Custom Sport Coats
Sport Coats
The single most useful piece in a wardrobe.
A sport coat does what a suit can’t. It pairs with denim on a Saturday, with flannel trousers on a Tuesday, with a tie at dinner and an open collar at lunch. One well-cut sport coat in the right cloth opens dozens of combinations with the shirts and trousers you already own.
The difference
What separates a sport coat from a suit coat
A sport coat is not a suit coat without the matching trouser. It’s a different garment built to do a different job.
The differences show in cloth (heavier, more textured, more visible character than a suiting fabric; tweeds, hopsacks, donegals, brushed wools, summer linens); in cut (slightly looser through the chest and waist than a suit coat; built to drape rather than to clench; often a softer shoulder); in detailing (patch pockets are more common; working buttonholes appear earlier in the construction tier; linings tend to be brighter and more interesting); and in pairing (a sport coat is meant to be worn with odd trousers, never with a matching suit trouser).
Building a sport coat correctly requires understanding all four of these things at once. The cloth, the cut, the detail, and the eventual pairing.
Buttons. On a sport coat we generally select a higher contrast button. Right now that means mother of pearl shell, whether silver, copper or ivory. It is a beautiful look, and natural shell buttons are included in the price.
These drawings are mock-ups. Every detail shown can be changed.
Cloth
The Cloths We Build From
Sport coat cloth choice is broader than suit cloth. We work across five fabric families.
Wool tweeds
The most versatile sport coat fabric. Donegal, Harris, Cheviot, and Yorkshire tweeds. Built for fall and winter wear, but wearable across three seasons in the lighter weights. Color range runs deep: browns, olives, rusts, grays, faded blues. Pattern range runs the full spectrum: solids, herringbones, glen plaids, windowpanes, faint stripes.
Hopsacks
Loose-weave wools that breathe better than worsted but hold shape better than linen. The best three-season sport coat fabric in our books. A navy hopsack sport coat is the single most useful version of this piece. It pairs with cream, gray, and tan trousers across all four seasons.
Summer cloths
For warm-weather wear: linen, linen-wool blends, lightweight cotton, silk-wool-linen blends. Built to breathe in Northern Virginia heat. A natural linen sport coat is the right answer for Memorial Day through Labor Day. A silk-wool-linen blend in a faint stripe is the version that holds up better through air conditioning and outdoor evening events.
Cashmere and cashmere blends
For the second or third sport coat commission. Reads as luxurious without being formal. Soft hand, beautiful drape, warmer than wool of equivalent weight. Worth the spend for the client who has the rotation to accommodate a piece that asks for a little more care.
Year-round wools
Plain-weave four-season wools in textured weights: fresco, mid-weight worsted with a faint pattern, twill blends. The sport coat that lives in a closet that doesn’t seasonally rotate.
The make
Construction Choices
All four construction grades from our suit line apply: half canvas (our floor, included at $595), full canvas (+$200, the choice for sport coats you’ll wear hard), fully handmade (+$350, for the client who wants the hand-set sleevehead and hand-padded lapel), and Presidential (+$500 to $750, our highest grade, made by hand throughout, with the most handwork in the lapels).
A sport coat tends to live longer than a suit because it gets less heavy rotation. Full canvas is often the right answer here. The cloth is more textured, the wear is less concentrated, and the additional shape retention shows over a decade.
For a lighter, more casual coat we also make an unconstructed jacket, with no canvas in the front, and a soft jacket with no structure at all.
In the drawings, the shaded area is the canvas, the layer between the cloth and the lining that gives a coat its shape.
Building a wardrobe
How a Sport Coat Lives in Your Closet
Start with one piece and let it teach you what you need next.
A first sport coat in a versatile fabric, brown tweed, navy hopsack, or charcoal cashmere, paired with flannel and cotton trousers you already own, will tell you within six months whether you want a second piece in a more interesting cloth (donegal, faded plaid, summer linen), a third piece in a more formal weight (heavier flannel, structured worsted), or a casual unstructured piece (Neapolitan-style soft shoulder, patch pockets).
Most clients land at three to four sport coats over a decade of commissioning, with the rotation cycling through the seasons.
Pricing
Pricing
Custom sport coats at The Tailored Man start at $595 in the Iniziare collection with baseline half-canvas construction.
Fabric. The Iniziare collection starts at $595. Premium fabrics from Loro Piana, Holland & Sherry, Drago, and other tier-two mills start at $895. The Reserve Collection starts at $1,295, and the Exceptional / Atelier tier at $1,995. Specialty fabrics (premium tweeds, summer cloths, cashmere) vary by source.
Construction. Half canvas is the baseline. Full canvas is +$200. Fully handmade is +$350. Presidential is +$500 to $750.
Most sport coat commissions land between $895 and $1,495. A complete answer to your specific pricing is a short conversation in the showroom.
Cloth, by collection
- Iniziare collectionFROM $595
- Loro Piana, Holland & Sherry, DragoFROM $895
- The Reserve CollectionFROM $1,295
- Exceptional / AtelierFROM $1,995