Hey gents, today we are talking about performance dress shirts. They are, in my opinion, the ultimate dress shirts to go for if you wear dress shirts every day, if you wear dress shirts when you travel, or if you’re like me and you like shirts that are extremely comfortable.

There have been a lot of important changes since my Performance Dress Shirt Roundup from 2018 (including my own measurements!) so I felt as though a 2020 update was a good idea.

Perhaps a bit more relevant for all of you is all the new options available nowadays.

Before we talk about specific brands, which I’ll break down and sort into various categories below, let’s talk about why I like performance dress shirts so much and why I think they’re here to stay

Benefits of a Performance Dress Shirt

The biggest selling point for performance dress shirts for me is their easy care. They’re machine washable, (no dry cleaning required) and they dry really quickly.

Only slightly less important is the stretch and comfort that performance dress shirts offer. “Comfortable” is not a word that often comes to mind when we think of dressing up but that may change if you invest in some of these. Seriously, they’re SO comfortable!

Performance dress shirts also have a ton of wrinkle resistance, so if you’re sick of cotton shirts that wrinkle, a performance dress shirt is definitely a better solution than those wrinkle-free cotton shirts whose chemical treatments release formaldehyde!

If you’re in warmer climates, another benefit of these shirts is their built-in moisture wicking, which will make you feel very cool and also help reduce pit stains no matter how hot it is outside.

Have I made a believer out of you yet, or at least persuaded you to try one of these shirts?

Good. Keep reading to help figure out which one.

We’ll start with my new personal favorite.

Manual Outfitters

To me, Manual Outfitters is the the best overall performance dress shirt.

Yes, I’ve changed my opinion since 2018 roundup for the very simple reason that Manual Outfitters didn’t exist at the time.

Why did I pick them as the best?

Because they have the best fabric and construction, of any performance dress shirt I’ve ever tested.

These shirts aren’t cheap ($155 per shirt, although they do have some bundles), but to me it’s worth it and then some.

The design of the shirt itself is excellent.

The protection you get underneath the armpit is solid.

The fabric, as promised does an excellent job of moisture-wicking.

It’s also quite a sharp-looking shirt which, in spite of its material, could hold its own in any boardroom.

This shirt’s only drawback is that the collar points are a little bit shorter than some of you prefer.

But if you’re looking for the best overall dress shirt when it comes to performance, care, and wrinkle-resistance, then Manual Outfitters is the way to go.

Moving right along…

Woodies

The next pick I would have as the best overall is Woodies.

Why?

Cos they have very similar characteristics to the Manual shirt, with an added bonus:

You can order it in a custom size.

They have this really cool algorithmic sizing feature and a fit guarantee, which is always nice when you’re ordering clothing online.

The fabric has great stretch too, and it looks like a dress shirt.

Finally, they offer stain-water-resistant version of their performance dress shirt, which always makes laundry day a bit easier.

Now onto a brand I’ve known and loved for quite some time.

BonoboS

I was really pumped when I found out that Bonobos released a performance dress shirt.

This has been one of my favorite brands since their trousers came on the scene several years ago. I’ve been a loyal customer ever since.

Another performance dress shirt worth looking at at is their SwissTech shirt. The Bonobos SwissTech shirt has a very similar texture to the Manual one, which is fantastic. It also comes in the whole array of standard dress shirt patterns and colors, all of which look really sharp.

A Final NOte About the Top 3

I basically have two modes of picking out my clothes. Either I pick out certain pieces of clothing because I’m trying them out or I just go with the best thing in my wardrobe. Manual Outfitters, Woodies, and Bonobos SwissTech are easily the top three choices that I go for when I’m just trying to wear a great dress shirt, let alone a performance dress shirt.

What to Look for in a Performance Dress Shirt

Before we get onto the rest of the categories, I want to talk about which materials you’re most likely to see in a performance dress shirt. I’ll say right now that it’s more than 99% cotton and 1% spandex. Yes, this ratio gives a standard dress shirt a bit of stretch, which is nice, but if you’re looking for a legitimate performance dress shirt, you want to make sure it’s made of technical fabrics, not natural fibers.

A really good example is my tech flannel from Western Rise. It has Coolmax Nylon in it, giving it the unique stretch property and overall cooling and comfort that you’ll only find in performance shirts.

You may also want to have a look at shirts that use Schoeller fabric, which Manual Outfitters (mentioned above) use in their performance shirts . They are a Swiss company and a current leader in fabric technology company. You may recognize Schoeller fabrics cos they’re also used in the Bonobos Tech Chinos and the Hill City chinos that I recommended in my Performance Chinos Roundup last year.

For the cooler months, I’d also consider performance shirts made of wool, which you’ll see in the collections of Wool & Prince and Ministry of Supply. Wool is the nature’s own performance fabric and certainly worth a look: it’s antimicrobial, cooling, and easy to care for, so give wool a chance when it starts getting cool again.

Now let’s move on to performance dress shirts that look like a traditional dress shirt.

Traditional Performance Dress Shirts: Bonobos & Woodies

The Bonobos Daily Grind or the Bonobos Swiss Technical fabric are two good options. Those shirts, to me, are indistinguishable from a standard dress shirt: the way the collar is designed, the way that the fabric looks, and the performance feel.

The same goes for Woodies. They have performance fabric that looks like a traditional dress shirt but it stretches in all the right ways.

Budget Pick: Twillory

The budget pick out of this roundup is Twillory. I talked about Twillory in the last video, but they did a 2.0 of their fabric where they basically improved everything I complained about. They fixed the buttons, the fabric is more substantial, and it still has all the properties you want in a performance fabric.

Check Out Twillory

If you buy a bundle of Twillory performance dress shirts, you can get the price down to just over $50. So, if you want a place to start and really understand this category but you don’t want to go to the $125+ range, then you can get some of the value from the Twillory shirts.

Most Stretch: Manual Outfitters & Butter Cloth

Woodies has a little bit of stretch, but Manual Outfitters easily has the most stretch out of all these brands while maintaining its integrity.

Also worth a mention, though, is Butter Cloth. Butter Cloth is definitely the most casual dress shirt out of this entire roundup--not only with their designs, but the fabric itself. It has very good wrinkle resistance and Butter Cloth is definitely worth a look because if there was a “most eccentric” category, then Butter Cloth would be in there

Check Out Butter Cloth

Check Out Manual Outfitters

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the hallmarks of other performance fabrics in Butter Cloth’s clothing. They didn’t have a lot of stretch, are comfortable, and have wrinkle resistance. However, when it comes to temperature control, moisture-wicking, and heat regulating, that’s where Butter Cloth doesn’t line up.

Best Performance: Outlier & Bluffworks

Now, for best performance, I try to take away the requirements to try to look like a dress shirt and focus more solely on “what is the best performance shirt out there?”

Outlier has amazing shirts and amazing fabrics. But their Oxford shirt that is $198--also the most expensive on this list--doesn’t really look like a dress shirt. It’s an amazing, casual Oxford shirt that I end up wearing a lot because it uses the best technical fabric out of all the ones in the roundup.

It’ll give you the best performance, but it doesn’t look like a traditional dress shirt.

Another really great performance-based shirt is Bluffworks. Their shirt does look like a dress shirt. It also has amazing anti-wrinkle. If there’s one shirt out of the entire roundup that I would crumple up, throw into a suitcase, and later wear, it would definitely be Bluffworks.

They’re really designed for that and Bluffworks also has some great patterns too. Bluffworks is definitely worth a look if you want amazing performance. Manual is sort of the default on this because they’re the best overall.

But if you’re comparing the wrinkle resistance on these, because of the fabric differences, you just don’t get the same wrinkle resistance with Manual. So that’s why I go with Bluffworks.

Check Out Bluffworks

Check Out Outlier

Best Fit: Deo Veritas, Stantt, & Woodies

So the best fit would be easy to say, “any of the custom ones.” But I wanted to have the ranking in there of what I think of the performance fabrics itself. Because Woodies is easily the best fit, Deo Veritas is the same thing, and Stantt is even up there.

I put Stantt on this list, but it leaves a lot to be desired when compared to the other custom companies on this roundup. They are a company where you can customize a lot of the points of the shirt and they deliver really fast.

What’s really nice about these custom companies is that you can customize different parts of the shirt. Another unsung feature I find really nice about these shirts is the water-resistance on some of these shirts.

Check Out Deo Veritas

Check Out Stantt

Check Out Woodies

Honorable Mentions: Western Rise, Tailored Athlete, State and Liberty, Mizzen & Main

Finally, just a couple of honorable features that are worth noting. I wanted to talk about Western Rise. They’re doing some really cool things. I really like their Tech Chinos and their Tech Wool flannel. They have a couple of other wool shirts available so I think Western Rise is a cool one to look at.

They aren’t truly a dress shirt, but they’re casual shirts with amazing fabric performance.

My only beef with Tailored Athlete is that they have their logo on the chest, which is something I think only a few brands like Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, and Lacoste can get away with. If you’re really buff, you can see on the site that these are made to be athletic fit kind of like State and Liberty.

State and Liberty is another brand where I find the brand to be “ok” but they have the cuts for athletic guys. Mizzen & Main is also worth a mention because they’ve done so much for the performance dress shirt space.

However, they haven’t really evolved their line to add additional performance aspects to their shirts.

Check Out Western Rise

Check Out Tailored Athlete

Check Out State and Liberty

Check Out Mizzen and Main

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, gents. I’d love to hear from you guys and what you do and don’t like about not just the roundups, but the companies themselves. I learn a lot just by going through the comments because you guys are so amazing on giving your input on these types of things, so I’d really like to see you guys down there.

I’ll jump in as I can and answer any questions that you might have. You can also reach me on Instagram & Twitter at “The_Kavalier.” I’ll definitely be sprinkling in informational posts here and there, but my goal for this year is to do more roundup posts that help you distill your searches for the best products out there.

Until next time, gents…

This is the Kavalier.

Best Performance Dress Shirts 2020 | Manual Outfitters, Bonobos, Woodies...