The Best Polo Shirts for Men Are So Hot Right Now

Try as you might, avoiding the polo renaissance is futile. And why would you want to, anyway? The best polo shirts for men are the perfect vessel for looking handsome on the double. What else would you expect from a shirt that’s essentially a perfect hybrid of a garment: a top that's comfy as a T-shirt, made respectable by an honest-to-goodness collar. What’s next—dress shoes without laces?

We could spit two-disc album’s worth of bars on the supremacy and versatility of the polo shirt. But we’ll spare you the sick sartorial beats and just say that it can body a pair of shorts (think deep '70s energy), chinos, or denim, and work just as well under a blazer. Ditto on a casual business lunch, a coffee date, or a yacht. It can—and should—do it all.

While we’ve got love for the classics (see: Lacoste), there are plenty of places in Poloville that promise to bring a little more fun and funkiness to your shirt rotation. From the longstanding genre-definers to the swaggering upstarts, there’s a polo below for every taste and comfort level.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Slim | Sizes: XS-4XL | Colors: Varies

Might as well start at the beginning, right? Around a century ago, French tennis player René Lacoste—famously nicknamed “the crocodile”—invented the polo as a way to blend hard-wearing performance with easy-going style. Almost 100 years later, the brand that bears his name still makes one of the best versions of the product category it invented—and its remit extends well beyond the court.

Lacoste’s signature design still features its telltale short button placket, elegant collar, and ribbed sleeves, done up in a now-legendary cotton pique fabric that’s endeared it to prepsters and punks in equal measure. It’s sturdy and soft, beefy but breathable, and a testament to the brand’s sovereignty decades into its reign.

“When I think of the polo shirt,” says GQ senior commerce editor Avidan Grossman, “I think of Lacoste. It’s as simple as that.” These days, Lacoste, the man, might not be remembered for his vicious backhand, but his contributions to the menswear canon remain undisputed. “Don’t sleep on the OG,” Grossman implores. He’s been wearing Lacoste’s genre-defining pique polo on and off for decades, and touts its crisp feel, timeless look, and universally flattering cut. If you need further convincing, Grossman submits one Jeremy Allen White as evidence.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Slim | Sizes: XS-3XL | Colors: Varies

One of the swaggiest pieces to come out of the James Bond franchise isn’t a Tom Ford suit or an Omega Speedmaster—it’s Sunspel’s Riviera polo. But the MI-6 agent’s plain-clothes uniform was hot long before it graced the silver screen. The British label has been crafting its luxurious polos since the 1950s and have been some of the best ever since.

It all starts with the fabric which is made using extra-long staple Supima cotton from California. The superior raw material makes for a fabric that’s buttery to the touch, not to mention more durable. Sunspel knits it into a fine mesh fabric that’s featherlight and super breathable, perfect for the French Riviera for which it was originally intended. They fit slim and trim for a more refined, less casual look off the bat, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rock one with some busted jeans and sneakers. It’s a great all-around polo for practically every occasion. And if you’re the kind of guy who needs to level-up every inch of his wardrobe, this is the polo to get.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Classic, slim, tall | Sizes: XS-XXL | Colors: Varies

You shouldn’t be surprised that J.Crew is on this list. After all, the beloved American label built its success on preppy staples like chinos and Oxford shirts, so you should expect its polos to be among its many strengths. It’s one of the brand’s bestsellers for so many reasons: dialed-in silhouette, super soft cotton pique, and solid construction.

While we really like its regular lineup of polos, we’re particularly fond of its washed piqué polos which have a certain retro feel that’s hard to replicate. The washed-down finish gives it a vintage, broken-in look that could have hardcore thrifters’ jaws on the floor. They’re available in an array of pastels that are the perfect swerve away from the usual candy-coated tones that plague most fraternities.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Slim | Sizes: XS-4XL | Colors: Varies

Knit polos are inarguably one of the sexiest pieces of clothing a man can own without resorting to sheer fabrics or leather pants. And we do love the horde of options that have overwhelmed the market, from the cheap and cheerful to the impossibly riche. But our favorite comes from the insider-y label, Stòffa.

It starts with a fine-gauge Turkish cotton which is double-twisted and knit into an airy yet structured honeycomb design using rare knitting machines. Each polo is piece-dyed which gives it a subtle vintage feel that will only get better with age. Other details like a classic straight fit, unique ribbing, and a spread collar that’s to die for make Stòffa’s polo a clear frontrunner for the best shirt in any guy’s closet.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Classic | Sizes: XS-XXL | Colors: Varies

There’s a time and a place for everything, but short sleeve polos, as versatile as they are, don’t need to take up space everywhere. Long-sleeve polos are just a little sexier, a little more buttoned-up, a little more chic. There are levels to the long-sleeve polo, from the winter-coded fuzzy mohair joints to the slick and slim dressy options, but our favorite among them comes from Buck Mason.

The Seafarer Cotton Rugby Polo splits the difference between every way a long-sleeve polo can go and is the best for everyday situations. The cotton is hefty and has an incredible, structured drape, but is still breathable enough for spring. The classic silhouette is perfect for layering and sits right at the hips for a flattering look. The price tag may be a big pill to swallow, but the great quality justifies it. Our main complaint? It doesn’t come in more colors.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Slim | Sizes: XS-4XL | Colors: Varies

They may have been invented for working up a sweat on the tennis court, but the right polo can get you into the snootiest of restaurants, too. If we had to rock a polo to a glitzy function or a high-class date, we’d go with John Smedley. It’s the best dressy polo shirt we’ve tried thanks to that lightweight, long-staple cotton jersey which feels astonishingly silky and has a slight sheen that elevates it from the usual pique polos you’re used to seeing.

Dressy polos should be cut like a bespoke suit and Smedley’s is nice a slim through the body with higher armholes and a tailored sleeve for a sleek silhouette that works seamlessly with fitted trousers. Consider yourself a shoe-in at the Michelin-We’ve been enamored with John Smedley’s crop of knitwear from its cashmere sweaters to merino cardigans and it’s all thanks to the brand’s multi-generational expertise in knitting. So when it comes to polos, we weren’t exactly shocked that Smedley knocks it out of the park.

Material: 100% cotton | Fit: Relaxed | Sizes: XS-XXL | Colors: Varies

Okay, so you want to wear a polo for the practicality and performance for which it was invented. You can ditch the cotton piqué and jersey knits because polo performance has come a long way since Monsieur Lacoste. These days, high-performance polos need to be breathable, they need to wick sweat, and they need to give you the range of motion to keep up with the most intense rallies. And it wouldn’t hurt if the polo looked good, too. Our pick goes to Reigning Champ’s Solotex Mesh Tiebreak polo.

The fabric is a unique mesh that has a slick hand and aerated feel to keep you cool and dry through the toughest tennis match. It’s got UV protection, four-way stretch, flatlock seams, and strategic gussets for superior construction. While plenty of other sporty polos do well in athletic situations they look painfully corny outside of a golf course or a tennis court. Not Reigning Champ. Where other options look like the fabric came from a space suit, Reigning Champ’s looks like a unique heathered fabric that would fit well amongst a lineup of traditional sweaters. So if you need your polo to serve up some pro-level performance while looking stylish, we wouldn’t recommend anything else.

Material: Cotton 98%, Spandex 2% | Fit: Slim | Sizes: XS-3XL; regular and tall | Colors: Varies

If you told us that the Gap got its start on the tennis court and showed us this polo, we might actually believe you. The pique fabric is soft and breathable, but still has some structure. The sleeves hit dead-on at the middle of the bicep without choking or flopping around the arm. And the collar is a great middle-of-the-road classic size and feel.

As for the fit, Gap’s polo is trim but not tight for a tailored air that looks great with dress pants or under a suit. While there are other polos that felt a little nicer and fit a little better, Gap’s got the budget category locked down because each polo will only set you back $35. Plus, with Gap’s frequent markdowns, you can easily catch it for even less.

In the decades since Monsieur Lacoste birthed the category, the polo shirt has evolved far beyond the croc’s wildest imagination. These days, the market is teeming with your requisite mesh golf polos and pique tennis polos, but it also includes scuzzy polo cardigans, slinky zip-up polos, and airy linen polos well-suited to an Amalfi getaway. Which, exactly, are worth your time?

To answer that question, we assessed the category holistically, with an eye on design, quality, and of course, dashing good looks. If polos used to be the sole preserve of casual Fridays, they’re now a mainstay of everyday life—in offices, fairways, and tragically cool art galleries alike. So we scoured the market for polos that could hang in each of those venues and situations (or all of ‘em, when possible), to ID the shirts that would meet the most people’s needs.

Each winning pick was carefully selected for its excellence in its respective category. We looked to the genre-defining options and the versions that truly broke new ground—but we also assessed the polos that may not have invented a new category, but found a way to do it better than their predecessors.

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.)

The key to selecting the right polo for a specific occasion largely comes down to fit and fabric. If you're in the market for a polo that skews more casual, either bigger (boxy and loose) or smaller (pec-grazing and bicep-hugging) work fine. Any event that requires some cursed variation of office- or wedding-appropriate attire almost definitely demands a less dramatic fit. Smoother cottons look more elegant than heavily textured cotton. For extra oomph, a knit polo cut from a hardy-but-soft wool—or even an extremely ritzy cashmere—will keep the chill at bay and help you look handsome-as-hell in the process.

There's no best material overall—but some work for better situations than others. If you’re after a polo that will perform on the golf course or on the tennis court, you’ll want something that’s lightweight, breathable, and moisture-wicking, likely made out of some kind of synthetic material or a poly-cotton blend. Lightweight merino wool polos are also a great natural performance material. Though definitely don't be the guy wearing his golf polos outside the fairways.

Pique polo shirts are the most classic version of the genre—think of the slightly rough fabric on the basic Lacoste polo, and that's pique. That texture keeps the fabric from sticking to the skin and allows for better air flow, making it a great option for the warmer months. It can read as a bit casual, though, if you're on the job.

And you can now find polos in damn near any knit, from merino to cashmere to mohair and beyond. You'll often find the weird, wilder stuff made from knits. Why? You can thank the GOAT—er, the Croc—himself, René Lacoste, for blessing us with the polo shirt. The tennis legend dreamt up the polo shirt in the 1920s as a stylish and more breathable alternative to the stuffy collared tops that elite players were forced to wear. His creation featured a lightweight cotton knit, short sleeves, and soft-yet-sharp collar. With a little crocodile embroidered on the chest as a nod to his nickname, Le Crocodile, the iconic Lacoste polo was born. Since then, it's attained icon status.

Lacoste's polo spawned countless riffs and imitators in the generations that followed—today, as you know, the polo's branched out far and wide from the clay courts of Roland Garros. Not that we're turning our nose up at the O.G.—like Jeremy Allen White, we trust in René.