Duck Head

If you want a classic American khaki with real heritage behind it, the Gold School chino is an easy yes. The brand traces back to 1865, when the O'Bryan brothers in Nashville began sewing pants from heavy Army-surplus canvas called duck, and that durability-first instinct still defines the line. Buyers tend to praise the construction and the timeless, preppy fit, so the value lands well for anyone who wears chinos as a daily uniform.

Duck Head had its golden run through the 1980s and early 1990s, when khakis with the little mallard tag were a Southern campus staple. Forbes once observed that for a preppy Southern college guy in the 1980s, Duck Head khakis were as indispensable as worn Topsiders and a pink polo. That nostalgia, paired with a genuine relaunch, is what keeps pulling shoppers back.

The duck has been the brand's signature since the very beginning. The O'Bryan brothers tried to trademark the word Duck in 1892, but it was rejected as too generic, so they registered Duck Head instead. When sales director David Baseheart turned the brand fashionable in 1978, he stitched the mallard onto a bright yellow tag on the back of the khakis, and that detail became the brand's calling card.

Start with the khaki chino, the garment the whole brand is built on. Duck Head became a fashion name in 1978 when Baseheart cut a shipment of cotton khaki fabric into dress pants and sold his first batch at the University of Mississippi bookstore, where they sold out fast. A pair of classic khakis is the truest expression of the label before you branch into shirts or shorts.

Duck Head is an American brand through and through, born in Nashville and shaped by Southern style for generations. Today it is owned by the Lanier Apparel division of Oxford Industries, based in Atlanta, Georgia, which relaunched it in 2016. For exact production details on any given piece, check the product's own listing, since sourcing can differ by item.

The two share a guiding hand. In March 2018, Oxford Industries named Bill Thomas, the founder of menswear brand Bill's Khakis, as Brand Director of Duck Head. So if you have admired Thomas's approach to a well-made American chino, you are essentially seeing that same sensibility carried into Duck Head's current collections.

Duck Head dates to 1865, founded in Nashville, Tennessee, by brothers George and Joe O'Bryan. They were buying surplus U.S. Army tent material, a heavy canvas known as duck, and began making work pants and shirts from it. Their firm became the O'Bryan Brothers Manufacturing Company, making Duck Head one of the older surviving American apparel names.

It nearly did. After a hugely successful early-1990s run under Delta Woodside Industries, the brand's popularity faded, and ownership changed hands repeatedly, with Tropical Sportswear International going bankrupt in 2005 and later owners filing for bankruptcy as well. The label was sold at auction in 2009 before its steady revival, which is part of why its current relaunch feels like a comeback.

The history is genuine, not invented. Duck Head began making rugged work clothing such as overalls and denim jackets long before khakis, and that canvas-tough lineage still informs the brand's value-and-durability ethos. When you wear it, you are tapping a continuous American story that runs from 1865 Army surplus to today's chinos.

Very big for a regional label going national. After Delta Woodside Industries bought the brand in 1989 and expanded it beyond men's pants into shirts, shorts and women's clothing, gross sales of Duck Head clothing topped $130 million in its 1992 fiscal year. That scale is a reminder of just how dominant the mallard tag once was in American casualwear.