What struck me on a lot of the outfits were the shoes - the combination of the cell phone shots often being shot from a higher angle tilted down and the cutoff heads drew the eye down to the worst part of the ensemble. Which kills me, as I know my shoes are often the most mismatched part of my day-to-day outfits.
The fits sometimes threw me as well, but I'm not sure in the same way it did other commenters. There are a couple of choices I'm really interested to see the result based on fit.
If anything, I think the choices were too narrow - the choice to use reader-submitted photos may have led to a dataset more skewed towards "trying to impress" than a larger sample of what guys wear. There were practically no t-shirt or hoodie-focused outfits, for instance.
I didn't notice at the time, but you're right - there's no gorpcore, or even a finance bro in a Patagonia vest type outfit. No technical fabric polos, either. This poll would feel awkward at the tailgate and has exactly 0 members who have ever held a fish in a dating profile photo.
(This is not to criticize any of the submitters. I considered sending in a photo, and it would have blended right in with the ones selected.)
I’m with you here, I think the collective tinder swipes on all these outfits would be single digits. No hate, I have just never dressed like most of these at all and I didn’t see my friends doing this either.
I think you’re right. For as much as the women’s included athleisure, I expected some of that. Sweatshirt or zip-up and running shorts. An actual golf/tennis outfit. Or hell, jeans and a jersey (you would never randomly sample this many guys and get zero sports team logos).
I'm 5'9", allegedly average height, and I buy pants with the shortest inseam available (typically 30) and I still have the roll them up or have them hemmed. I think your average man has a preference for pants that fit too long and clothing retailers have responded accordingly. Case in point: maybe half of the outfits had pants that were too long.
Maybe this is just a characteristic of men’s fashion (or my lack of expertise on it), but the outfits here seemed way more similar to each other than the women’s outfits. I expected some like grungy metalhead, repellent to most people except the in-group, type look, analogous to the Lolita look last time.
Unlike women's clothes, I didn't have any 9s, 2, 1, or 10s. A lot of stuff that is all pretty okay, some nicer, some more Meh, but nothing that really hit me.
Shoes in almost all of the fits are terrible, but when we get to the "would you wear this?" section the shoes aren't shown. I probably said I would wear a fit that I gave a low score for this reason. A lot of important details aren't visible in that section, like pants being too long/short.
There are maybe 2 outfits I would give above a 5 if I were thinking about all the ways a man might dress, but the fact that so many are bad here probably biased me to rate some mediocre fits higher than they deserve.
I haven't submitted yet because I'm noticing a gap between "how good I think the outfits look" and "how much I like them" so I want to ask which one you're looking for. There are a lot of outfits where I think "thumbs up dude, you're outfitting well" and I would describe the man as well-dressed, but it's not my personal taste and if my husband asked if he should dress like that I would say no. Which answer do you want for the survey?
Agree with other commenters that all the submissions skewed much more formal than I encounter, other than the white soled fake dress shoes 😵💫
Women still have dress shoe options, but it seems like men basically have ugly boots, sneakers, or weird dress shoe lookalikes as their options (and I’m saying that from observation irl, not just the pictures selected. Though this makes a good case that I’ve been seeing a nationwide trend 🤣)
I'm a lesbian, so no attraction to the male physique and much more of a "would this look good on me if I were trying to look butch" mentality - I ended up scoring colorful, intentional statement pieces really high and boring business cazh lower. Very little actively offended my eye, so I don't think I ranked anything below a 3, but a lot of it was just dull and personality-free. I rated outfits that showed point of view or had bold colors much higher than the outfits that were so bland and uninteresting that they almost seemed to be an apology for existing, even if those bold outfits were ill-fitting, dated or had questionable color schemes.
There were two shirts/jackets with color-blocky aesthetics that I would absolutely purchase for myself, and I ranked them as 10s.
Zoomers Buy Clothes That Fit You Challenge (impossible)
We're the only people who do :)
What struck me on a lot of the outfits were the shoes - the combination of the cell phone shots often being shot from a higher angle tilted down and the cutoff heads drew the eye down to the worst part of the ensemble. Which kills me, as I know my shoes are often the most mismatched part of my day-to-day outfits.
The fits sometimes threw me as well, but I'm not sure in the same way it did other commenters. There are a couple of choices I'm really interested to see the result based on fit.
If anything, I think the choices were too narrow - the choice to use reader-submitted photos may have led to a dataset more skewed towards "trying to impress" than a larger sample of what guys wear. There were practically no t-shirt or hoodie-focused outfits, for instance.
The REI demographic felt totally absent, which was interesting to me. But as you point out, sampling challenges.
I didn't notice at the time, but you're right - there's no gorpcore, or even a finance bro in a Patagonia vest type outfit. No technical fabric polos, either. This poll would feel awkward at the tailgate and has exactly 0 members who have ever held a fish in a dating profile photo.
(This is not to criticize any of the submitters. I considered sending in a photo, and it would have blended right in with the ones selected.)
It jumped out at me because 100% of the options would feel like a costume to me.
(which is not judging anyone who dresses as the submissions, obviously)
I’m with you here, I think the collective tinder swipes on all these outfits would be single digits. No hate, I have just never dressed like most of these at all and I didn’t see my friends doing this either.
Also shocked there was no “dude in gray sweatpants”. 😆
If I'm not mistaken, no sports at all!
I think you’re right. For as much as the women’s included athleisure, I expected some of that. Sweatshirt or zip-up and running shorts. An actual golf/tennis outfit. Or hell, jeans and a jersey (you would never randomly sample this many guys and get zero sports team logos).
Yes, I had that thought too. Bad (or at least, not good for the outfit) shoes on a lot of these.
I also agree that “dress to impress CHH” made for way too much sameness in the survey. Several of the date outfits were almost identical.
Also, the couple that were actual suits had very poor lighting, so it was tough to determine if they were good.
No basic polo outfits either unless I am misremembering
Polo and jeans/khakis would have been my only 10!
😍 Jake from State Farm 😍💦
Flat front, untucked, no top button. We're not trying to win employee of the month at Best Buy.
It must be nice to be tall and slim enough to wear them untucked without looking like a slob.
LOL my exact daily outfit (or a sweater) until I discovered henlies.
There were no plain henleys either!
Some of the styles were okay but the fit was terrible so I ended up with a lot of 5’s where the combo just offset.
I'm 5'9", allegedly average height, and I buy pants with the shortest inseam available (typically 30) and I still have the roll them up or have them hemmed. I think your average man has a preference for pants that fit too long and clothing retailers have responded accordingly. Case in point: maybe half of the outfits had pants that were too long.
I found it difficult to be impartial and fair when rating un-ironed outfits...
What, no matching pink athleisure? I am disappoint.
Maybe this is just a characteristic of men’s fashion (or my lack of expertise on it), but the outfits here seemed way more similar to each other than the women’s outfits. I expected some like grungy metalhead, repellent to most people except the in-group, type look, analogous to the Lolita look last time.
That's my exact complaint about USA meanswear in 2025. Boring!
Unlike women's clothes, I didn't have any 9s, 2, 1, or 10s. A lot of stuff that is all pretty okay, some nicer, some more Meh, but nothing that really hit me.
Interesting, I had a lot more 9s/10s on this one.
Me too! I rated three or four outfits ten in this one, but I didn’t rate any of the outfits in the female fashion survey ten.
Shoes in almost all of the fits are terrible, but when we get to the "would you wear this?" section the shoes aren't shown. I probably said I would wear a fit that I gave a low score for this reason. A lot of important details aren't visible in that section, like pants being too long/short.
There are maybe 2 outfits I would give above a 5 if I were thinking about all the ways a man might dress, but the fact that so many are bad here probably biased me to rate some mediocre fits higher than they deserve.
I was *really* picky with these. I think the only one I enthusiastically liked was the one with the suit pants and shirt and leathery jacket.
Wow, that was uninspiring.
I haven't submitted yet because I'm noticing a gap between "how good I think the outfits look" and "how much I like them" so I want to ask which one you're looking for. There are a lot of outfits where I think "thumbs up dude, you're outfitting well" and I would describe the man as well-dressed, but it's not my personal taste and if my husband asked if he should dress like that I would say no. Which answer do you want for the survey?
god men's clothes are so boring, it's sad when it's like - this sucks but at least it's interesting.
also i'm not sure you're gonna get an unbiased score for that first one...
yes multiple outfits here where i thought “not good, but at least it made me feel something. 3.”
(correction: a few of these)
This is a lot less polarizing for me than the women's version, but man I hate clothes that don't fit.
That was fun! Made me realise I definitely have a 'type' when it comes to outfits, and should possibly re-style my husband's wardrobe ;-)
Ha! I had the exact same thought!
Agree with other commenters that all the submissions skewed much more formal than I encounter, other than the white soled fake dress shoes 😵💫
Women still have dress shoe options, but it seems like men basically have ugly boots, sneakers, or weird dress shoe lookalikes as their options (and I’m saying that from observation irl, not just the pictures selected. Though this makes a good case that I’ve been seeing a nationwide trend 🤣)
I'm a lesbian, so no attraction to the male physique and much more of a "would this look good on me if I were trying to look butch" mentality - I ended up scoring colorful, intentional statement pieces really high and boring business cazh lower. Very little actively offended my eye, so I don't think I ranked anything below a 3, but a lot of it was just dull and personality-free. I rated outfits that showed point of view or had bold colors much higher than the outfits that were so bland and uninteresting that they almost seemed to be an apology for existing, even if those bold outfits were ill-fitting, dated or had questionable color schemes.
There were two shirts/jackets with color-blocky aesthetics that I would absolutely purchase for myself, and I ranked them as 10s.