20 Brands Like Duluth Trading for Durable Workwear
Three winters into a pair of Fire Hose pants and the knees still haven't gone. That's why people stay loyal to Duluth Trading, and it's also why the catalogue starts to feel small once you've bought the flannel and the work pants you needed. Duluth builds around its own cotton canvas and its Crouch Gusset cut, which is a narrow specialism dressed up as a whole wardrobe.
Workwear rewards shopping around. A pant built for climbing trees and a chore coat cut in France solve different problems, and neither comes from Wisconsin. Here are 20 brands worth knowing, running from a $45 work pant to a $429 waxed cruiser jacket.
| Brand | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Carhartt | Firm Duck bib overalls $99.99 to $109.99 | The straight swap for Duluth's heavy cotton duck |
| Filson | Lined Tin Cloth Cruiser $429 | Waxed cotton you re-wax instead of replace |
| Red Wing Heritage | Classic Moc $349.99 | Boots first, with shirts and belts alongside |
| Walls | Work pants from $79.99 | Insulated coveralls and hi-vis without the premium |
| Carhartt WIP | Single Knee Pant $198 | Workwear patterns cut for the street |
| Patagonia | Iron Forge pants $85 to $95 | Hemp-blend workwear with a resale programme |
| Wrangler RIGGS Workwear | Carpenter Pant $49.99 | The cheapest ripstop carpenter pant here |
| Danner | Premium, US-built and recraftable | Boots you send back to Portland to be rebuilt |
| Arborwear | Original Tree Climbers' Pants $105 | Climbing, kneeling and squatting all day |
| Orvis | 1856 Field Coat $198 | Country clothing that still works outdoors |
| L.L.Bean | Chamois Shirt $79.95 | Flannel plus a returns policy |
| Timberland PRO | Utility pant $55, fleece shirt $70 | Safety-toe boots and jobsite ratings |
| Dickies | Original 874 Work Pants $45 | Work pants you replace rather than repair |
| Blundstone | Terrain #2633 $244.95 | Pull-on boots with no laces to snag |
| KÜHL | Rydr Pant $109 | Pants cut for hiking and scrambling |
| Vetra | Chore jackets €192 to €276 | French chore coats, priced in euros |
| Stormy Kromer | Original Cap $50 | Cold-weather wool out of Michigan |
| Key Apparel | Denim Bib Overall $49.99 | Farm bibs at the lowest price on this list |
| Grundéns | Squall Insulated Hoodie $89.99 | Working outside in the rain |
| Kamik | Winter boots $89.99 to $239.99 | Deep cold without a $300 boot |
Carhartt
Carhartt is the closest thing to a like-for-like replacement for Duluth's heavy cotton pieces. The Firm Duck Bib Overall ($99.99 to $109.99) uses 12-ounce, firm-hand, 100% ringspun cotton duck with triple-stitched seams and ankle-to-thigh leg zips, which is the same argument Duluth makes about Fire Hose canvas, made in a stiffer fabric.
The difference is breadth. Carhartt sells the same silhouettes to a jobsite and to a record shop, so sizing runs from W30 to W50 and the colour range stops at black and Carhartt Brown on the bib. If you want the longer version of this comparison, we went deep on it in brands like Carhartt.
Filson
Filson has been selling waxed cotton under the line "Unfailing Goods Since 1897", and its Lined Tin Cloth Cruiser Jacket ($429) is the piece people save for. It combines 14-ounce oil finish Tin Cloth with a 6-ounce dry finish Cover Cloth, and Filson tells you not to wash it. You brush it clean and re-wax it when the water stops beading.
That's a different relationship with a jacket than Duluth asks for. Duluth's outerwear goes in the machine. A Cruiser costs four times as much and expects maintenance, which suits someone who wants one coat for the next decade rather than a coat per season.
Red Wing Heritage
Red Wing Heritage is Red Wing Shoes' lifestyle line, and it's alive and shoppable at its own section of redwingshoes.com. The Classic Moc runs $349.99 for men and $319.99 for women, and the line stretches past boots into shirts, hoodies, leather belts ($99.99) and socks ($19.99).
Treat it as the footwear half of a Duluth wardrobe rather than a rival to it. Red Wing Heritage sells almost no work pants, so the sensible pairing is its boots under someone else's canvas. Our wider round-up of brands like Red Wing covers the boot side properly.
Walls
Walls undercuts Duluth on almost every category it shares with it. The DITCHDIGGER Pro Double-Knee Pants go for $79.99, the Plano Insulated Duck Coverall for $169.99 and the Frost DWR Insulated Duck Bib Overall for $129.99, and the brand fronts its site with "85 Years of Outdoor Work".
Where Walls pulls ahead is cold and visibility. It carries a full hi-vis range plus insulated coveralls, which Duluth treats as a seasonal sideline. Nothing in the range aims to be interesting. It aims to be bought again in the same size.
Carhartt WIP
Carhartt WIP takes the workwear patterns and prices them as fashion. The Single Knee Pant runs $198, the OG Loose Pocket T-Shirt $58 and a corduroy Brandon Pant $178, all in USD on the US store, which puts a WIP pant at roughly double the Carhartt equivalent.
You're paying for the cut and the colour, not for tougher fabric. That's a fair trade if the clothes are going to a studio rather than a roof, and it's the wrong trade if you need double-fronts that survive a nail gun.
Patagonia
Patagonia runs an actual workwear line, which surprises people who only know the fleeces. Iron Forge hemp canvas pants sit at $85 for the 5-Pocket and $95 for the Double Knee, and the same styles turn up secondhand on Patagonia's Worn Wear resale site at closer to $46.
Hemp canvas behaves differently from Duluth's cotton. It softens faster and it wrinkles more, and the resale route means a worn pair keeps a price rather than going in a bin. Patagonia's repair network is the real draw for anyone who wears out knees on schedule.
Wrangler RIGGS Workwear
Wrangler RIGGS Workwear is the cheapest serious work pant on this list. The RIGGS Carpenter Pant costs $49.99 in 10-ounce 100% cotton ripstop, and the Performance Carpenter Pant sits at $59.99, both well under what Duluth charges for a comparable Fire Hose cut.
RIGGS is a line inside Wrangler rather than a separate company, so it shares the parent site and the parent sizing. Ripstop is the trade-off worth knowing about. It resists tears better than plain duck and it feels lighter, which some people read as less substantial.
Shop Wrangler RIGGS Workwear Now
Danner
Danner builds work boots in Portland, Oregon, and the Bull Run is the one to know. It's stitchdown construction on unlined full-grain oiled leather, EH rated, on a Danner Wedge outsole, and the brand covers it with a 365-day warranty against defects.
The part that matters more than the price is recrafting. Danner rebuilds the bottom of the boot rather than selling you a new pair, so a Bull Run has a second life the way a Blundstone doesn't. Some components are imported and the finishing happens in Oregon, which the brand states plainly on the product page.
Arborwear
Arborwear built its reputation on the Original Tree Climbers' Pants ($105), cut in 12.5-ounce pre-washed ringspun cotton canvas for people who spend the day up a rope. It's the closest competitor to Duluth's Fire Hose pants, and it comes from a company that also sells chainsaws and arborist gear.
The rest of the range fills in around that. Balsa Pants run $120, Cedar Flex Shorts $95, and there's a Class 3 hi-vis shade tee at $37 for anyone working roadside. If your knees and hips take more punishment than your fabric does, start here.
Orvis
Orvis approaches durable clothing from fishing rather than construction. The 1856 Field Coat ($198) and the Briar Jacket ($159) are the pieces that overlap with a Duluth wardrobe, and the Bethel Waxed Cotton Shirt Jacket uses waxed cotton from Halley Stevensons, the Dundee mill that supplies most of the good stuff.
Prices climb quickly past that. Orvis technical outerwear reaches $449 for the PRO ToughShell, which is river gear rather than jobsite gear. Buy Orvis for the field coats and the flannels, and let someone else sell you the work pants.
L.L.Bean
L.L.Bean makes the flannel that Duluth shoppers usually end up comparing against. The Men's Chamois Shirt in Traditional Fit costs $79.95, with plaid and stripe versions running from $59.99 up to $84.95 depending on the pattern.
What you're buying is the returns counter. L.L.Bean's satisfaction guarantee is the reason people put up with a preppier cut than Carhartt's, and the Bean Boot remains a good winter option. It's a softer wardrobe than Duluth's, and it holds up.
Timberland PRO
Timberland PRO started in 1999 as Timberland's answer to tradespeople who wanted the boots without the yellow-boot styling, and it now runs a full clothing line beside the footwear. The Gritman Athletic-Fit Flex Utility Pant costs $55 and the Gritman Check Heavyweight Fleece Shirt $70.
Safety ratings are the reason to pick it over Duluth. Timberland PRO organises its catalogue by trade, with construction, warehousing and agricultural sections, and it sells composite and steel safety toes across the boot range. Duluth sells almost nothing with a safety rating.
Dickies
Dickies lists the Original 874 Work Pants at $45, and work shirts at $27.99 to $29.99. That's the floor of this category, and it's the reason the 874 shows up on more building sites and more skateparks than anything else here.
The economics are different from Duluth's. You don't re-wax an 874. You wear it until the seat goes and buy another, and at $45 that maths works out fine. Our comparison of brands like Dickies covers where the cheap end gets thin.
Blundstone
Blundstone makes elastic-sided pull-on boots from Tasmania, and the Terrain #2633 runs $244.95 in USD on its own store. No laces means nothing to catch on a ladder rung and nothing to retie with cold hands, which is the whole argument.
The limitation is obvious enough. A pull-on boot gives you less ankle support than a laced work boot, and Blundstone sells no apparel to go with it. We put it against its closest competitors in brands like Blundstone.
KÜHL
KÜHL sells the Rydr Pant at $109 in its EXKLUSIV EUROTWILL cotton blend, with a gusseted crotch and articulated knees that do the same job as Duluth's Crouch Gusset. It carries 2,435 reviews at 4.5 stars on KÜHL's own site, which is a lot of feedback for one pant.
The cut is aimed at trails rather than trades. Reinforced pockets and scuff guards handle rock and pack straps, and the patina dye is meant to fade rather than stay uniform. Anyone who bought Duluth pants for hiking rather than for work will get on with this better.
Vetra
Vetra has made French workwear since 1927, when Edouard Beerens founded it in Paris, and it still manufactures in France. Chore jackets run €192 to €276, with the organic cotton version at €198 and the moleskine at €276.
Prices are in euros and the site sells in English, so factor in shipping from France before you commit. What you get is the European chore coat rather than the American work jacket, cut boxier through the body and finished without the branding Carhartt puts on everything.
Stormy Kromer
Stormy Kromer has made its six-panel wool cap with the pull-down earband since 1903, and it still costs $50. The Rancher Cap is $65, and the Mackinaw Coat sits at $450 to $460, which is the serious end of the range.
Beyond the caps it sells wool vests, jackets and flannel out of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, family owned and operated. This is a cold-weather brand rather than a workwear brand, so pair it with the pants from somewhere else on this list.
Key Apparel
Key Apparel, the Key Industries brand out of Fort Scott, Kansas, has been making workwear since 1908 and sells straight from its own site. The Denim Bib Overall costs $49.99 in 12-ounce 100% cotton denim with triple-needle stitching and diamond-back construction, and it carries 495 reviews.
That's the cheapest bib here by a wide margin, and it's a farm piece rather than a construction one. Button side closures, a hammer loop and a utility pocket on the right leg are the extent of the features. Key isn't trying to reinvent the overall.
Grundéns
Grundéns came out of Nordic commercial fishing, so its whole catalogue assumes you're wet. The Squall Insulated Hoodie runs $89.99 and the Portal Gore-Tex Pro Wading Jacket $599.99, which brackets a range Duluth doesn't compete in.
You don't need to fish to use it. Anyone working outside in persistent rain gets more from Grundéns than from a water-resistant duck jacket, and the softer end of the line, including flannel shirts and tees from $34.99, wears fine on dry days too.
Kamik
Kamik is a Canadian boot maker with about 70% of production still in Quebec, and its US store prices winter boots from $89.99 for the Tundra up to $239.99 for the Cody. The Canuck sits in the middle at $119.99 with a seam-sealed waterproof nylon upper and a snow collar.
Compared with the $200-plus boots elsewhere on this list, Kamik is the budget answer to deep cold. It sells no clothing, so it's a footwear line to bolt onto whichever brand you pick for the rest. Buy the US site rather than the Canadian one so you're quoted in dollars.
How to Pick Your Next Workwear Brand
Work out what's failing first. If it's fabric, Carhartt and Walls sell heavier cotton than Duluth at similar money, and Key Apparel undercuts both on bibs. If it's your knees, Arborwear and KÜHL cut the gussets differently. If it's the weather, Grundéns handles rain and Kamik handles cold, and neither pretends to do the other.
Two of these need a caveat before you click. Vetra prices in euros and ships from France, and Danner's real value shows up years later when you send the boots back to be recrafted rather than replaced. Everything else on this list sells direct in USD today.
Still deciding? Our guide to brands like Truewerk covers the technical end of workwear, and the full Apart Style archive has more on boots, denim and outerwear.
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Written by
Spencer Lanoue
