The best sunglasses for men aren’t just protective eyewear, and they’re definitely more than nice-to-have accessories. The very best sunnies are major fit enhancers in their own right, capable of stealing the spotlight from even the loudest coat or wildest haircut.
What explains their outsized impact? Easy: All the most important action happens around your face. A billowy coat might turn heads from across the street, but up close, it’s your mug that does the heavy lifting. And when one accessory holds that much power, it pays to have the perfect shades on deck.
Whether you’re chasing the legendary cool of classic aviators or the right-now swagger of beefed-up cat eyes, the best sunglasses for every face, shape, and every budget are immediately below, each one ready to carry your fits. And if you really want to do your research, check out our guide to the very best sunglasses brands—both new and old—as you make your selections.
The Best Men's Sunglasses, According to GQ
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Best Classic Sunglasses: Ray-Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses
If you have no idea where to even begin, just get these. The Ray-Ban Wayfarer is a failsafe buy that'll always be in style—today, tomorrow, and 50 years from now. With not much else on but some whitey tighties and crew socks, Wayfarers were the cherry on top of Tom Cruise’s famous Risky Business scene, cementing them further into the zeitgeist. But you don’t have to be an A-lister to wear them like one. Ray-Ban Wayfarers are the eyewear equivalent to a pair of Levi's 501 jeans in your drawer—they're insanely popular, look great on just about everyone, and can sync up with just about any style. This isn’t exactly a competition, but if the sunglasses emoji is a pair of Wayfarers, you know you’ve got the most classic frames there are.
| Colors | Varies |
| Lenses | Polarized and non-polarized |
| Warranty | 24 months |
Best Aviator Sunglasses: Randolph Engineering Aviator Sunglasses
Randolph Engineering has been the standard issue shades for the American military since the ‘80s. Thanks to the brand’s military-grade precision and craftsmanship, their aviator sunglasses have been outfitting military personnel since the 1980s. Each pair is crafted in the USA in Randolph, Massachusetts in a process totaling over 200 steps (military spec, and all that!). They come in a variety of metal frames including 23k gold and gunmetal as well as polarized lenses with total UV protection.
| Colors | Vary |
| Lenses | Polarized and non-polarized |
| Warranty | Lifetime |
Best Aviators for Menswear Guys: Persol 649 Sunglasses
Would a sunglasses roundup be complete without a reference to Steve McQueen? We're not about to find out. Persol's aviator shades are iconic for racing through San Francisco hills atop McQueen's mug in Bullitt and have been the go-to for professional racecar drivers for decades. Despite the asphalt-burning ties, the Persol's Italian-made shades were originally designed for sky-high endeavors as a way for pilots to protect their eyes leagues into the air. The tear-drop design crucially expanded sun-coverage while the innovative Meflecto temple design allowed for a flexible and comfortable fit. In tandem with the acetate tortoiseshell frames and you’ve got one of the most stylish sunglasses ever.
| Colors | Varies |
| Lenses | Polarized and non-polarized |
| Warranty | 24 months |
Best Sport Sunglasses: Oakley Radar EV Path Sunglasses
Leave it to the tireless churn of the fashion cycle to make the sunglasses you wore warming the bench on your middle school volleyball team look like the coolest thing in the world again. Call it a quirk of Y2k's resurgence, or a draft riding in on the gorp wave. Wherever these sporty shades are coming in from is besides the point. The right pair of sunnies will look just as killer with a vintage hoodie and offbeat jorts as they do with a tailored black suit like you're secondary character in The Matrix. Oakley's Radar EV Path are the go-to for baseball players shagging fly balls on clear, sunny days and cyclists zooming through open roads, thanks to the maximum coverage of the shield-type lenses, the lightweight frames, comfortable nose pads, and glare-cutting clarity. Like most fashion classics, these shades were built entirely for functionality and, over time, have become menswear canon.
| Colors | Varies |
| Lenses | Polarized and non-polarized |
| Warranty | 24 months |
Best Upgrade Sunglasses: Moscot Lemtosh Sunglasses
If the Wayfarer feels a bit too obvious or perhaps slightly aggressive, you might want to go with something more tastefully understated. Enter, the Moscot Lemtosh. The Lemtosh is somehow both iconic and understated. It looks great on every face but also fades into the background. It’s quiet and doesn’t shout, but it’s not boring, either. Where the Ray-Ban Wayfarer draws attention for its angled design, Moscot’s Lemtosh sits back and lets the right crowd come to them. They’re quietly luxurious, made by hand, and are offered in over a dozen colorways and three different sizes to fit just about anyone.
| Colors | Varies |
| Lenses | Polarized and non-polarized |
| Warranty | 12 months |
Best Round Sunglasses: Oliver Peoples Gregory Peck Sunglasses
Most sunglass designs give off a sporty or military vibe or rockstar, but what if you’re looking for something a little less bomber jacket and a little more sportcoat? In partnership with Gregory Peck’s estate, these shades from the Los-Angeles-based brand Oliver Peoples take inspiration from the actor’s iconic role in the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird. The frame is a classic rounded lenses with a keyhole bridge amounting to a sophisticated design befitting of civil rights lawyers and boutique design firm founders alike. It’s the kind of pair that telegraphs that you definitely read books and watch films, not movies.
| Colors | Varies |
| Lenses | Polarized and non-polarized |
| Warranty | Two years |
Best Small-Batch Sunglasses: Matsuda M3104-A Sunglasses
Decades before Jacques Marie Mage put ultra high-end sunglasses in the spotlight, Japanese brand Matsuda was crafting eyewear with head-turning designs and an unparalleled level of craftsmanship which has garnered a devoted following. Each pair is made in artisanal eyewear workshops in Japan and can take up to 250 steps and 71 hours to make. Though any pair of Matsudas is automatically deserving of elite status, the label’s rimless sunglasses are perfect exhibitions of the label’s talent with elegant metalwork and impossibly intricate designs, each engraved by hand. This pair is made of titanium which is ultra lightweight and flexible and features delicate filigree details throughout. The hexagonal shape feels both timeless and anachronistic, retro and modern, which makes it the perfect pair of sunglasses to hold onto for the long haul.
| Colors | Varies |
| Lenses | Custom CR-39 polarized lenses |
| Warranty | 24 months |
More Sunglasses We Love
Port Tanger
Zia Sunglasses
One of the sunglasses of this summer, according to our heavily-vetted panel of menswear experts. The idea was to take the aviator silhouette and give it a 1970s spin. Mission accomplished.
What to Look for in a Great Pair of Sunglasses
It’s easy to scoff at a pair of designer shades when you can find similar sunglasses for less than $20 at your local gas station. What gives? As with anything, there are levels to this, and sunglasses vary wildly in price and quality. The material used for sunglasses is imperative. A high-quality pair of sunglasses will use thick acetate, a natural kind of plastic derived from plants. (Good-quality acetate is more dense, less brittle, and ages better than cheaper plastics.) For added strength, look for sunglasses that use metal cores inside the temples.
Then consider the hinges, a critical area of the sunglasses that determines whether they'll last in the long run. Cheaper sunglasses will only use glue to attach the hinges to the frame; higher-quality pairs will use metal rivets to securely attach the hinges. Some brands will use faux/decorative metal inlays to give the illusion of rivets, but you can tell by looking at a pair of translucent frames whether the metal rivets actually connect to the hinges or are simply placed onto the surface of the frames. Oh, and the number of barrels a hinge has determines its quality, too: the more barrels, the more secure. Good sunglasses will use at least 5-barrel hinges, but can go all the way up to 9-barrel hinges.
When it comes to lenses, glass tends to be better for scratch resistance, but it can get heavy—which is why most sunglasses use lenses made of some kind of plastic, e.g. nylon. Good sunglasses should not only provide shade to your eyes, they should also offer UVA and UVB protection. Polarized sunglasses use a special coating to cut glare, reducing eye strain. Polarized lenses are usually more expensive than non-polarized lenses, but if you're in the MLB, price isn't much of a concern.
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.)
Sunglasses FAQ
What are polarized sunglasses?
The lenses on polarized sunglasses are able to filter out horizontal light waves, meaning they massively reduce the sun's glare from reflective surfaces like the ocean, snowy mountains, pools, and wet roads. They typically cost more, but that's because they significantly improve visual clarity, which also reduces eye strain. (For what it's worth, few athletes would ever consider the alternative.)
What are the best sunglasses for your face shape?
There’s a glut of commentary surrounding face shape and sunglass shape, each one attempting to explain and triangulate the most flattering sunglasses for your unique shape. While it can be helpful to know, it’s more of an old-fashioned notion that people tend to worry about too much. Perhaps what’s more important is getting the right size sunglasses for your face.
Unlike clothing, eyewear does not come in small, medium or large sizes. Instead, eyeglasses and sunglasses are sized in millimeters in three dimensions: lens width, bridge width, and temple length. These measurements are often labeled on the inside of the temples, and look something like “46 x 24 x 125”. Sometimes, brands will also include the frame width, which helps to determine whether a pair of sunglasses will fit your head properly.
Production Credits
Photographs by Bowen Fernie
Styled by Tyler Austin
Grooming by Pascale Poma