We were pleasantly surprised that Esquire magazine’s fashion director, Nick Sullivan, was not snobby or ironic when he took a few days in the mid-West to survey what a man on a strict budget could buy in the middle of the country without going online. Here’s what Mr. Sullivan had to say:

What I found in Kansas was a far more practical and accessible version of Americana than that urban, urbane variety we can buy anytime we like at J. Crew. Americana is comfortable clothing in no-frills, honest-to-goodness cloth. Americana is taste governed by function and economy. Americana is strong, sturdy, ass-kicking boots that nobody will appreciate or notice except the person wearing them. Americana is what you find when you spend a few days and a few hundred bucks in the middle of the forty-eight contiguous states, and the people who live and work there wear it very well.