Made to measure · Est. 1972
Custom SportCoats
The most useful thing a man can own. One appointment to order, four to six weeks to build, and a tailor in the building when it arrives.
The Man’s Shop builds custom sport coats in Arlington, Texas. We take your measurements and you choose fabric, lining, buttons, and pockets in one appointment. Your coat is typically ready in four to six weeks. You come in, try it on, and Enrique makes any adjustments in-house before you take it home.
Why start here
A sport coat is the highest-mileage thing in a wardrobe
A suit has one job. A sport coat has a dozen. It carries jeans and boots on a Friday, sits over a knit polo at a client lunch, and finishes an open collar at dinner without announcing itself.
Which is exactly why fit matters more here than almost anywhere else. A suit jacket is judged as part of a set. A sport coat stands alone — the shoulder, the sleeve, the length, and the way it sits when you’re moving are the entire garment. Off the rack, that’s a coin flip. Made to your measurements, it isn’t.
We’ve been fitting men in downtown Arlington since 1972. The coat is cut for you, and if something needs adjusting after you’ve worn it a few times, Enrique is right here.
The process
One appointment. Then we build it.
This is not a basted-fitting process. You are not coming back three times to stand in a half-made coat. You come once, we take everything down, and the next time you see it, it is finished.
Measure and specify
One appointment, unrushed. We take your measurements and you choose everything — cloth, lining, buttons, pockets, lapel, vent, silhouette. Nothing is left to decide later, which is why this visit is worth an hour.
Four to six weeks
Your coat is made to that specification. Order just ahead of a major factory holiday and it can run longer — it is uncommon, and we will flag it at the appointment if your timing lands near one.
Delivery day
You come in and put it on. Most coats need nothing. If something wants a quarter inch, Enrique is in the building and handles it — no shipping it back, no waiting on a factory in another hemisphere.
How this differs
Not London. Not Hong Kong.
Traditional bespoke drafts a pattern from scratch and calls you back for basted fittings — a coat pinned together with white thread, taken apart, rebuilt, fitted again. It is a magnificent process. It also takes months and several appointments.
The travelling-tailor model has the opposite problem. Measurements are taken in a hotel suite, the garment is made overseas, and by the time it arrives, whoever measured you is on another continent. If the fit is off, you are mailing it back and hoping.
Ours sits between the two deliberately. One appointment to order, four to six weeks, and a tailor of twenty years standing thirty feet from where you bought it. Adjustments happen here, on you, the week you need them — not in another six weeks, and not by post.
What you choose
The specification
- Cloth
- Year-round worsteds, tropical wool and linen blends for Texas summers, flannels and tweeds for the eight weeks a year we need them. Swatches in hand, not on a screen.
- Shoulder
- Soft, natural, or structured. This is the single decision that most changes how a coat reads on you — and the one hardest to judge from a photograph.
- Silhouette
- Cut trim, classic, or relaxed. Your call, not a house rule and not a guess based on your age.
- Details
- Lapel width, patch or flap pockets, vent, buttons, and lining. The lining is where most men have their one bit of fun, and we’re all for it.
- Fit corrections
- Sloping shoulder, long or short rise, forward posture, one arm longer than the other. Standard sizing pretends these don’t exist. Measurements don’t.
“I wear a custom sport coat from The Man’s Shop essentially every day. Not for occasions — for Tuesdays. That’s the part that surprised me: once one fits properly, you stop reaching for anything else.”
Client, Arlington — placeholder for a real, attributed quote
Made to measure vs. off the rack
What you’re actually paying for
An off-the-rack coat is built for an average that no one is. It gets close, and a tailor takes it the rest of the way — but a tailor can move a sleeve and take in a waist. He can’t rebuild a shoulder or change a chest.
Made to measure starts from your measurements, so the parts that can’t be altered later are right from the beginning. When the coat arrives, anything that still wants fine-tuning is a short walk to the alterations room.
Over the life of the coat, the math is unremarkable: you wear it three times as often, so it costs less per wear than the jacket that hangs in the closet because it never sat right.
Common questions
Custom sport coats, answered
How long does a custom sport coat take at The Man’s Shop?
Typically four to six weeks from the appointment where we measure you to the day you pick it up. The one exception is ordering immediately before a major factory holiday closure, which can add time. It is uncommon, and we will tell you at your appointment if your timing falls near one.
How much does a custom sport coat cost?
Price depends almost entirely on the cloth you choose, which is why we quote at the appointment with swatches in front of you rather than publishing a single number. Expect a meaningful step up from an off-the-rack jacket and a meaningful step down from full bespoke. We will give you a firm number before anything is ordered.
What is the difference between made to measure and bespoke?
Bespoke drafts a pattern from scratch and uses basted fittings, where you return two or three times to try on a partly built garment. Made to measure starts from an established pattern adjusted to your measurements, so there is no basted fitting and no repeat visits. For most men it delivers the fit they want in a fraction of the time and cost.
How many appointments does a custom sport coat require?
One to order. We take your measurements and you make every selection in that single visit, which usually takes about an hour. You return once more to collect the finished coat and try it on. That second visit is a delivery, not a fitting, and most clients walk out the same day.
Can you make a sport coat that works in Texas heat?
Yes. Tropical wool, high-twist worsteds, linen blends, and unlined or half-lined construction all make a real difference from May through September. This is one of the most common reasons clients move to custom — the lightweight options at most stores are limited, and the good ones are worth seeking out.
What happens if the coat needs adjusting when it arrives?
Enrique handles it in-house. Because the coat is made to your measurements, most need nothing at all. When something does want fine-tuning, it is corrected here, on you, rather than shipped back to a factory. This is the practical advantage of buying custom from a shop with its own tailor rather than from a travelling or overseas maker.
Do you serve clients outside Arlington?
Regularly. Clients come from Fort Worth, Dallas, Southlake, Mansfield, Plano, and further, and some fly in and do a full wardrobe over two visits. We schedule by appointment so your time in the shop is yours.
Downtown Arlington
Come get measured
Bring the jacket you like best and the one you never wear. Both tell us something. One appointment, about an hour, and everything gets decided.
100 S. West Street, Arlington, Texas 76010
Mon–Sat 10am–5pm · Closed Sunday
(817) 265-1116