We, the current editors of Esquire, have decades of experience styling clothes, evaluating grooming products, and stress-testing tech, mattresses, and furniture. We're the standard bearers of this nearly 100-year-old magazine that has been the authority on what people, especially men, should buy since October 1933. In any given year, our product experts personally handle thousands of new products. Before our recommendations make it to your feed, we internally test and discuss every product to ensure we’re only suggesting the absolute best. Everything we recommend on this website is a something we've tested, loved, believed in, and endorsed. We won’t tie our name and history to anything that’s not truly great. If you want to know more than that, keep reading, and we’ll bare our whole business model to you.

Why You Should Trust Esquire

First, let’s talk about how we come by these products we test. Retailers, brands, companies, and PR agencies send us products in search of the Esquire seal of approval. Sometimes, like with tech, these products are loaned to us. Sometimes, like with mattresses, they are given. Sometimes, like with clothing, we buy them ourselves. How we come by products doesn't matter because our opinions, reviews, and recommendations are only based on first-hand experience with products. We'll never give space, praise, or recommendation in exchange for products. Our standards are too high for that.

Our Testing Process

Our approach to testing is like that of a tasteful longtime friend or family member, not a nerd NASA scientist. We test products in the real world with real world criteria, but we don't create fake "control" scenarios. When we tested luggage brands and settled on Rimowa as our all-time favorite, we took top models to the airport and sent them into TSA's loving hands to assess durability, weight, practicality, and looks. Same for travel headphones, where Sonos was our pick. When we test t-shirt brands out in the world, we look at the normal stuff like cut, fabric feel, and price. But we also came together in our New York City office to nerd out on the details like stitch quality, material history, and how certain fabrics drape. When we test mattresses at home, our sleepers test for comfort, spinal support, setup experience, and price. For body lotions, we're looking at the ingredients, figuring out what chemicals are used for fragrance, and testing on multiple skin types. We run in the running shoes. We wear the watches. We shoot with the cameras. We may not use a scientific method or plot data points on graphs, but we are relentless in our effort to test products and record first-person feedback.

That said, when we need to, we’ll consult experts—scientists, doctors, and those who study things. Or, we’ll fly across the world ourselves to show you footage of the materials and craftsmanship that make a Louis Vuitton trunk or Gucci Loafer so coveted. We're using our connections, first-hand experience, and storytelling ability to explain the wide world of products to you.

Because honestly, a lot of this stuff doesn’t show up in numbers. A graph won’t tell you how a surround sound system feels. A number can't tell you how a fancy cheap pen makes you feel more important. A doctor can tell you which pillow will help your neck pain if you're a back, side, or stomach sleeper. But only we will test a product and tell you, "It works great, but it looks crazy. Hide it when a romantic partner comes over." That’s the world we traffic in. Everything we recommend is backed by testing, has improved our lives, and it’ll improve yours.

What do we test?

Tech: TVs, OLED TVs, surround sound systems, soundbars, travel headphones, regular headphones, phone cameras, real cameras, vacuums, robot vacuums, Dyson vacuums, Apple Watches and fitness rings, Samsung TVs, and Hisense projectors. No matter who is reviewing it, every piece of tech is vetted by Commerce Editor Luke Guillory and Associate Commerce Editor Bryn Gelbart, and overseen by Commerce Director Krista Jones, who make sure all recommendations are not just good today but "future-proofed," to maintain relevance for years to come.

Style: The most rigorous, storied, and safe-guarded section of Esquire's site. From must-know watch brands to dress shoes, white sneakers, t-shirt brands, cowboy boots, chore coats, tank tops, golf shirts, oxford shirts, dress shirts, and winter coats, everything is viewed, tested, and vetted by Associate Style Commerce Editors Trishna Rikhy and Alexis Mikulski, overseen by Style Director Jonathan Evans, Fashion Editor Alfonso Fernandez Navas, and Creative Director Nick Sullivan, to stick to the magazine's high standards of how men of certain taste should sartorially present themselves to the world.

Grooming: Skin care brands, designer grooming products, hair products, beard trimmers, beard conditioners, beard brushes, hair clippers, eye creams, body lotions, face washes, serums, new colognes, and classic colognes are tested, reviewed, and awarded by Grooming Editor Garrett Munce, Associate Style Editor Trishna Rikhy, and overseen by Style Director Jonathan Evans, who make sure products meet rigorous safety guidelines and editorial standards.

Home and Furniture: Luxury sofas, leather sofas, sectionals, movie night sofas, outdoor sofas, patio sets, reading chairs, lounge chairs, coffee tables, WFH desks, bedframes, and everything else needed to furnish a home are tested, vetted, and recommended by Commerce Director Krista Jones, Commerce Editor Luke Guillory, and a handful of trusted freelancers with an eye towards classic design that'll stand the test of time.

Bedding: Mattresses of every kind—such as soft mattresses, firm mattresses, organic mattresses, memory foam mattresses, cheap mattresses, firm mattresses, soft mattresses, luxury mattresses, and cooling mattresses—are tested by a variety of editors and overseen by Commerce Director Krista Jones and Commerce Editor Luke Guillory for material quality, longevity, and practicality. The same process is followed for bedding, from bedding stores to duvet inserts and covers, sheets, cooling sheets, hotel sheets, pillows for side sleepers, back sleepers, stomach sleepers, and more.

How do we make money?

Yep, we participate in affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid a commission when you buy something recommended on our site. (Spoiler: pretty much every magazine does this now.) However, anything that runs on Esquire is thoroughly vetted by our editors. We only recommend products that we, the editors, truly stand behind. The merchandise we feature on our site is always driven by editorial standards, not by affiliate deals or advertising relationships.

How do we find deals?

This is one that’s close to our heart because we find sale farming nasty. Companies manufacture high prices just to cut them and trick you into buying. That’s not a deal. A deal is when we find a back-model MacBook for under $1,000 or AirPods at the lowest price ever. We monitor prices across the spectrum of products we cover, so we’ll tell you about a deal when it’s actually good, not when the marketing materials say it’s good.