The best bomber jackets for men burn bright and long. Buy one, and you kind of become known for it among your peers. Partly that’s because it’s the type of layer you’ll want to throw on every day, no matter the forecast or whatever else you’re wearing. But it’s also because bomber jackets emanate a high-flying energy that’s impossible to look away from. Just try to imagine Tom Cruise racing his Kawasaki GPZ900R down the Top Gun runway in any other jacket style. Go on, we’ll wait. Tough, right?
And this fall 2025, it's not just guys looking for Maverick-level confidence who are rocking bombers. Instead, the bomber is having a renaissance in fashion as a whole. (Just look at the upcoming Schott bomber collaboration with cult Danish label Mfpen, which already has menswear Reddit's tongues wagging.) Honestly, it's not hard to see why the bomber is back: It injects every single fit with laid-back cool, while also providing practical protection from wind and rain.
To help you source the right one for you, GQ Recommends went deep on the best men’s bomber jackets on the market right now—no passports or Dramamine required.
The Best Men’s Bomber Jackets, According to GQ
Best Bomber Jacket Overall: Alpha Industries
- Unimpeachable pedigree
- Sturdy, water-resistant nylon construction
- Cut cropped and a little boxy, exactly the way they used to be
- Sizing can be tricky depending on your preferences
- We're nit-picking here, but we'd love to see this with a double-zipper closure
When you talk about modern bomber jackets, one comes to mind faster than all the rest. Alpha Industries became a key supplier of military outerwear in the 1960s, producing not only bomber jackets like this timeless MA-1 but also field jackets, parkas, and other garments. The MA-1 bomber, however, stood out, with its bright orange lining, and sage green or sharp black exterior. That lining isn’t just intended to be a fun reveal—it’s yet another safety feature, and makes this fully reversible jacket highly visible in emergencies.
The MA-1 is lighter than a leather bomber, but still insulates like a North Face Nuptse. The snug collar, wrists, and waistband? All intentional design elements to further trap heat and keep out the cold. If you had to go with just one, this is the bomber that completes every outfit—whether you’re rocking a sweatsuit or 501s—and is built with quality materials for the long-haul.
Best Upgrade Bomber Jacket: Buck Mason
Leave it to Buck Mason to take inspiration from a classic liner jacket and work it into another staple. Their bomber is a midweight style, packed with Primaloft for some stealthy insulation, while the nylon ripstop material will change a little over time (sure, you might not be flying fighter jets, but at least you’re making an impression on your fabrics.) While the silhouette is a bit slimmer than the original, it keeps the other signature bomber details, from the ribbed collar to the flap pockets to the vintage-indebted shade of olive-green.
Best Vintage-Like Bomber Jacket: Buzz Rickson’s
- Unimpeachable pedigree
- Painstakingly-sourced materials
- Short of building a time machine (or paying a laughable premium on the vintage market), this is your best
- We know the epaulets are an homage to the original silhouette, but hey, some details should probably stay in the past
- Lighter-weight than some of our other winning picks
- Your dad will definitely steal it from your closet
Reproducing military garments is no small feat—you’ve got to think about the year, the function, and where on earth you’re going to dig up the materials. Lucky for us, Japanese label Buzz Rickson's has earned a reputation for being one of the most meticulous brands out there. They go to extreme lengths to recreate garments as faithfully as possible, right down to the fabric, hardware, and construction techniques. Typically, they’ll even deconstruct original pieces to figure out how exactly they were made.
Take their L2B bomber jacket. It's rooted in military aviation, and was initially designed in the 1950s for the US Air Force as part of the L-series of flight jackets. The L2B is the lightweight cousin of the heftier MA-1, made for warmer climates, and Buzz Rickson’s version is scarily close to the original, complete with the epaulets (those shoulder details) found on the early versions, which were later removed. Just note: L2B jackets aren’t insulated—the lining material was changed to wool-and-rayon from the earlier wool-and-nylon blend—so you’ll want to throw a sweater under when the mercury drops. Finding an exact repro of anything from that era is like searching for a needle in a vintage haystack, leave it to Buzz Rickson’s to deliver it right under your nose.
Best Bomber Jacket for Winter: Filson
One of the sad things about your average bomber is that, once temperatures truly plummet, it can't really compete with a wool coat or puffer jacket when it comes to keeping you toasty. Unless, that is, you buy Filson's Down Bomber, which stuffs 650-fill-power goose down into Filson's signature waxed cotton outer, and even works some wool into the ribbed cuffs for extra insulation. And while Filson could have stopped there, the design team still made time for some visual fun: The different greens contrast handsomely, and the unexpected large patch pockets are add some handsome, rugged heft.
Oh, and like all things Filson, the jacket is backed by a 2-year guarantee. Put it to the test this winter.
Best Bomber Jacket for Fashion Types: Stüssy
Available in black, orange, brown, and the olive above, Stüssy's relaxed-fit, contrast-stitched bomber is a great pick if your bomber is going to see more galleries and restaurants than fields and flights. That's not to say it isn't practical: It is in fact reversible, water-repellent, and boasts a quilted lining. It's just that it's also been fully Stüssy-fied—just look at the unusual shape of the baffling on that interior, which again, is designed to also be an exterior. If it were us, we’d wear it baffle-side out the entire time.
More Bomber Jackets We Love
Sacai
Khaki Nylon Twill Bomber Jacket
Nylon twill is an underused material, marrying the strength and water-repelling qualities of nylon with the character and heft of twill. Sacai’s successfully making the case for it here, and the garment-dyed grindle grey colorway is equally unexpected—and welcome.
Frizmworks
Active MA-1 Hooded Jacket
Thought you'd seen it all by this point? Not quite. GQ editor-favorite Frizmworks' take on the MA-1 adds a component that makes so much sense, we're surprised we haven't seen it before—a cozy quilted hood.
Why Buy a Bomber Jacket Today, In the Year of Our Lord 2025?
Like so many menswear staples, the bomber jacket’s story begins in the military. Snug around the waist and cuffs but roomy in the body, it was designed to withstand high altitudes and brutal weather. Most early versions were crafted from leather with fur linings, before the iconic all-leather A-2 flight jacket arrived in time to clothe WWII Air Force pilots. That beloved design, still reproduced today, was followed in the 1950s by the lighter nylon MA-1 jacket; their joint popularity cemented the silhouette as one of the most enduring in the game.
In 2025, the formula hasn’t changed much, at least on the interior: whether it’s fleece or quilting, some kind of quality lining is typically present to keep you warm.The exterior, however, is where the real upgrades happen. These days, you’re just as likely to encounter an A1 bomber jacket in wool as you are in nylon—or, for that matter, waxed canvas or suede (if you’re trying to channel Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction.) The bomber jacket can adapt to any fabric—and any persona—and that’s exactly its appeal.
How Should a Bomber Jacket Fit?
We recommend buying a bomber jacket with a cropped, above-the-waist length. Not only does that make it easier to wear in a car (or, of course, a cockpit), it’s also incredibly flattering, lengthening your legs without stifling your torso. It’s not magic: it’s math.
How We Test and Review Products
Style is subjective, we know—that’s the fun of it. But we’re serious about helping our audience get dressed. Whether it’s the best white sneakers, the flyest affordable suits, or the need-to-know menswear drops of the week, GQ Recommends’ perspective is built on years of hands-on experience, an insider awareness of what’s in and what’s next, and a mission to find the best version of everything out there, at every price point.
Our staffers aren’t able to try on every single piece of clothing you read about on GQ.com (fashion moves fast these days), but we have an intimate knowledge of each brand’s strengths and know the hallmarks of quality clothing—from materials and sourcing, to craftsmanship, to sustainability efforts that aren’t just greenwashing. GQ Recommends heavily emphasizes our own editorial experience with those brands, how they make their clothes, and how those clothes have been reviewed by customers. Bottom line: GQ wouldn’t tell you to wear it if we wouldn’t.
How We Make These Picks
We make every effort to cast as wide of a net as possible, with an eye on identifying the best options across three key categories: quality, fit, and price.
To kick off the process, we enlist the GQ Recommends braintrust to vote on our contenders. Some of the folks involved have worked in retail, slinging clothes to the masses; others have toiled for small-batch menswear labels; all spend way too much time thinking about what hangs in their closets.
We lean on that collective experience to guide our search, culling a mix of household names, indie favorites, and the artisanal imprints on the bleeding-edge of the genre. Then we narrow down the assortment to the picks that scored the highest across quality, fit, and price.
Across the majority of our buying guides, our team boasts firsthand experience with the bulk of our selects, but a handful are totally new to us. So after several months of intense debate, we tally the votes, collate the anecdotal evidence, and emerge with a list of what we believe to be the absolute best of the category right now, from the tried-and-true stalwarts to the modern disruptors, the affordable beaters to the wildly expensive (but wildly worth-it) designer riffs.
Whatever your preferences, whatever your style, there's bound to be a superlative version on this list for you. (Read more about GQ's testing process here.)