Welcome to The Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.
If there’s one thing you need in your cold-weather wardrobe, one must-have that you’ll wear year after year, layer with, and reach for time and time again, it's a cashmere sweater. The cashmere sweater is a staple, regardless of whatever else you have in your closet. Every man, woman, and child needs at least one. And if you want the one that will eradicate your need to ever shop for a new cashmere sweater again, then you need Naadam’s Original Cashmere Sweater.
Here’s the thing: Any Google search (or worse, in-person hunt) for a cashmere sweater will reveal style after style of pricey options that, sometimes, aren’t even 100 percent cashmere. You’re overpaying for a cashmere blend, or even for pure cashmere, if you aren’t shopping Naadam. The Original Cashmere Sweater is under $100, comes in every and any color you could wish for, and is simple, versatile, chic, and ridiculously soft.
This winter, I got several colors, and I’ve been wearing them with everything from jeans to dress pants to pajamas, on a particularly cold winter day. I wear mine to the airport, to work, to the bar. Over a tee, a button-down. Under a trench coat, a blazer. I dress my Naadam cashmere sweaters up and I dress them down. Honestly, it’s kind of insane that I can get this much wear out of a sweater that’s only 98 bucks. But with all of its pros, I’m certainly not complaining.
JOE LINGEMAN
Quality is everything.
Naadam specializes in cashmere, so you don’t have to worry about getting some cashmere-blend that’s going to be itchy and unwearable after one wash. The Original Cashmere Sweater is made from 100 percent Mongolian cashmere, a soft, flexible fabric that exudes a feeling of pure luxury.
Down to the detail, Naadam’s sweater pays attention to looking as good as it feels. With a slim-fit (this sweater runs slightly small, so size up if you prefer a looser, boxier look), the sweater has a classic crewneck, with ribbed details at the neckline, cuffs, and hem. There are 11 neutral “core” colors you can choose from, along with 13 limited-edition seasonal releases ranging from lilac to crimson, and each shade is a rich, saturated color that, quite frankly, looks a lot more expensive than it actually is. For an extra $20, you can even add a personal flair with the option of a custom monogram, choosing up to three letters to be embroidered on the sweater and adding a bit more detail.
Naadam’s founders, Matthew Scanlan and Diederik Rijsemus, based the design principle of the brand off of the concept of buying fewer things and wearing them for longer—and this sweater achieves exactly that. The style is timeless, and the design and fabric is of such high quality that I can wear it as many times as I want. Admittedly, before I landed on Naadam, I’ve gone through dozens of winter sweaters, and still have them in my closet. But the only one I reach for these days is Naadam’s, which I can trust to be sophisticated, comfortable, and easy to style at every turn. If this was the only cashmere sweater in my closet (which it may as well be, at this point), I wouldn’t complain at all—it’s the only one I need.
JOE LINGEMAN
It's not only affordable, but sustainable, too.
So—why is Naadam cheaper than all its competitors, despite using 100 percent cashmere? Well, let’s go back to 2013, when Scanlan and Rijsemus founded the brand. The college friends took a trip to Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, where they befriended the local herders, who have been handling cashmere from the Mongolian Zalaa Jinst white goat for over 2000 years. Instead of adding a cashmere-trading middleman to drive up profits, Scanlan and Rijsemus decided to work directly with the community of herders and craftsmen themselves, meaning they could pay their friends more and sell high-quality, sustainably-sourced clothes directly from their origin for less.
When you buy cashmere sweaters from retailers that mass-produce in a factory somewhere, slap their label on, and sell, you’re overpaying for a product that costs a lot less than its worth. But with Naadam, which offers better pay for its herders and has a shorter, more transparent supply chain, you know exactly what you’re paying for, and exactly where it’s from.
On top of that, Naadam’s knits are committed to sustainability, being crafted entirely from deadstock cashmere that would otherwise end up in a landfill. All of the brand’s materials are selected to be high-quality and low-impact, with the herders hand-combing the goats to obtain cashmere. All of that for only $98—your other cashmere sweaters, mass-produced from god knows where, could never compete.
JOE LINGEMAN
And it's the perfect weight.
I used to hate cashmere sweaters. I run warm and get hot quickly, and all the cashmere sweaters I’ve had before Naadam’s have been stifling under a winter coat or in a heated room. But I also live in New York, where winters are bitter and harsh, and a cashmere sweater is usually the best option for staying warm. Naadam’s cashmere sweater combines the best of both worlds by being lightweight yet incredibly warm.
Temperatures in Mongolia can drop to -40 degrees, so those goats providing your cashmere are built to stay warm. The length of each fiber is roughly a third longer than other cashmere, meaning you get more softness and less pilling with the warmth that it adds. Naadam is committed to still being breathable, moisture-wicking, and thermoregulating, though, so even if you have a layer under the sweater, you’ll never feel overheated. In fact, this sweater feels thinner than most (it’s juuuust thicker than a jersey T-shirt, but it keeps the warmth in regardless), so layering is probably a good idea.
The fineness of cashmere is measured in microns, with 14 microns being the thinnest and 19 microns being the thickest. Being 15 microns, Naadam’s cashmere is finer than a strand of human hair, which comes in at a whopping 100 microns. You know what that means? It means your sweater is soft as hell, the perfect weight, and classy enough to elevate your winter style with ease.
JOE LINGEMAN
Photography by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Heather Greene.
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