Most men treat the training vest as an afterthought. Grab whatever is clean, throw it on, get it done. We understand the logic but we think it’s worth pushing back on, because what you wear in the gym is not as separate from the rest of your wardrobe as you might assume. The wrong vest looks cheap under a jacket on the way there and worse in the weight room mirror. The right one fits properly across the shoulders, moves without restriction, and is made from fabric that manages heat without clinging unpleasantly by the end of a session. We have also noticed that the better vests translate surprisingly well to casual wear outside the gym, which matters if you are not changing before running errands or meeting someone after. Cut, fabric weight, and shoulder width are what separate the ones worth buying from the ones that pill after six washes. We have done the sorting. These are the ones that hold up.