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By Gerald Ortiz and Michella Ore
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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.
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.
Material: 75% Cotton, 25% Polyester Sizes: S-3XL
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.
Metal Vent Tech Sleeveless Shirt 2.0
Material: 53% Nylon, 40% Recycled polyester, 4% Elastane, 3% X-static® Nylon Sizes: XS-3XL
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.
Cotton Performance Sleeveless Muscle T-Shirt
Material: 60% Cotton, 40% Polyester Sizes: S-4XL
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.
Material: 100% Cotton Sizes: XS-2XL
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.
Ribbed Cotton Tank Tops (2-Pack)
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.
Kim Kardashian finally gave the people (men) what they want (endlessly flattering, impossibly slimming, don't-call-it-shapewear).
Leave it to the elegance-obsessed maestro reinventing luxury American fashion to turn the humble tank into an outrageous, red carpet-ready flex.
"Safety Slider" Tank Top
Sometimes all it takes is a simple twist–a cutout here, a cinch there–to transform a basic into a capital-S Swerve. In less than a decade, Dion Lee, a tank top virtuoso of the highest order, has perfected those types of big-little revisions.
Sleeveless Pro Team Base Layer
"All Day" Tank
Wear it like its name suggests: all day (and probably all night, while you're at it).
An ultra-modern running tank built with a vintage chassis.
What's better than one classic ribbed tank from the saving grace of suburban malls across the country? Two, obviously.
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.
With literal silver doing the Lord's work of blocking your B.O. (in tandem with a micro-ventilated, anti-chafe fabric), this tank boasts more specs than a tricked-out muscle car.
A punchy, retro-doused tank courtesy of menswear's reigning king of new-school elegance.
"Romain" Cutout Ribbed Tank
The Best T-Shirts For Men, Period
The Best Plain White T-Shirts to Buy in Bulk
The Best Oversized Men's T-Shirts Are Larger Than Life
The Best Graphic T-Shirts for Men Are Only Getting Wavier
The Best Cheap T-Shirts That Are Actually Good
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By The Editors of GQ
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