18 Brands Like Carhartt That Blend Streetwear and Workwear

Duck canvas that stands up on its own, a beanie that outlasts three winters, and a jacket you'd wear to a job site or a gallery opening. That's the Carhartt deal, and it's why the Detroit jacket ended up on skaters, painters and everyone in between. Carhartt's men's duck outerwear runs $99.99 to $319.99, and the problem starts when you already own the jacket, the beanie and the double-knee pant. The next Carhartt purchase would just be more Carhartt.

Below are 18 brands cut from roughly the same cloth. Some are cheaper, some cost four times as much, and a few make things Carhartt doesn't. We checked every price on the brand's own store and left the number out where the site wouldn't give one up.

Carhartt itself started in a Detroit loft in 1889 with two sewing machines, and Hamilton Carhartt only landed on the bib overall after talking to railroad workers about what kept failing. The crossover into fashion came later and nobody planned it. Hip-hop artists adopted the boxy duck canvas in the 90s, skaters followed because the fabric survived pavement, and the brand went along with it. That's the pattern worth looking for in an alternative: a real history of making work clothes, a material the brand can name, and a customer who bought it for the job before anyone bought it for the look.

Dickies

Dickies is the cheapest honest route out of Carhartt, and the 874 Original Work Pant ($29.99 to $45 depending on colour) is the reason. Founded in Fort Worth, Texas in 1922, the brand made bib overalls for ranchers and farmhands for decades before the 874 became the uniform of skate parks and punk shows.

The poly-cotton twill arrives stiff with a permanent crease pressed in, and it stays that way. Where Carhartt gives you weight and warmth, Dickies gives you a flat, sharp trouser at a third of the price, which is why it reads as smart-casual off site.

Sizing is the thing to watch. The 874 sits high on the natural waist with no stretch at all, so buy your true waist measurement rather than the number on your jeans. We've written more on the brand's neighbours in brands like Dickies.

Best for: A work trouser under $50 that doesn't look like workwear.

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Stan Ray

Stan Ray makes the fatigue pant the way the US Army specified it, and it's been doing it in the same Texas factory since the 1970s. Fatigue pants run $45 to $110 on the brand's own store, with the OG Loose Fatigue in 8.5oz olive sateen as the anchor of the range.

The reference is the military OG-107 uniform issued from 1952 to 1989, right down to the rectangular patch pockets and the sateen weave the Army chose for its smooth face and hard wear. Where Carhartt owns the chore coat, Stan Ray owns this trouser, and the look lands closer to Vietnam-era surplus than to a construction site.

The painter pants are worth a look too. The OG Painter Pant in hickory stripe ($70) carries the hammer loop and the wide leg, and the stripe does most of the styling work for you.

Best for: Anyone who wants surplus cuts without buying actual surplus.

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Patagonia Workwear

Patagonia Workwear is the line for people who want the duck-canvas jacket and want to know what's in it. The foundation fabric is Iron Forge Hemp canvas, 12.9-oz, made of 55% hemp, 27% recycled polyester and 18% organic cotton, sewn in a Fair Trade Certified factory. Patagonia says it's 25% more abrasion resistant than conventional cotton duck and needs no break-in.

That last part is the real difference from Carhartt. A new duck canvas jacket takes a season to soften. The hemp blend starts pliable, which matters if the jacket is going to work on day one rather than after a winter of wear.

The collection runs to roughly 62 pieces across work pants, overalls and jackets, and every one is covered by the brand's repair service rather than a replacement policy.

Best for: Work clothes you plan to repair rather than replace.

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Carhartt WIP

Carhartt WIP is Carhartt's European line, and it's the answer if you love the shape but find the mainline fit enormous. Work In Progress takes the duck canvas, the logo and the core silhouettes, then recuts them for people who aren't lifting anything heavier than a record crate.

The pricing tells you what you're paying for. The OG Detroit Jacket is $298 in rigid black and $318 stone washed, the OG Chore Coat is $288, and the Michigan Chore Coat comes in at $255. That's roughly triple the mainline equivalent for a jacket cut slimmer through the body and shorter in the sleeve.

WIP sizing runs closer to fashion than to workwear, so the size that fits you in mainline Carhartt will swim on you here.

Best for: The Carhartt look on a frame that mainline Carhartt drowns.

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Filson

Filson sells the version of this jacket you hand down. Founded in Seattle in 1897 to outfit Klondike Gold Rush prospectors, the brand built its name on Tin Cloth, a waxed cotton heavy enough to stand up to brush, rain and a decade of use.

Work jackets run $229 to $499 on Filson's own store. The Tin Cloth Short Lined Cruiser Jacket is $359, the Lined Tin Cloth Cruiser is $429, and the wool Mackinaw Wool Cruiser Jacket sits at $599.

Waxed cotton asks something of you that duck canvas doesn't. It needs re-waxing every year or two, and it marks where it creases. Owners treat both as features.

Best for: One jacket for the next fifteen years.

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Woolrich

Woolrich got to American workwear before almost anyone. John Rich built the first mill in central Pennsylvania in 1830, and the company supplied socks, blankets and coats to US soldiers through the Civil War. Its signature red-and-black buffalo check arrived on a wool shirt in 1850, decades before it became shorthand for a certain kind of winter.

Wool is what separates it from Carhartt. Duck canvas blocks wind and takes abuse. Wool keeps working when it's wet, holds warmth without bulk, and doesn't need a lining to do it, which is why the outerwear range leans on parkas and wool overshirts rather than chore coats.

One practical note. Woolrich now trades through its European arm, so the storefront that works is the international one and prices show in pounds or euros rather than dollars.

Best for: Wool warmth where canvas would leave you cold.

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Ariat

Ariat did to work boots what running brands did to trainers, dropping athletic footbeds and cushioning systems into a category that had ignored comfort for a century. Beth Cross founded it in 1993 to build riding boots that treated riders as athletes, and the work boot line followed in 1998.

Three lines cover the ground. Rebar runs $179.95 to $199.95 with waterproof composite-toe options, Groundbreaker sits lower at $159.95 to $189.95, and WorkHog tops out at $199.95 to $279.95 with vented mesh panels and carbon toe protection.

Carhartt makes boots, but boots aren't what Carhartt is. Ariat is a footwear company that added clothes, and the difference shows in the fit systems and the safety certifications rather than in the styling.

Best for: Long days standing on concrete or in a paddock.

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Duluth Trading Co.

Duluth Trading Co. builds its whole catalogue around annoyances other workwear brands never bothered to fix. Three tradesmen incorporated it in 1989, and in 2002 it added three inches to the back hem of a T-shirt so it stays tucked when you bend, then named the result the Longtail T without a hint of embarrassment.

Fire Hose is the fabric to know. It's a dense cotton canvas the brand cut its teeth on, and Fire Hose cargo work pants run $74.50 at full price, which puts them a tier above Dickies and a tier below Filson.

The catalogue voice is broad, occasionally goofy, and entirely consistent. Where Carhartt sells you heritage, Duluth sells you a solved problem, and the copy will tell you exactly which problem.

Best for: Fit complaints you'd assumed were just your body.

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Margaret Howell

Margaret Howell takes work shirts, mackintoshes and painter's trousers and rebuilds them to a standard that has nothing to do with the job site. The workwear-facing line is MHL., and the prices sit where you'd expect for British-designed clothes in this kind of cloth.

MHL. Carpenters Jeans are £325 in denim twill, the Worker Jeans are £315, and the Simple T Shirt in cotton-linen jersey is £80. Everything is priced in pounds, since the brand ships from the UK.

What Howell does is subtraction. A pocket moves half an inch, a collar loses its stiffening, the cloth gets heavier than it needs to be, and the piece stops looking like a costume and starts looking like something a person owns. Carhartt gets there through function. Howell gets there on purpose.

Best for: Workwear shapes with nothing left to prove.

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Helly Hansen

Helly Hansen has been keeping people dry since a Norwegian sea captain started making oilskin jackets in 1877, and the workwear arm is where that turns into trade clothing. The Manchester 2.0 Shell Jacket is $145, with a detachable hood, YKK zips and taped seams under the brand's Helly Tech membrane.

This is the one to reach for when Carhartt's answer to rain is a heavier coat. A duck canvas jacket soaks and gets cold. A shell keeps water out and vents the sweat, which is the whole argument for a technical fabric on a wet site.

The range covers construction pants with knee-pad and holster pockets, plus hi-vis layers certified for roadside work. It reads Nordic and functional rather than heritage.

Best for: Rain, wind and anything that needs a hi-vis rating.

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Ben Davis

Ben Davis has been making the same stiff twill in San Francisco since 1935, and the gorilla logo is a quiet signal on the West Coast that you know what you're looking at. Original Ben's Pants are $52 to $55, and the whole pants range sits between $45 and $59.

The family tree is the good bit. Ben Davis was founded by Simon and Ben Davis, the son and grandson of Jacob Davis, who patented the rivet with Levi Strauss in 1873. Two brands on this list come out of the same household.

The break-in is the brand's other reputation. New Ben Davis twill feels close to cardboard and stays that way for weeks before it gives. Carhartt duck softens on a similar curve, so the experience will be familiar. The half-zip work shirt ($51 to $54) is the piece doing most of the work in Japanese and hip-hop styling of the brand.

Best for: A stiff twill pant with a genuine cult behind it.

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Levi's

Levi's holds the patent that started all of this. Levi Strauss and the tailor Jacob Davis registered the riveted work trouser on 20 May 1873, putting metal at the pocket corners and the base of the fly where the seams kept tearing. The mainline jeans aren't where the workwear lives now, though. Look at Levi's Vintage Clothing, which reproduces the fits and fabrics of specific years rather than gesturing at the past.

The 1953 Type II Trucker Jacket is the piece to know, cut from rigid selvedge denim with the double-pleated front, the leather patch and the waist adjusters the original carried. Prices climb steeply from mainline into the Vintage Clothing range, so the same jacket shape can cost you a little or a lot depending on which line you're in.

Denim is the point of difference. Carhartt built its identity on duck canvas, and Levi's built one on indigo twill that fades in a way canvas never does.

Best for: Workwear that records where you've been.

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Wrangler

Wrangler jeans were drawn for the saddle, and the details still say so. The 13MWZ Cowboy Cut Original Fit ($59.99) carries flat rivets, a higher rise with seven belt loops to keep a shirt tucked, felled side seams that lie flat against a seat, and a leg cut wide enough to clear a cowboy boot. The rigid version runs $44.99 to $49.99 if you want to break the denim in yourself.

Against Carhartt this is the western branch of the same family tree, and a much cheaper one. The 13MWZ has been in production for more than 70 years and is the official ProRodeo competition jean, which is about as close as denim gets to a spec sheet.

Best for: A boot-cut work jean under $60.

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Barbour

Barbour is Filson's British cousin, waxing cotton since 1894 for a climate that drizzles rather than pours. The Bedale runs $415 to $425 and the Beaufort is $450, both in 6oz thornproof waxed cotton with corduroy collars and studded closures.

The two jackets differ at the back. The Bedale, designed in 1980 for riders, has rear vents and a shorter body. The Beaufort, from 1983, swaps those for a full-width game pocket. Neither is built for the abrasion Carhartt takes for granted, and both are lighter and more pliable than Filson's Tin Cloth.

If you want a fuller picture of that end of the market, we've covered it in brands like Barbour.

Best for: Damp weather and a countryside look you can wear in town.

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Red Wing

Red Wing has been making boots in Red Wing, Minnesota since Charles Beckman started the company there in 1905, and the Heritage line is where the workwear crowd shops. Classic Moc boots run $319.99 to $329.99, the Weekender Chukka is $269.99, the Beckman is $399.99, and the Engineer tops the range at $549.99.

A chore coat over the wrong shoes falls apart as an outfit, and this is the brand that fixes it. The leather is tanned at the company's own S.B. Foot tannery, the Goodyear welt means a resole rather than a replacement when the tread goes, and Red Wing runs a repair shop at the Minnesota factory to do it.

Heritage boots run half a size to a full size large, so order down. The upper, insole and cork filler mould to your foot with wear, which is why the first fortnight is uncomfortable and the second year isn't. There's more on the alternatives in brands like Red Wing boots.

Best for: The boots the rest of this list is asking for.

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A.P.C.

A.P.C. is workwear with everything decorative taken out. Jean Touitou founded the Paris label in 1987, and its New Standard jeans ($340) landed as raw indigo in a market that had gone all in on stone-washing. Touitou sourced the selvedge from a weaver near Hiroshima on a handshake, and the denim still comes from those Japanese mills.

The denim range spans $127.50 to $565, with the Perec faded Japanese denim workwear jacket at $480. That jacket is the clearest comparison point. It's a chore coat with the pocket flaps, contrast stitching and logo stripped away until only the shape is left.

None of it's built for a job site, and the brand doesn't pretend otherwise. What you're buying is the outline of work clothing rendered in better cloth, which is a different proposition from Carhartt and priced like one.

Best for: Raw denim and chore-coat shapes with the logos removed.

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Berne

Berne has been making workwear since 1915 without ever trying to be fashionable about it. Its store sits at bernedirect.com, and this is the brand stacked at farm supply stores, bought by people who need a bib overall on Monday and aren't thinking about the silhouette.

The prices reflect that. Men's bibs and coveralls run $47.99 to $322.99, with the Heritage Insulated Duck Bib Overall at $109.99 to $119.99 and the Flex Duck Relaxed Fit Utility Pant at $39.99 to $44.99. That's meaningfully below Carhartt for a comparable insulated bib.

Best for: An insulated bib overall at the lowest honest price.

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Caterpillar

Caterpillar licenses its name to a workwear range built for the sites its machines already sit on, and the pricing is the appeal. Men's work pants run $29.99 to $109.99, with the Trademark Work Pants at $74.99 to $79.99 and the waterproof H2O Defender at $89.99 to $99.99. Graphic tees are $24.99.

The range covers the flame-resistant and hi-vis categories Carhartt also serves, and it does so at a lower entry price. Where it can't compete is heritage, because the clothing came long after the machinery.

What it has instead is the logo. Yellow and black reads as construction site from fifty feet, and that shorthand has been doing streetwear work for thirty years without the brand having to ask.

Best for: Site-rated gear when the budget is tight.

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How to Style and Shop for Rugged Workwear

The trap is dressing head to toe in it and arriving somewhere looking like you've come to fix the boiler. One rugged piece per outfit is the trick. Wear the Ben Davis pants with loafers and a plain tee. Put a Stan Ray fatigue pant under a fine-gauge knit. Let the workwear item be the heavy thing in the outfit and keep everything else quiet.

Sizing is where most people get burned, and it splits cleanly. Mainline Carhartt, Berne and Filson are cut for movement over layers, so they run big and boxy. Carhartt WIP and A.P.C. are cut for the street and run slim. Dickies 874s have no stretch and sit on the natural waist, so buy your measured waist. Red Wing runs large, and Ben Davis will feel wrong for a fortnight before it gives.

On budget, the honest ladder looks like this. Under $60 gets you Dickies, Wrangler or Caterpillar. Between $60 and $150 gets you Stan Ray, Ben Davis, Berne, Duluth or Helly Hansen. Above that you're paying for waxed cotton, wool or a design point of view, and Filson, Barbour, A.P.C. and Margaret Howell all deliver something specific for it.

Start with the gap in your wardrobe rather than the brand you like the look of. If you're cold, that's Woolrich or Berne. If you're wet, Helly Hansen or Barbour. If your boots are letting the outfit down, Red Wing. And if you just want more of what Carhartt does, in a cut that fits, Carhartt WIP is the shortest route. More workwear reading sits in workwear brands like Dickies.

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