Coats and Sweaters for Tall Men: Ten Measured at 6′8″, Two Kept

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I have now put a tape on ten layers across two rounds of buying. Six coats and jackets, three sweaters and a hoodie, and a work tee that turned out not to be a work shirt at all.

Two of them are still in my closet. Eight went back.

That ratio is the point of this page. An article that recommends everything it touches recommends nothing, and the two I kept are only worth anything because of the eight I did not.

The first round produced the finding that still surprises me most. Two coats with the identical chest measurement — 29 inches flat, 58 around, both of them. One was far too small on me and the other was far too big. It was not the chest, and it was not the body length.

Round one: the first five, measured

	Size on label	Body back	Body front	Chest flat (around)	Shoulder	Sleeve, center back	Cuff	Fabric
Nautica sailing jacket	2XLT	32	26	29 (58)	20	38	6.5	100% polyester
Nautica pea coat	3XT	35	33.5	29 (58)	25	38	10.5	59% wool / 36% poly
Coofandy crewneck	3XL	28	25.5	25 (50)	20.5	35.5	4.5	100% acrylic
Amazon Essentials crewneck	2XLT	32	32	27 (54)	21.5	35.5	4	100% cotton
Amazon Essentials hoodie	2XLT	31	31	27 (54)	— raglan	37	5	100% cotton

All ten garments are in The Tall Sizing Database, where you can put them beside the polos, jeans and joggers measured the same way.

Round two: five more, measured in September

Four coats and a work tee, bought in September and measured the same way — flat, unstretched, before I decided anything about them.

	Size on label	Body back	Chest flat (around)	Shoulder	Sleeve, centre back	Hood	Fabric
BGOWATU quilted bomber	XXL	30 (incl 2.25 in hem band)	28.5 (57)	22.25	39	—	100% polyester
Legendary Whitetails waxed cotton	2XT	36.5 (incl 3.25 in collar)	28 (56)	22	41	17 in	63% cotton / 37% poly
Wantdo puffer	2XLT	31	31 (62)	22.5	37.5	13 in	100% polyester
Amazon Essentials mid-length puffer	XXL Big & Tall	35	35 (70)	24	38.5	12 in	100% polyester
Kecols pocket tee	XXL Tall	35 (incl collar)	27.5 (55)	22.5	23 (short sleeve)	—	50% cotton / 50% poly

All five went back. Every one for a different reason, and none of them for the reason that sank round one.

The shoulder is what decided round one — and the window was wider than I said

Line all ten up by shoulder and the outcomes sort themselves.

Shoulder	Garment	Did the shoulder work?
20 in	Nautica sailing jacket	No — too narrow
20.5 in	Coofandy crewneck	No — too narrow
21.5 in	Amazon Essentials crewneck	Yes (kept)
22 in	Legendary Whitetails waxed	Yes
22.25 in	BGOWATU bomber	Yes (it failed on the chest, not here)
22.5 in	Wantdo puffer	Yes
22.5 in	Kecols tee	Yes
24 in	Amazon Essentials puffer	Yes (it failed on bulk, not here)
25 in	Nautica pea coat	No — too wide

I need to correct this page. It used to say my window was 21.5 to 22.5 inches, with anything above that belonging to a wider man. That ceiling came from a single garment — the 25-inch pea coat — and round two shows it was drawn too tight. The Amazon Essentials puffer has a 24-inch shoulder and sat fine. It went back because it was too bulky, which is a different complaint entirely.

The honest window is 21.5 to 24 inches. The failures sit at 20 and 20.5 below it and 25 above it. That is a three-inch working range, not a one-inch one, and it means I have been reading past listings that would have been fine.

For what it is worth, my own shoulder measures 24 inches point to point across the back. I am not going to pretend that maps cleanly onto a garment figure — a coat is measured flat, a body is not, and knitwear drops the seam past the shoulder on purpose. But the two numbers sitting on top of each other is the first time this page has had a body measurement to put beside the garment ones.

The sailing jacket is still the one that proves the original point. It is four inches bigger around the chest than the sweater I kept, the same 32 inches down the back, and its sleeve is longer. Every dimension equal or larger except the shoulder, an inch and a half narrower — and it was the one I could not wear.

Two coats, the same chest measurement. One too small, one too big. The chest was never the number that mattered.

One thing I did not measure, and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise: armhole depth. On outerwear that is the other candidate for why something binds across the back, and I did not take it before the jacket went back. The shoulder explanation fits everything I did measure. It is not proven. The test that would settle it is measuring armhole depth alongside shoulder on the next jacket that fails, and I will do that.

My outer layers came up shorter than my shirts

I have measured three 3XLT polo previously — Greg Norman, FLX and Under Armour. Their body lengths down the back are 34, 33 and 33 inches.

The sailing jacket that is supposed to go over the top of those is 32. The hoodie is 31.

So the outer layer finishes an inch or two above the layer underneath it, before I have moved at all. The shirt hangs out below the jacket by measurement, not by accident and not because I bought the wrong size — both of those are tall sizes.

I have written before about building outward and letting the outer layer set the boundary. The numbers here sharpen that. The boundary is often lower than you assume, because tall outerwear is not cut to the same length as tall shirts. Measure the coat against the shirt you actually wear under it, in inches, before you commit to either.

3XT is not 3XLT

The pea coat tag reads 3XT. Not 3XLT. I read those as the same thing when I ordered, and they are not.

It arrived cut for a bigger man in every direction — three inches longer in the back than the sweater that fits me, and three and a half inches wider across the shoulder. That is not a size that adds length. That is a size that adds a person.

If you are shopping outerwear and the letters do not include an L, slow down and check the measurements on that specific listing.

The sweater that has no tall size at all

The Coofandy crewneck is a 3XL. As far as I can find, Coofandy does not make it in a tall — I own several of their shirts, but the sweater has no tall option.

Here is the cost of that, in inches. Against the Amazon Essentials 2XLT: the sleeves are identical at 35.5 inches from the center back. The body is four inches shorter.

Same reach. Four inches less sweater. That is the clearest illustration I have of why sizing up is not the same as sizing tall — a bigger regular size gets you arms you can use attached to a body that stops too early.

Both keepers are cut with no drop — and I am watching that

Body back and body front are the same number on both Amazon Essentials pieces. 32 and 32 on the sweater, 31 and 31 on the hoodie. No drop tail at all. And round two produced a third: the Wantdo puffer is 31 and 31 — the only coat I have measured with no drop whatsoever, where every other one falls between one and a half and eight and a half inches.

All three polo had one — four inches on the Greg Norman, two and a half on the FLX. A drop is what keeps the back covered when you bend, and I have argued that a flat hem travels as one sheet.

These two fit me well standing still. Whether a flat hem costs me anything over a full day is something I will only know after wearing them for a while, and I will report back either way. I am flagging it now because the measurement says to.

What the tape misses — and what wearing them showed

Round two I wore before deciding, which round one taught me to do. Three things came out of it that a tape on a flat garment will never tell you.

Where the hem lands. The bomber finished at my belt line, the Wantdo and the Whitetails at mid-seat, the Amazon puffer at the bottom of my seat. Five inches of extra back length moved the hem eight inches down my body, in order, with no exceptions. The full working-out, including why a flat back length overstates its reach by about four inches, is in how long a coat should be on a tall man.

Whether it closes over a sweater — and this one has a number. My bare chest is 51 inches. The two coats at 56 and 57 around would not shut over a jumper. The Wantdo at 62 managed it only just. The Amazon puffer at 70 did it comfortably, and the bulk I complained about is the price of that room.

Coat chest, around	Room over a 51 in chest	Closed over a sweater?
56	5 in	no
57	6 in	no
62	11 in	only just
70	19 in	yes

Ten inches of room over your bare chest is the floor, and ten is uncomfortable. Fifteen is where it becomes pleasant. One caveat worth more than it looks: my chest is wider than my waist, so the chest figure is the binding one for me. If your stomach is bigger than your chest, apply the same ten inches to that instead.

The hoods all worked, which I did not expect. The three hooded coats measure 12, 13 and 17 inches across the opening — a four-inch spread on coats whose shoulders are all within two inches of each other. My head is 23.25 inches around. All three went over it easily and all three stayed up with the zip closed, including the 12. Nobody publishes hood openings and it turns out that, at this size range, nobody needs to.

The two I kept

The eight that went back

I measured every one of them before it left, so the numbers above are real. What I do not have is fit photography of them on me, and I am not going to borrow a listing photo of a model to fill the gap. The measurements are the evidence here.

A return is not a warning. It is one man’s verdict on one body, and my reasons may not be your reasons — a coat that is too tight on me at 285 lb is a coat that fits somebody else. Where the reason is mine rather than the garment’s, I have said so.

Round one

Nautica sailing jacket — 2XLT. Long enough, wide enough through the chest, and still too small because of a 20-inch shoulder. Full zip that closes to the chin with the collar up. If your shoulder runs narrower than mine this may well work; mine does not.

Nautica double-breasted wool pea coat — 3XT. Too big everywhere. A 25-inch shoulder and 35 inches of back length. Nine-inch side vent. Wool blend and genuinely nice; just built for a wider man.

Coofandy crewneck sweater — 3XL, no tall version made. Four inches short in the body. The sleeves were fine, which is the frustrating part.

Round two

BGOWATU quilted bomber — XXL, and that is the whole story. It is the only one of the five that is a plain XXL rather than a tall or big-and-tall size, and it arrived way too tight and small. Quilted lining, ribbed hem band and cuffs, no hood. The lesson is mine, not the coat’s: at 57 inches around it was never going to close over anything, and a coat too small through the chest rides up — it finished at my belt line, higher than its 30 inches of back length should have put it.

Legendary Whitetails casual waxed cotton jacket — 2XT. The most expensive of the four, comfortably over the hundred-dollar mark, and the one I most wanted to keep. Washed waxed cotton, fleece-lined 17-inch hood with a drawcord, chest zip pocket. It is not cold-ready. My note at the time: great in wet weather in the mid thirties to twenties, and not a good purchase any colder than that. A sweatshirt hood fits under parts of it but not fully, so you end up looking like you are wearing two jackets without actually getting two jackets’ worth of warmth.

Wantdo puffer — 2XLT, and the closest call of all ten. Channel-quilted, full zip, 13-inch hood, the cheapest coat of the four at around sixty dollars. Landed at mid-seat, hood fine, cuff at the wrist, shoulder fine. It closed over a sweater, but only just. My note: if it was an inch of extra space, I would keep it. This is the one I would reorder a size up, and the only one where a single dimension is the entire objection.

Amazon Essentials mid-length puffer — XXL Big & Tall. The widest garment I have measured at 70 inches around, and the only one of the four that closes over a sweater properly. Snap storm placket over the zip, 12-inch hood, longest landing of the four at the bottom of my seat. It went back for being too puffy and too bulky — which is the same fact as the 70-inch chest, seen from the other side. It feels like it would be genuinely warm. If bulk does not bother you, this is the one of the four I would look at again.

Kecols pocket tee — XXL Tall. Filed here for honesty rather than as a coat: the sheet called it a work shirt and it is a crew-neck short-sleeve pocket tee, the Carhartt K87 shape. 35 inches down the back including the collar, 12-inch sleeve. Too big for a shirt on me, and I did not need a work shirt. The measurement is in the database anyway, because someone is going to want it.

The check worth running on your own closet

Take the one top you own that fits you properly and measure it flat across the shoulder, seam to seam. That single number will sort more listings for you than the size label will. I found mine by buying things that were wrong, which is the expensive way. Yours is already hanging in your closet.

Measure your chest and add ten inches. Do not order a coat whose chest figure is below that, unless you plan to wear it over nothing.

Measure the body length of your longest shirt and check it against any coat you are considering. If the coat is shorter, it is going to sit above the shirt all winter. Mine do: the sailing jacket is 32 inches down the back and my 3XLT polos run 33 to 34.

And take two numbers on yourself, once. Floor to the base of your neck at the back, floor to the top of your knee. They never change, and they turn every size chart from a guess into a prediction — the arithmetic is in the coat length guide.

Every figure on this page came off a tape in my own hands, on garments I bought with my own money. All ten are in The Tall Sizing Database alongside the polos, jeans and joggers measured the same way.