Sport Jacket w/ Jeans & Black Sneakers? Also Fit Check.
I know there is a formality clash between Sport Coats and Jeans/Sneakers, with many enthusiasts rejecting mixing altogether. And even most people that mix wear nice leather shoes/boots with jeans and not sneakers.
Unfortunately I don't live anywhere near NYC and my feet have abnormal shape/size aspects that are very difficult to fit (without pain) properly with nice leather shoes/boots, no matter the budget. Still searching. I (and others) like my jeans / OCBD and dark running/sneaker shoes combo, but so far I have not found a nice chinos + running/sneaker shoe combo I like. Would like more formal outfits too with chinos / wool pants, but that won't work until I solve the shoe problem.
I wear this style both outside work and in-office. I work in a white collar / highly educated company and industry in a major US city, but we have no real dress code other than nothing very revealing. Everyone wears everything. Once in a while someone is in a suit, some always business casual, some always full casual, some switching. Even sweatpants, sweatshirts, yoga pants, jackets with hoodies, etc... Dress code is not a problem.
So my question is, how does this style look in these pictures? Is it better to not wear a sport coat at all or is it more of a "looks nice and better than without, but would look a lot better with more formal pants/shoes"? This is a twill 100% wool jacket with patch pockets, subtle plaid/checks.
Also, how do you think this one fits? This is a 36S and I am 5ft 7-7.5in. So a 36R would have way too long sleeves without non-functioning buttons to allow shortening. Until I bulk up my arms/chest and lose a little more belly, it is hard fitting me properly in sport coats and suits too, just not as bad as with shoes. The length of the body, especially with a seemingly tapered back, is the thing that I am not sure about. Everything else about this sub-$500 sport coat fits me better than any other sport coats or suits I can try on locally for less than $1500+.
11 Replies
Hi @StrategicTurtle! For better answers, include:
- Reference pictures
- Budget in numbers
- Specific measurements
- Openness to buying secondhand and/or online
- Location: country/continent is fine
- Timing/urgency
sneaks + jeans + sport coat/blazer is not an inherently bad combo, people who say that care too much about rules.
separate from that though, I'm not loving how this particular look is coming together, the blue pant on different shade blue blazer with those black shoes makes the shoes stick out to me in a way that I don't think they are holding up to in the fit. IMO this might be a bit better just swapping to a different color of pant (also going for a wider cut is an easy upgrade to looking cool).
the blazer nominally looks like a fine fit to me but to really get a better judgement you need to have at least one of your arms hanging straight down at your side to check the sleeve length and how the shoulders are sitting.
these sneakers do not look good in general IMO.
Sneakers + suiting isnt bad and isnt even necessarily difficult to do well, but it does require the suit to be more relaxed than what you've got here, and the sneakers to be more... good lmao. New Balance and Adidas make a lot of great models that can work in this context, as do Puma and Nike.
Are insoles or MTO shoes an option?
truly impossible to tell if the jacket fits you with these photos but my intuition tells me it's too small
These are actually running shoes, not sneakers. At least I think there is a difference? I have never looked for actual casual sneakers before but that is on my to-do list. I went from wearing running shoes when I had no money / opportunity to pay attention to my fashion in general to trying a bunch of different kinds of Allen Edmonds boots/shoes (none of their lasts would work for me without pain over time), and then back to running shoes while still searching for leather shoes/boots that will fit me. Have not looked for casual sneakers yet - but can tell you now I do not like bright colored ones at all, even white ones.
Insoles/MTO is within my budget - but the problem is still the extremely difficult fit - I am not sure how that will work out without someone knowledgeable analyzing my feet in-person. If you mean local MTO with actual custom or wide variety of lasts, so far I have not found any. And full-on bespoke around here I am sure has a scary price - I have disposable income, but not tons of it yet.
If you mean insoles with any locally available shoes - no the fit problems are too big for insoles alone to solve, and in most cases insoles will just make it worse as I have three different problems:
1. Very high arch underneath my feet.
2. Very high instep on top of my feet, independent of the arch.
3. Toes that are easily squished in anything without big toe boxes.
But I have not finished searching everywhere locally, so maybe I will find something eventually.
As for casual vs formal sport coats. I don't like hopsack, cotton, linen, or canvas sport coats. Would rather wear none at all in that case. Those just don't match my preferences. If you're talking about more casual patterns/colors/textures (other than hopsack), maybe that would work. Not being in NYC, my options are limited though, especially in my size/fit. Also, I thought I took a picture with one of my arms down, but it ended up being for something else.
I'd look on ebay for jackets. It will be a lot cheaper and if it's a bust you can resell and get most of your money back or just donate locally
New Balance make lifestyle/running shoes (the 9xx line and 5x lines) in wide sizes that are infinitely better than what you're wearing here and will probably be easier to pair in the right sport coat/jeans outfit.
If you can find running shoes that fit you can definitely find lifestyle sneakers and proper leather shoes - that's not to say it won't be a potentially long and tedious hunt though.
Personally I think blue/indigo jeans will be easier to pull this off with too.
A good podiatrist will be able to help with insoles.
By blue/indigo, do you mean simply a lighter shade of blue? The jeans I have in the picture are dark blue jeans. I will look for those NB lines, among others. Although it sounds like you guys might think the sport coat is a little bit short in the body anyway - in which case really the whole thing with the jeans is irrelevant for now until I am ready to spend a lot more on better fitting sport coats. I really don't want to go through a whole ebay ordeal - though I understand the recommendation.
And yes I should go to a podiatrist at some point, especially before doing anything MTO or bespoke.
Ah, photos make the jeans look black on my screen. Carry on!
Yeah they are kind of in a shadow there. (but also a very dark blue)
i'd look into visiting a podiatrist at some point. when I was younger I went to one that made custom insoles for my feet