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The best tank tops for men go by many names—A-shirts, muscle tees, sleeveless tees, singlets, but we're just calling them tank tops. (And, occasionally, wife-pleasers.) Thanks to menswear's obsession with camp collar shirts and everyone re-watching The Sopranos, the style's exploded in popularity. They've even gone so far as to warrant their own renaissance with boatloads of designers twisting the tank in new and exciting ways.
The Best Tank Tops Shopping Guide
- The Bulk-Buy Pick: Hanes tagless cotton tank (6-Pack), $18
- The Gym-Ready Pick: Lululemon metal vent tech sleeveless shirt, $68
- The Muscle Tee Pick: Russell Athletic sleeveless muscle T-shirt, $10
- The Designer Pick: Saint Laurent logo-embroidered ribbed tank top, $550
- The Solo Play Pick: Mfpen ribbed cotton tank top (2-Pack), $125
Which is great news, because the tank top deserves to be in your wardrobe, if not for its many fashionable varieties, then for its utter utility. Play to its roots and it can be a button-up-saving undershirt, an invisible hero for your outfit. You can hit the gym in a performance tank with all the moisture-wicking and quick-drying properties modern science can imbue. Or you can play the capital-F fashion card and wear a tank purely to augment your already-massive fits. The classic move is to layer a tank under an unbuttoned camp shirt (with a dope chain around your neck, of course)—but don't be afraid to venture out into the fun, freaky side of tank tops by casting one as the lead role of your entire outfit.
All of which is to say, it's a great big world of tanks out there, so GQ got into the weeds to find only the best tank tops for men. Whether you're looking to flex your style chops (or those winter gains–another benefit of the tank top: they make your arms look really sexy), there's a workhorse undershirt, muscle-baring workout partner, or a show-stopping sleeveless tee with your name on it. Even better, it's almost definitely on this list.
The Best Basic Tank Top
You've probably owned a 6-pack of these at some point or another, and with good reason: Hanes's no-frills, no-tags, all-cotton ribbed tanks are a preposterous value. They're cut flatteringly from pure cotton, which means they're presentable enough to wear on their own, and breathable and comfortable enough to survive the swampiest days of August. They're best served, of course, as an undershirt—ideally peeking out from beneath a flowy button-down or polo sweater, the way the goodfellas in Goodfellas would do it.
The Best Gym-Ready Tank Top
If you're looking to make some gains in your tank, you'll need one that wicks away moisture, dries quickly, and blocks odor. This one from Lululemon does all three better than most activewear tops do just one. The seamless construction also means a more comfortable workout with no chafing, and they come in a vibrant range of colors, so you can flex your excellent taste alongside your muscles.
The Best Muscle Tee
Russell invented the crewneck sweatshirt a century ago, but its sleeveless T-shirts are just as worthy of your hard-earned dough as their fleece goods. They're cut from a buttery-soft cotton jersey in a slim (but not too slim) fit that's ideal worn as a base layer or all on its own. If your upper arm game is Dom Toretto-level beastly, these have just the right proportions to show off all your hard work.
The Best Superfluously Designer Tank Top
Do you need a designer tank? Probably not. But if you're going to drop a few hundred bucks on one, it should be worth the sticker price. YSL's ribbed version is cut from a smooth, mid-weight cotton-jersey blend that's slimming but not skintight, a boon if your summer bod feels more like a fall project at this point. (You're just perfect to us, bud.) The gentle scoop neck highlights your lats and makes you look runway-buff, while the embroidered logo is a not-so-subtle nod your finer tastes. Sometimes, it's the small things that make the biggest difference, and sometimes, you need to dress up even your most basic of basics to feel like you're putting your best self forward.
The Best Tank Top No One Will Mistake for an Undershirt
Pulling on a tank top with a suit is a high-risk, high-reward proposition—pick the wrong tank (or the wrong suit) and you're apt to look like a Bachelorette contestant hamming it up for the cameras at the People's Choice Awards. The Danish taste gods at at Mfpen, though, know the trick to nailing the look: cut the tank in question from a slinky, eggshell-hued cotton, equip it with wide, textural ribbing, and yank the neckline ever-so-slightly towards the torso, to better spotlight your pecs. Taken in aggregate, the whole package feels more A-list than a Michael Rubin party, catapulting the understudy of, uh, undershirts into leading man territory. Sure, you could buy a 6-pack of lesser tanks for a quarter of the price, but two of these for roughly sixty bucks seems like sound fashion math from our vantage point.
Plus 15 More Tanks We Love
Fear of God
Cotton-Jersey Tank Top
Leave it to the elegance-obsessed maestro reinventing luxury American fashion to turn the humble tank into an outrageous, red carpet-ready flex.
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake
Technical-Pleated Tank Top
The late, great Issey Miyake's legacy is about much more than pleats, but the designer's most enduring flourish still has the fashion world by a stranglehold. If you've got arms you want to show off, don't bother fighting back.
Wales Bonner
Diop Logo-patch Tank Top
A punchy, retro-doused tank courtesy of menswear's reigning king of new-school elegance.
K.NGSLEY
"Romain" Cutout Ribbed Tank
