Give or take a wash here or a rip there, jeans tend to look suspiciously similar on the first take. Affordable jeans are just jeans, right? They go with everything, whatever the price tag. Can’t go wrong.

Not true.

Unlike a bad piece of knitwear, which instantly looks alien if it doesn’t suit you, a bad pair of jeans has the sinister ability to sartorially cockblock you, rendering all your outfits unsuccessful – but they do it on the down-low. The same pair that looked promising on the shelf can instantly bestow bow legs on their wearer the moment the zip’s drawn up and the button fastened. Sneaky.

But that doesn’t mean you have to spend $500 on Japanese raw selvage jeans to avoid dodgy denim. Affordable jeans retailers have enough fits, washes and styles at their disposal to make sure the trousers you live in on the weekend don’t sabotage your style.

In a hurry? Here are our top picks for affordable jean brands that combine style with unbeatable value.

Our Pick

Uniqlo

Uniqlo has mastered the art of affordable jeans. The Japanese brand keeps it simple with 3 fits to choose from, a range of washes, and even selvedge jeans, all for under $100.

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Runner Up

Gap

Gap is one of those timeless, budget-friendly brands you can always depend on, with a huge selection of affordable jeans to suit any man’s style.

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Best Value

Asket: Black Slim-Fit Jeans

Asket’s business model has allowed them to provide high-end products like selvedge denim at an accessible price-point for the style-conscious gentleman

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What To Look For In A Pair Of Affordable Jeans

It’s hard to pin down specifically what makes the perfect pair of jeans, given that there are a lot of body variables at play. Carl Malmgren, creative director at Swedish denim brand Cheap Monday, has some universal advice that applies in all cases though. He says: “The fit should come before everything else. When you try on jeans, you instantly feel that they fit or they don’t.”