tl;dr – invest in a quality overcoat if you can afford it, spend $150-$250 for a high street option if you can’t. Don’t waste money on cheap coats. Ok, one quick story about why you should listen to this: it’s about how I spent way too much money on my first “real” overcoat.
Spoiler alert: it was totally worth it. Back in my early twenties – around my second year working in Chicago – I realised my college-era Target pea coat wasn’t exactly workplace-appropriate if I ever wanted to be taken seriously (or promoted) at my professional services job. Cue me walking into Nordstrom feeling very out-of-my-depth looking at coats that cost more than my rent.
There was this older salesman who immediately knew I was out of my league who kept bringing me beautiful wool coats while I did mental math trying to figure out how many Ramen Noodles packets I’d have to live on to afford any of them. Eventually I stumbled upon this navy wool blend at the sale rack.
It had been marked down from some astronomical $800 price tag to $450, and I was basically having an existential crisis in that fitting room.
Why? Because when I tried it on…I looked “adult.” Not like the hapless English major who showed up to work wearing hoodies and dirty vans for the past four years, but like a legitimate grown-up who might actually know what a 401k was. It was honestly a little traumatizing.
I ended up buying the coat (total bargain at sale-price! ), but took home delightfully depressing peanut butter sandwiches for lunch for the better two months following because……………………YEAH. I looked like that guy. It’s been three years since I bought it, and it’s still the best thing I’ve ever purchased myself, clothes-wise.
Over time I’ve become kinda obsessed with learning everything I could about what makes a good overcoat “good.” Dragged friends clothes shopping to practise trying on coats, examined other people’s outerwear like a creep on the L (still do this), and stayed up way too late reading menswear forums arguing about the differences between various wool weights. My girlfriend teases me about having a weird coat fetish and…I’ll give her that one. Anyway, long story somewhat shorter: I know a *lot* more about overcoats than the average bear.
What I’ve learned is that, as is often the case with clothing, the outerwear market is aggressively designed to upsell you. There are $80 options available at H&M right next to $2,000 unreasonably priced coats at high-end designer stores – and honestly? They kind of all look great on the rack.
The differences aren’t apparent until you’ve spent months wearing a coat. How it’s put together, what it’s made out of – none of that matters when you’re buying something because it looks nice in the store. But as you live your life wearing a coat, these differences become very obvious.
So allow me to break down, from most to least expensive, what you actually get when you buy a coat. THE EXPENSIVE COATS ($500 and up) For the purpose of this article, I’m going to lump anything over $500 into this category. To me, $500 is still a ludicrous amount of money to spend on a coat – but I suppose these days it’s just considered “mid-range.” If you’re dropping that kind of cash on outerwear, you’re buying three primary things: 1) Fabric.
Better wool = better coats. The right wool blend will hold its shape for years, won’t “pill” (get little balls of fuzz on them) after a few wears, and actually keep you warm instead of just feeling like it should. Cheap coats often use too much synthetic fibres to keep prices down – and while polyester is fine for durability, too much of it won’t keep you nearly as warm as wool can.
My college roommate Dave bought himself this beautiful-looking wool-blend Zara coat around the same time I bought mine. It was $150, and looked great when we first purchased it. Fast forward one Chicago winter and Dave’s beautiful-looking coat had fuzzballs all over the surface of the jacket.
The shoulders developed this weird rumpled look that wouldn’t shift with the steamer he rented from the dry cleaners. Mine? Still looks like the day I bought it, minus being broken in.
2) Construction. This is where we get into some pretty technical details that I honestly didn’t care about until recently. Better constructed coats have what’s called canvassing: basically a layer of horsehair/hybrid materials inside the coat that allows it to keep its shape while molding to your body after years of wear.
Cheaper coats just glue the wool layer to its lining, which is fine for the first year…but start to pull apart at the seams after drycleaning/wearing. This happened to Daves coat – I actually took it to my tailor to see if there was any way to correct the weird bubbling that had happened to the front of the coat. Unfortunately, there wasn’t – the glue they use to interface the wool with lining had essentially given up and there was nothing he could do to correct it. “This is why we don’t buy coats from the fashion guys,” he said.
Harsh…but not wrong. 3) Details. Real buttons vs plastic.
Hand stitched vs machine stitched. Better lining. Functional pockets vs. decorative ones.
Solid lining vs. quilted. And on, and on. These things don’t matter when you’re wearing a coat, but they all add up to help determine whether your coat looks “cheap” or actually ages well.
THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD COATS ($200-$500) Ah yes, the trap coats. This is where most of us buy our clothes because we hate paying full price but don’t want to look “cheap.” I’m here to tell you that coats in this range are great…if you know what you’re looking for. The trick is buying something that will last you a few seasons BEFORE it starts falling apart.
In order to save costs, these coats often compromise on the above items. They’ll use cheaper materials (remember that wool/ polyester ratio? ), they won’t use real buttons, and the construction just isn’t there. That’s not to say you can’t find something good – I know I have some waistcoats I’m proud of in this range.
But where it gets tricky is expecting these coats to last. On a high-quality coat with good materials and great construction, you could easily get 5+ years of use. A similar coat 1/3 of the price?
Maybe one to two years before it starts falling apart. Gap coats are THE WORST offenders when it comes to this. Spend hundreds of dollars on a wool-blend coat and you’ll be saddest person in history when you realise it pills after two months of wearing it.
My grandfather turned me on to this concept of expect managing when it comes to clothing. “You should expect that $150 coat won’t last you ten years,” he told me. “But you should also expect that a quality wool coat will.” Price your expectations accordingly. THE BARGAIN BIN COATS ($200 and under) So you need an overcoat, but think investing $250+ is just too rich for your blood. I get it.
That was literally my grocery budget for awhile when I was 23. In that case, do yourself a favour and learn from my mistakes: DON’T BUY GAP COATS. Ever.
As someone who will literally eat off the floor if I’m hungry enough, I’ve spent far too much time settling for food I don’t like. Clothes are the same way. It’s easy to force yourself to deal with something when you’re starving.
Once you realise how bad that chip shot costs compared to making your own at home, you’ll never do it again. Same with cheap coats. Sure, you can find something from H&M or Uniqlo that will last you a season or two, but eventually it’ll need to be replaced.
If you’re continually replacing something every few years because you bought it cheap, you’re spending way more money than if you just saved up and bought the good stuff to begin with. That being said, there are good highstreet options out there. The biggest pitfall is thinking your $80 wool coat is just as good as something you’d spend five times as much on.
It’s not! But that doesn’t mean you can’t find something that fits the bill if you know what to look for. Fabric is the biggest thing to look for when shopping at this price range.
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A lot of coats under $150 are only going to be like 30% wool. Which. Is.
Just. Trash. Look for the highest wool% you can find.
70%+ wool is good. 80%+ is fantastic for these prices. Polyester should be no more than 20%, ideally.
Again polyester is fine (it increases durability), but too much of it and you’re just wearing a glorified raincoat. A few brands I’ve had surprising success with? Uniqlo – their wool coats run right around $150 and tend to hold up way better than you’d expect, though they cut their coats pretty slim so it’s not great for everyone.
Everlane makes some nice coats that run around $250-$300 and use higher quality materials than your typical highstreet coat would. I’ve even found some great wool blend coats under $100 from Target’s Goodfellow & Co. line that surprise me every winter how well they hold up. That last one is TOTAL GREP – but you have to really pay attention to the coats you’re trying on here.
Ask to see how the coat is constructed under the tag – are there sleeves, or is it just glued together? Does it use better buttons? Spend the extra ten minutes examining coats you like and you’ll learn quickly what to look for in nicer jackets. tl;dr version: the $150 coat won’t last you 15 years like a $600 coat will, but it’ll get you through a few seasons while you save up.
Don’t ever expect it to last as long as something more expensive, though. ONE MORE CATEGORY: THRIFT COATS ($variable) I hate to be that guy, but if you need an overcoat and can’t spend $250+ on one I strongly suggest you look into buying a used one instead. Why spend a few hundred dollars on something you know is several years removed from its heyday when you can find a vintage coat that was MADE in its hayday?
Some of the best coats I’ve ever seen have been late 80’s/early 90’s pieces that my friends have found while thrifting. Men’s outerwear has ALWAYS been built to higher standards than you’ll find from even expensive modern brands, and if you know what you’re looking for you can find some GREAT deals. This Coach(that’s right, COACH) my friend Sarah found at this vintage clothes shop off Lincoln Ave.
It was originally $120, but she haggled the price down to $85 because she’s aggressive like that. It’s clearly a late 80s coat based on the label inside, but the fit is impeccable and seriously one of the best-looking coats I own. The wool is heavier than anything I’ve found recently in that price range, and after some slight alterations to get the fit just right it honestly might be my favourite coat I own.
Pros: way higher quality than you’re going to find spending that kind of money new today. Can find some GREAT deals if you’re willing to put in the time. Insulated from crazy inflation that coats have seen over the past century.
Cons: time consuming. You have to really look at each coat you try on for moth holes, spend money altering them to fit correctly, and you will probably look at countless sad, old coats to find the good ones. Patience is required.
Investing in THE COAT Alright, practical advice time: once you’ve got your budget narrowed down what should you actually buy? What I’ll offer here won’t be super helpful if you live somewhere without all four seasons – coats are a different necessity if you live in South Carolina versus Upstate NY. That said, I’ll break down my recommendations from cheapest to most expensive.
There’s almost certainly something in here that you’ll be able to use, regardless of how much you want to spend. THE CHEAPEST: HIGH STREET BRANDS I’VE BEEN HAPPY WITH -Uniqlo: Their wool coats run right around $150 and will definitely get you through a winter. They tend to run SUPER slim though, so it’s not great for everyone.
That said I have an olive green one I’ve been pulling out every November for the past three years and it still looks great. -Everlane: They’re all about “ethical” clothing, which I’m generally here for. That being said their coats run around $250-$300 but use way better materials than you’ll find at Uniqlo/H&M/etc. -Goodfellow & Co. from Target. Yup.
Target has really stepped up their game in the last few years, and I’ve actually found some GREAT wool blend coats here for under $100 that legitimately surprise me every winter. Again – GREP is REAL here. But you learn quickly what to look for at these prices.
Ask to see the coat’s construction under the tag – do they use sleeves or is it just glued together? Do they use better buttons? Etc. $150-400: MIDDLE OF THE ROAD RECOMMENDATIONS -J.
Crew’s Ludlow line is mid-range enough that they offer great value without the designer price tag. Their coats range from about $150-400, and generally use good materials and construction. Thayer Cooke is their own line within J Crew that tends to use even higher quality components, but all their coats are incredible buys.
They don’t typically run on sale, but use that 20% off gift card they always send you if you don’t want to pay full price. -Brands at department stores tend to be hit or miss, but almost every department store has at least one GREAT outerwear brand. Nordstrom’s BlackFrame line is great, as is Gordan Maderson at Macy’s. Or heck, support your local Macy’s – yours probably has a GREAT outdoor brand as well!
I found Mason’s at Sears that I love. Just cheque the price tag first – you don’t want to assume higher-end department stores have great coats. -$400+: WHERE TO BUY YOUR “INVESTMENT COAT” For the purpose of this article, I’m classifying anything over $400 as an investment piece. Honestly?
If you can swing it I recommend doing this. You’ll pay way less money per year of ownership, and you’ll honestly feel better knowing you have a quality coat rather than dealing with constant replacement every few years. I wouldn’t suggest spending full price on a $2,000 coat – but if you wait for sale season you can find great deals at the luxury brands.
The resale market is also INCREDIBLE for this kind of thing – I have a Coach Jacket I bought off of Poshmark for $300 that was originally $600. It looks new, is super high quality, and will last me longer than any of the aforementioned coats likely will. Full disclaimer: I HATE shopping resale for clothes.
But outerwear is *literally* made to be worn for decades, so going used is perfectly acceptable here. ThredUp and Pos hammock were my lifesavers in college when I was living in my car. A few of my favourite places for “investment coats?” -J.
Crew’s Thayer Crew line, as mentioned above. -Chronic clothes – one of the best small companies I’ve found that DO focus on quality garments. Their coats run $300-600 depending on the wool content, but are definitely worth the money. The sleeves are longer than most brands, which is great if you’re taller and have always had issues finding coats that fit your arms. -Jack Gene.
Great for lightweight wool coats – perfect for transitioning between seasons. Or staying alive in Chicago winters. TLDR; IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY, THESE COATS ARE WORTH IT. $150-400: Good quality that will last you a few seasons, but ultimately need replacing. $400+: Investment pieces that will last you decades if you take care of them.
There’s nothing wrong with buying high end coats off of resale, either.
Conclusion: coats! Wears?
Have on? I don’t know… Look, if I’ve learned one thing about spending money on clothes it’s that unless you actually LIKE shopping for clothes you’ll never enjoy buying them. (Guilty as charged.) The coat was a major jump for me – something that made me anxious just thinking about how much it cost. But after wearing it for three winters I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions I’ve made, clothes-wise.
And that was knowing it’d get me through YEARS of winters. If you’re spending less than $400 on your coat you should half expect it to not last you that long. Buy cheap, buy twice.
It’s true. Not convinced you need to drop a bunch of money on a winter coat? Here’s why you should buy the best winter coat you can afford.
