The Sandler Fit Lives On

Photo: Backgrid; Collage: Gabe Conte

It’s been a while since we checked in on the state of the “Sandler fit”—as in the sloppily swaggy, blithely incongruous ensembles worn by the actor Adam Sandler, who became an unlikely style god in recent years after TikTok caught wind of his affinity for high-comfort, low-effort dressing. A Sandler fit may comprise any combination of dad-on-vacation loungewear, oversized basketball shorts, and/or determinedly comfortable footwear; the only requirement is that it appear unpremeditated and personality-forward.

Which isn’t to say the man himself has stopped wearing Sandler fits—he hasn’t, and ideally never will. But sometimes when something feels so certain, such as the reliability of Adam Sandler wearing Adam Sandler fits, you stop noticing its extraordinariness. That is, until the Sandman pulls up in London, as he did this week, wearing a real whopper of an S.F.

An ultra-puffed, cream-and-black North Face “1990 Nuptse” down jacket. A pair of special-edition San Antonio Spurs sweatpants that look like they could have been designed by a marginally groovy streetwear brand. He accessorized with dark shades, his favorite blue Hoka runners, and—a bit of a zag here—a black, faux-leather Stella McCartney tote. A slightly luxe addition for a standard Sandler fit, but hey, when in London. (Or maybe there’s a simpler explanation: his wife Jackie was also draped in a gray wool Stella McCartney trench, which she paired with tasteful New Balances.)

Strolling through the British capital, the Sandlers were joined by their teenage eldest daughter Sadie, who acted alongside her parents and younger sister in last summer’s Netflix teen dramedy (and one of the most delightful movies of 2023) You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.

For that film, in which the whole Sandler family plays a fictionalized version of itself, costume designer Jordy Scheinberg briefly considered costuming the Sandler patriarch in more subdued, contemporary-leading-man garb—but something wasn’t clicking. The movie only made sense if Sandler looked (and dressed) like himself.

“I don’t need it to be like, ‘Whoa, it’s crazy that Adam Sandler is wearing jeans.’ He doesn’t wear jeans. He wears basketball shorts,” Scheinberg told GQ last year. “As a culture, we want to see him like that. It’s what we’re used to and it’s what he likes. And as viewers, we’re all like, ‘There he is. Iconic Sandler fit.’”

Originally Appeared on GQ

More Great Style Stories From GQ

• Every Single MoonSwatch, Ranked

• The 20 Greatest Nike Air Max Sneaker Colorways of All Time

• Paul Mescal Is the Undisputed Champ of Freaky, Cropped Gymwear

• Kevin Hart’s Royal Oak Costs More Than a House

• Dua Lipa and Callum Turner Have (Unsurprisingly) Aced Travel Style

• Not a subscriber? Join GQ to receive full access to GQ.com.