature sort of fleece. It’s what fleece jackets hope to be when they grow up. Toss it over a button up and some tailored trousers to temper a dressy fit, or layer it over a hoodie and some jeans to class up a casual fit.
More Fleece Jackets We Love
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.)
Why Buy a Fleece Jacket in the Year of Our Lord 2025?
We’re infinitely grateful to all the Alex Honnold-types who turned us onto the fleece, because bundling up in a fuzzy, furry pullover is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself in the depths of a surprisingly brisk fall. A fleece is impenetrably warm (and a lot more cost-effective than shearling), impossibly comfy, and brings as much texture to a single fit as all the cords in your closet combined. And since the best men’s fleece jackets became hot commodities, designer label and underground menswear brands have joined the O.G. outdoor outfitters in riffing on the men’s fleece jacket.