The Shopper Awards: These Are The Best Pants of the Year (So Far)
In celebration of our first year publishing the weekly Shopper newsletter, we crunched the numbers on the picks that most resonated with readers. In this edition of The Shopper Awards, we revisit everyone's favorite pants. Subscribe here or head to the Shopping tab for more recs.
Men's pants have had a tendency to go under-appreciated, despite showing up in near-infinite variations: long or cropped, denim or wool, pleats or sweats. In our weekly Shopper newsletter, we're regularly surveying the scene and reporting back on the state of the pant. Below is a list of all the most popular ones we've discussed in the past year, ranging from tried-and-true Levi's to Lemaire's trousers with a (literal) twist.
According to Shopper readers, these are 2026's best pants:
Uniqlo Barrel Pants Brown
Ignoring the substance-less chatter surrounding skinny jeans' return, no other silhouette has dominated the thoughts and legs of shoppers as much as the barrel cut. The elliptical shape it lends its wearer is the perfect marriage of what was past seasons' ultra baggy and the present's more conservative width. As correctly discerned by readers, barrel-legged is a new(-ish) classic.
Levi's 568 Loose Straight Jeans
Defying the brand's typical pecking order, it's not the 501 but the 568 Levi's that had people intrigued. The looser fit knocked mentions of its narrower counterparts off the lead spot — in a shade of stark white no less.
SSStein Black Long Wide Trousers
Ssstein's ultra wearable fashions are a secret to no one interested in good clothes. That said, it's unsurprising that one of the Japanese label's items crept into this roundup, even less so when assessing the specifics of the gorgeously pleated black slacks in question, the type of which can easily be dressed up or down.
Lemaire Twisted Belted Cotton Twill Pants
Perhaps one of the most recognizable pant designs of modern fashion, Lemaire's belted and twisted trousers are a safe-bet purchase for anyone who enjoys their bottoms to have enough personality to stand out, but not be so eccentric as to deflect from whatever else is worn alongside them.
ERL Cotton Ripstop Cargo Pants
Before our very own editor-in-chief noted so, the Shopper community foretold the rise of cargo pants by flocking to this ERL pair.
Celine Bootcut Jeans
Call it delayed aftermath to Kendrick Lamar's 2025 Superbowl outfit, call it a mass-tiring of giant-legged Y2K flares, call it a symptom of Michael Rider's wardrobe approach, but Celine's subtly bell-bottomed bootcuts might just be the foremost investment jean.
COS Linen Relaxed-Fit Barrel-Leg Pants
Evidently fed up with shorts, readers lapped up COS' lightweight, barrel-legged, cool-keeping linen pants.
Uniqlo Wide Chino Pants
If there's anything I've learned from working this close to the intersection of people and product, it's that you can throw the fanciest, frilliest stuff at folks, sometimes it's really just the simplest, most timeless of pieces that hits the nerve in ways no reinvented wheel ever could. Let the popularity of Uniqlo's chinos be the case in point.
Bottega Veneta Straight-Leg Jeans
Not even Bottega Veneta — an artisanal leather goods house! — is excluded from the above rule, as these very expensive, very straightforward, but apparently very arresting blue jeans can attest to.
Carhartt W.I.P Double Knee Pant
A lot of y'all seemed in need of double-knee'd Carhartts this year. What are they having you do at those startups and agencies I assume most of you work at?
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