Copyright gq
We like Dickies, you like Dickies, your least-cool friend likes Dickies. That degree of appeal is what makes the century-old Texas-founded brand one of the biggest names in workwear. Dickies gear is durable, inexpensive, and usually fits just right—a holy trinity of winning attributes plenty of hoity-toity designers struggle to nail down. Exhibit A? The Dickies Eisenhower work jacket, a $60 grandpappy of the genre that wipes the floor with alternatives six times the price. No, it’s not the literal jacket that Dwight D. Eisenhower wore to shepherd the US through WWII. (Can you imagine?) But given how perfect it is, that might be the only idea left to reinforce its icon status. What makes it so perfect, exactly? Well, like Dickies’s legendary 874 pants, the Eisenhower is cut from the brand’s signature poly-cotton twill, a stubborn-as-hell fabric built to withstand the harsh demands of grizzled foremen and grungy skate rats alike. There’s not much to it besides for that, in the best way possible; you can count its distinguishing details on one hand—plain ol’ point collar, front zip closure, dual hand pockets, helpful pen pocket at the sleeve. Seems pretty straightforward, right? Yes and no. Remember that Goldilocks fit we mentioned earlier? Like the Levi’s Trucker jacket or the Carhartt Detroit jacket, the Eisenhower boasts one of the best silhouettes in the business. It’s roomy and cropped—but not, like, TikTok-influencer-cropped. Plus, it’s available in a wide swath of goes-with-everything neutral colors and comes lined or unlined depending on the version and the season you plan on wearing it most. At just around $60, the Eisenhower is one of the best value propositions in menswear. Waiting around for that proposition to get even better? Don’t hold your breath, you penny pincher; Dickies don’t play like that. Like a savvy vintage dealer, the brand knows exactly what it has on its hands, and it isn’t prone to discounting its greatest jacket. (Whether that’s a merchandising decision or a marketing play doesn’t really matter: we respect the commitment.) Frankly, the Eisenhower is so iconic it would be a steal at whatever it’s priced at.
