Esquire's Salary Based Suit Buying Guide

Pure entertainment. I should be spending a lot more than I am, I wonder if I can sell this to the wife....

Is that supposed to be your annual suit budget? Doesn't seem unreasonable.

Not a lot of substance there.

I appreciate what they are trying to do, but the jumps in pricepoints really don't match the salaries. $70K and $100K jobs are okay, but that type of salary doesn't actually go very far, especially not in places where there are jobs that require suits of any caliber. I think that the writers are forgetting that the basic costs of living are not that much different between someone making $100 and $150K, and so that that additional $50K makes a world of difference. Of course, anyone who has seen their income increase steadily can confirm that in general, you spend according to what you make.

It would be great if you did this and report back.

As much as I would love to subscribe to this list, it operates in a vacuum. If you have kids, a mortgage, and student loans, then a vast majority of Americans probably have different priorities. And the level of attire you need is different from LA to Louisville to Charlotte to Cincy to DC.

What would be an interesting follow-up would be to do a massive poll to ask people what they actually spend on a suit on average, presenting the answers both geographically and by loose industry (a businessman in NYC spends $ABC while a businessman in the southwest spends $XYX, or a doctor in the southeast spends $G and a doctor in the midwest spends $H). I don't think many would argue that the average price would be much much lower than what you see in the article.

However, I do commend Esquire for satisfying their advertisers by pointing people very quickly to the opening price point of most of their featured suits. Gotta keep those ad dollars rolling in.

The 30k salary guide is a joke. A $400 briefcase that costs almost as much as the suit is way out-of-line, especially considering it is the most expensive briefcase sub-100k.

The Attolini is nice!

lol that is a lot of bs.

It's an entertaining read.  Entirely out of touch with reality and the brands they push are so often junk and the shirt and tie for $250k are hideous.

I have to wonder how many guys making $30K or less buy suits, period, much less are constrained to wear them by business necessity.

Thank God for Esquire! I have been misguided for so long but now I have direction.

To be fair, it was an entertaining read, which was all that it was meant to be, and Esquire has been doing a much better job than GQ lately (which is not saying much).

After grad school, I needed them for interviews. Also, maybe, salesmen, door-to-door and otherwise?

What nonsense! They just put numbers together, I could have done that within 30 mins.

Honestly, are we surprised though?