We don’t really buy into the notion that you should suffer for fashion so we preferred loafers that were more comfortable. That said, comfort is subjective and break-in periods vary. Prices range from suspiciously cheap to first-born child and we would love to tell you that a pair of $50 loafers is good, but we can’t say that we’ve ever encountered a well-made pair of loafers for less than $150.
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.
How We Make These Picks
We’ve handled more loafers than any one person should experience in a single lifetime. From working retail to incessant shopping to endless showrooms to miles and miles of loafin’ around over the years, the GQ Recommends team has seen it all. With our own experience laying the groundwork, we asked ourselves: if loafers were the only shoes we could wear, which ones would we pick?
We burrowed deep into the rabbit hole, we sifted through dozens and dozens of contenders. We parsed through the longtime classics, the genre-defining catalysts, and the soon-to-be stalwarts, narrowed it down to a select few and summoned them to the high court of GQ Recommends. Then we got to work. We slipped our sexy feet into each loafer bopped around as we normally do, commuting to work, logging our daily 10,000 steps, and subjecting loafers to the rigors of a daily life. Along the way, we assessed the straight-away comfort, how each pair wore in, how the soles faired over time, and, crucially, how each loafer looked with our outfits.
Finally, we assembled our team and ran the numbers. After some nerding out and more heart-to-hearts than we were expecting (three is normal for us), we came up with what we believe to be the best loafers on the market right now. We’ve got it all, from the entry-level starter loafers to the status symbol horsebits to a handful of very right-now picks we couldn’t ignore, this is our ideal loafer list.