13 Best Cargo Pants for Men 2026, According to GQ Editors

The best cargo pants for men will render any gift-with-purchase tote bag completely useless—and level up your fits in the process. They’re the ultimate utilitarian pants and a staple of military designs and honest-to-god workwear. And it’s precisely their functionality that’s made them a menswear classic that deserves a spot in every guy’s closet.But whether or not you’re actually stowing anything in those pockets is up to you because, as it so often happens with utilitarian designs, cargo pants are just as vibey as they are useful. Like gearing up with a fresh crop of stationary for a new school year, cargo pants project productivity even if you never get around to maxing out their potential. But unlike fancy pens and highlighters, cargo pants look cool as hell.When droves of GIs returned home from serving their country, they brought their uniforms with them and unknowingly ushered in a new wave of men’s fashion that included chinos, T-shirts, bomber jackets, and cargo pants. As it turns out, their government-issued gear was more stylistically versatile than they knew. Generations later, menswear is still obsessed and there are no signs of slowing down. From spaced-out high-fashion interpretations to one-to-one rips, the tactical pants continue to remain relevant whether you’re on a jobsite or in an office.So, like Saving Private Ryan, we deployed our own squad of fashion experts to find the best cargo pants for men we could find and bring them back home. You earned this.The Best Cargo Pants OverallGap Relaxed Cargo PantsRead moreThe Best Budget Cargo PantsUniqlo U Wide Cargo PantsRead moreThe Best Upgrade Cargo PantsFrizmWORKS Wide-Leg Cotton-Twill Drawstring Cargo TrousersRead moreThe Vintage Lover's CargoBeams Plus Cotton-Ripstop Cargo TrousersRead moreThe Designer Cargo PantsA.Presse Cotton-Twill TrousersRead moreMore Cargo Pants We LoveHow We Test and Review ProductsHow We Make These PicksBest Cargo Pants Overall: Gap Relaxed Cargo PantsProsRelaxed silhouetteComfortable amount of stretchSolid constructionConsColorways are limitedOver the warmer months, Gap’s cargo shorts are among our favorites. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that the iconic brand’s lengthier cargos are just as good. The hefty cotton twill feels substantial but the slight pinch of elastane adds a ton of comfort. And for cargo pockets, it’s crucial that they’re reinforced lest you come back home with less pockets than when you left the house.Gap’s are built with impressive construction and give us full confidence that we could store an unreasonable amount of personal effects without the pockets faltering. As for the silhouette, these have a bang-on relaxed fit that’s roomy enough to mask your leg-day gains without ballooning into pants MC Hammer would consider. And for shade under a hundred bucks, these are just about as good as it gets.Best Budget Cargo Pants: Uniqlo U Wide Cargo PantsProsEasy on the walletEasygoing silhouetteConsToo baggy for someSingle lengthIn the wider world of pants, cargos don’t tend to be the cheapest, and for good reason: the more complicated the construction, the harder it is to cut costs, and cargo pants are, historically, complicated. But Uniqlo always manages to figure it out, and this season, the Lemaire-helmed U imprint is making an absolute banger for just $60. Baggy, lightweight, and outfitted with a drawstring at the waist *and* the hem, these are the type of cargos that are just as adept on the trail as they are pushing a grocery cart.Best Cargo Pants for Vintage Fiends: Beams Plus Cotton Ripstop Cargo TrousersBeams PlusCotton-Ripstop Cargo TrousersProsDurable, lightweight fabricMassive pocketsHidden drawstring at the waistConsA little shorter, one inseam optionA touch light for deep-winter wearThese Mil Spec cargos from Beams Plus are based on surplus styles from the ‘60s and happen to be one of the easiest-wearing, storage-laden pairs on the market. Made from a mid-weight cotton ripstop and cut nice and loose (if not a little short), one of Japan’s most dexterous Americana masters managed to once again deliver some cargos that look as good with loafers as they do with boots or sneakers. They also happen to mesh with a hoodie as well as they do with an oxford and can handle virtually any other mission assigned to them. $265 ain’t cheap, but my pair is over a decade old and is showing zero signs of fatigue.Best Upgrade Cargo Pants: FrizmWORKS Wide-Leg Cotton-Twill Drawstring Cargo TrousersFrizmWORKSWide-Leg Cotton-Twill Drawstring Cargo TrousersProsMade from a hardy cotton twillPeriod-correct detailsSneaky elastic at the waistConsOnly comes in one colorwayInseam is a bit short for the tall folkCargo pants are historically a cotton ripstop medium. But that doesn’t mean cargos made out of a slightly hardier fabric don’t hit just as hard. The folks from FrizmWORKS swapped out the ripstop for a year-round cotton twill fabric, which gives these a more chino-like drape, and the loose, straight silhouette plays nicely dressed a little bit up or all the way down. And finally, for those susceptible to a little winter padding or an afternoon nap, the hidden elastic at the waistband is the kind of touch that feels ever-so-kind in the face of a big ol’ meal and some subsequent couch time.Best Designer Cargo Pants: A.Presse Cotton-Twill TrousersA.PresseCotton-Twill TrousersProsThat fabric, manTop-notch constructionA-1 pocket configurationConsAngry emails from your accountantSingle inseam lengthWe’re well past the point of egregiously-priced workwear generating shock value, so we’ll skip all that and just focus on the brass tacks here: A.Presse has an uncanny ability to recreate the hardest-wearing styles in American workwear using the most gorgeous fabrics on the planet—thus subverting the entire lineage of said style—and these cargos are making the case to be considered one of their crowning achievements. Made in Japan out of a cotton twill fabric you can feel through the screen, these are faded in all the right places, cut for any kind of footwear imaginable and, despite the pricepoint, possess a minimal amount of fuss for something that is very much “designer.” Should you be dropping more than a grand on cargos? Luckily, we aren’t your accountant, so we say do what makes you happy.MadewellBaggy Cargo PantsJust a good, classic pair of cargos, made from a broken-in ripstop fabric, cut loose enough to allow for pretty much any shoe we've collectively dreamt up.RRLHerringbone Field Cargo PantsMore reminiscent of P-43 cargos—rather than the more classic M-51s or 47s—this bomb-proof, painstakingly recreated pair features load-bearing pockets on the front of the thigh rather than the side of the leg.Banana RepublicArchive Reissue Khaki Convertible PantsThis list wouldn't be complete without a pair of pantsformers, and the best of the bunch currently come from BR's Archive Reissue collection—loose, wearable in both forms and hardy enough to withstand a trail (or 50).orSlowPocket Cargo PantsDickies' famously good work pant fits like a dream, lasts as long as a Honda, and only costs three matcha lattes. Adding a couple of cargo pockets to each leg is the only way it gets any better.How We Test and Review ProductsStyle is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.How We Make These PicksWe make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there's bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ's testing process here.)