Everything We Loved From Kirkland Signature’s Menswear Line

Comfortable boxer briefs for all-day wear

As someone who grew up wearing Hanes and Fruit of the Loom boxer briefs, I know that a bad pair of drawers can ruin your day. But these are not your ordinary cheap cotton briefs. Kirkland’s boxer briefs are competitively priced, at $18.99 for a four-pack, and they over-deliver on quality.

“The Kirkland Signature briefs’ fabric is easily on a par with that of underwear costing twice as much,” Kit Dillon writes in our guide to the best men’s boxer briefs. “Several brands that we’ve tested in this budget range use cotton that feels brittle — and almost crinkly between your fingers — when stretched.” But these briefs are made from long-staple Supima cotton, and it breathes well and feels smooth. Most importantly, the legs don’t stretch out at the thighs over the course of a day.

In my testing, these boxer briefs remained comfortable all day, regardless of whether I wore them with jeans, a suit, or running shorts. What more can you ask from a pair of underwear, especially for the price?

Merino wool socks at a great price

My grandmother has been buying me some version of Kirkland’s merino wool socks since I was in college, so my fondness for them is longstanding and multi-faceted. But it’s worth noting that they’ve changed over time: Older iterations were classic ragg-style trail socks, while newer versions have shifted to be more technical-looking. This year, they come in two shades of gray and cost about $18 for a four-pack. These are sleek, midweight hiking socks with slight arch support.

If these socks have one stand-out quality, it is the softness of their interior. On the first few wears, they feel like a hug for your feet. They have padding along the bottom and ventilated patches on the instep (presumably for breathability, since my feet have never felt clammy or muggy wearing these). They also have a seamless toe and heel — rare for socks at this price.

The downside is that they stop looking new very quickly. The exterior pills heavily, and while they retain their warmth and comfort, they start to look sad by the end of their second season. The other, smaller issue is that because these socks change just slightly from year to year, it’s almost impossible to mix and match my enormous collection after laundry day.

For those who value longevity over price, Darn Tough socks (the pick in our guide to the best hiking socks) are about five steps up from the Kirkland Signature pairs, yet the Darn Toughs are also five times the price. If you want warm, supremely cozy socks for a great price, the Kirkland Signature multi-pack is hard to beat.

A fleece in wolf’s clothes

Kirkland Signature is rarely, if ever, bold in its designs, and style overtures can often feel just a touch ridiculous. So I didn’t exactly have high hopes for the $19.99 polyester shirt jacket — among the few items in Kirkland’s lineup that even pretend to try to look sharp.

But I was, despite myself, a little dazzled. And if you love the warmth and performance of fleeces but not the ubiquitously outdoorsy look of almost every other fleece, then you too may be impressed.

This jacket’s design is a nod to classic overshirts like L.L.Bean’s iconic chamois, with the technical properties of Polartec-style fleeces. It has a button front closure, two breast pockets, two hidden side pockets, cuffs, and a collar. Except for the shirt’s slight surface sheen, it is very hard to tell that it’s made entirely from synthetic fibers.

The fabric is dense enough that the shirt hangs a little heavy, especially if you want to put something heavy like keys or a book in the pockets. But for cooler autumn days, this is a great layering piece. It kept me warm, fought off a light breeze, and, unlike cotton overshirts, never wrinkled. I was thoroughly impressed by both the performance and the design.

One downside: It isn’t for the shorter guys. I’m 5-foot-6, and a size small ran just a touch too long on me.

A great shirt with a not-so-great finish

The button-down dress shirt is a longstanding staple of the Kirkland Signature menswear aisle. To evaluate it fairly, I enlisted the help of an expert: Carl Goldberg of CEGO Custom Shirts. Goldberg has made shirts for countless Broadway plays as well as film and TV projects. (His recent work can be seen on Stanley Tucci in the upcoming Devil Wears Prada sequel, and on George Clooney in his recent production of Good Night and Good Luck.) Goldberg also made a custom shirt for an equally momentous event: my wedding day.

“For 25 bucks, this is a great shirt,” Goldberg said, inspecting a swatch of the shirt’s fabric in his Manhattan atelier. The shirt is made from an ’80s two-ply Pima cotton — a high quality, long-staple fiber woven into a durable, relatively fine, and pleasantly smooth fabric. These shirts also come in exact sleeve lengths, which can save you a ton of money on alterations (although, unfortunately, they start at size 15, and I wear a 14.5).

Goldberg picked up on a few imperfections: a top buttonhole that was placed off-center, wrinkling beneath the collar, a few puckered seams, and a slightly too-stiff interlining in the collar. Still, according to Goldberg, this shirt easily outshines competitors in its price-bracket.

The non-iron fabric, however, remained a sticking point for me. Non-iron fabric uses a surface finish that helps items come out of the wash without needing to be pressed, and it helps clothes shed wrinkles throughout the day. The result, however, is an overly slick, plasticky handfeel that I didn’t love. It hides the natural feel of what is an otherwise nice cotton fabric.

Still, Kirkland Signature’s dress shirt remains one of the best steals in ready-to-wear office clothing, with a range of collar sizes and variable sleeve sizing. And this shirt does shed wrinkles with ease: With a few swipes of a steamer, it began to look crisp faster than any 100% cotton shirt I have ever owned.

An impeccable soft-shell jacket

It’s hard to believe that this sleek, black multi-layer soft-shell jacket comes from the same brand as one of the worst bottles of chardonnay I’ve ever tried. But this jacket is truly an exceptional piece of outerwear, and at $29.99, it’s a steal.

This hooded jacket has an incredibly cozy, blanket-like fleece lining, an impermeable membrane layer that’s similar to Gore-Tex, and a soft, discreet, non-swishy, shell. And it’s all packed into a form-fitting piece that actually looks sharp.

This jacket is full of small, thoughtful design details, like tapered cuffs, a detachable hood (that doesn’t look detachable), and a wind flap behind the zipper. I particularly liked how toasty I felt in it without later feeling overly warm. And I liked that the soft lining would allow it to double as a blanket (on an airplane, for example). The soft-shell fabric also has a good amount of flexibility, so I never felt the material fighting against itself, as is often the case with rain shells. While it isn’t 100% waterproof, the jacket definitely kept me dry when I tested it under a showerhead for a few minutes.

However, this otherwise-incredible jacket comes with a big, fat regulatory question mark. The outer layer is water-resistant, but Costco’s website offers no information about what kind of finish was used to achieve this. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have long been one of the primary waterproofing tools for outdoor gear, but some US states have started banning PFAS due to health and environmental concerns. In fact, brands are no longer allowed to ship gear that has been knowingly treated with PFAS to New York or California. Since I live in New York and the jacket was shipped to my home, I reached out to Costco for clarification on what it uses for waterproofing. At the time of writing, we have not heard back.

Kirkland Signature fits with streetwear-level hype

I don’t know when or how exactly it was decided that branded Kirkland Signature sweatshirts and sweatpants were hilarious enough that it made fiscal sense for Costco to do seasonal drops, but diehard fans of the Kirkland drip keep coming back.

The latest option is a black-on-black crew with prominent vinyl-and-embroidered chest branding, or a taupe crew with more subtle diagonal branding. The huge logo of the black-on-black combo feels like a really fun throwback to the big designer logos of the ’80s and ’90s.

Although you might take this home only for the big logo, it’s also a good (albeit not great) sweatshirt. At roughly 9.5 ounces, it’s heavier than your average Gildan sweatshirt, and the ribbing on the cuffs and hem is thick and have been stitched to help keep their shape. The fleece back is soft and decently shed-resistant. My only gripes are that the unisex fit is slightly amorphous, and the collar has no reinforcement.

But then, the entire purpose of this sweatshirt is to commune with fellow Costco fanatics. It’s basically a novelty item with some actual, low-stakes design flare. Whenever I wore this out into the world, even if only briefly, someone always made a friendly comment, and I even once got a rotisserie-chicken joke.

This is good, silly fun — a delightful bit that also delivers a quality product.

Deeply comfortable pants when you need to look presentable

These cotton trousers exemplify the identity crisis at the center of modern day menswear: They’re neither jeans nor chinos, nor even athleisure, but some other chimera lumped under the umbrella of business casual.

And yet, despite their apparent lack of self-knowledge, there’s a lot to like about these brushed 5-pocket pants. They’re made from a cotton fabric that has been lightly knapped into a fuzzy flannel, making them comfortable and just warm enough for fall. They have a small amount of stretch for comfort. The cut is slim but not skinny, and the rise is neither high nor low. The finishing is clean, with no loose threads or puckered seams. For the low price of $19.99, these pants punch well above their weight.

They are deeply comfortable, and pants this comfortable rarely look as presentable as these do. I found they worked best for me at times when style mattered less than comfort and a veneer of presentability — like going to a coffee shop or running to the grocery store. But if you love pants from Banana Republic or Bonobos, then you’re probably going to love these too.