How to Dress Like Dr. Sheldon Cooper

Sheldon Cooper, better known as the eccentric Caltech theoretical physicist who is attempting to unravel the mysteries of M Theory (String theory for the layman), all the while trying to grasp the most basic human interactions and social situations, has a surprisingly excellent T-shirt collection.

I think Sheldon’s style fits his personality perfectly. Like his bowel movement schedule, his clothing style is just as consistent.

He is always wearing either a superhero or other nerdy type of T-shirt over a long sleeved undershirt. His pants are just basic straight no frills slim pants and usually are in basic colors like tan, dark blue, and dark green.

He only has one jacket and it is a two toned golf style jacket along with a brown messenger bag. He never strays from this style like everything else in his life, it is carefully planned and most importantly, consistent.

One of the most interesting things about Sheldon’s style is his extensive T-shirt collection, and everyone has their favorite.

There are some like The Riddler Bat Question Mark T-shirt and his The Flash T-shirts that he wears over and over, which in my opinion would make the best choice to use for a Sheldon Cooper costume.

But for fanatics like myself, I want the same T-shirts that he is wearing on the show and have been mostly satisfied with how many I have been able to track down.

Sheldon's Shirts

Sheldon Cooper’s T-shirt collection is is something any fellow nerd would be proud to have in their closet. We have a heated debate here at TSG over which of his T-shirts are the best and represents the classic Sheldon look.

Personally, I think The Riddler Bat Question mark T-shirt gives the classic Sheldon Cooper look and is my personal favorite.

Since Sheldon’s T-shirt collection is so popular amongst Big Bang Theory fans, it is very easy to find most of his shirts on Amazon or even at Target. My wife has unknowingly purchased shirts for me from Target that sheldon wears on the show.

I would definitely give Target a look, I have been able to find his Green Lantern and The Flash T-shirts there. Of course as always, Amazon is another good source for finding his shirts and what I primarily use to work on my Sheldon T-shirt collection.

For his undershirts he will wear some variation of a long sleeve T-shirt. Mostly his undershirts are just solid colors, but he also wears striped undershirts here and there if it matches his T-shirt.

The main focal point for Sheldon’s style however, are his T-shirts. So as long as you have that down, any long sleeve undershirt should do. I personally would recommend the Hanes Tagless Long Sleeve T shirts. They come in many different colors, are inexpensive and I can personally say that they make very comfortable undershirts.

Sheldon Cooper's Jackets & Messenger Bag

Ahhh… Sheldon’s jacket, the most infamously elusive Big Bang Theory clothing item.

After scouring google and message boards for hours and hours, I have come to realize that the costume designer of the show must have found his jacket in a thrift store somewhere, because it is simply nowhere to be found.

It looks very much like something out of the 80’s or early 90’s, so that may be why nobody has been able to locate a brand name or anything like that.

If you want to include something similar to his jacket in your costume or as part of your everyday clothing style, I would recommend a golf jacket or checking out some vintage golf jackets at your local thrift store.

If you know where we can find Sheldons jacket please let us know in the comments below!

Sheldon's Messenger Bag

Like Sheldon Cooper’s jacket, an exact match for his messenger bag remains as mysterious and unknown as dark matter or dark energy.

A hot topic amongst The Big Bang theory fan message boards has been Sheldon’s messenger bag and where you can find it. Unfortunately it is still unknown exactly what brand his messenger bag is.

Obviously you do not need to have Sheldon’s exact messenger bag to wear his style or to use as part of a Sheldon Cooper costume.

I recommend Rothco Vintage Army Messenger Bags, they come in a few colors but the brown one best matches Sheldon Coopers messenger bag.

Sheldon's Pants & Shoes

Sheldon wears straight and slim no nonsense pants. They seem almost unstylish compared to the ultra tight pants that Howard Wolowitz would wear.

I recommend khaki or tan pants if you are making a costume to give it the classic Sheldon feel. However, he also on occasion will wear plaid pants and darker colored tapered pants.

The exact brand of pants he wears on the show is unknown, but considering how the shows costume designer loves the Urban Outfitters line, I would suspect he is wearing Urban Outfitters stretch skinny pants. For me these are a little pricey so I prefer the less expensive Amazon options.

Just make sure that the pants are not too loose or too tight and you should be fine.

Sheldon's Shoes

Sheldon has a few pairs of shoes but his favorite, at least the ones he wears most often on the show are his brown Skechers sneakers.

He also has a pair of white sneakers that he only seems to wear when he wears black pants, which is not very often, so I would stick with the brown sneakers to mimic Sheldon’s style.

Sheldon Cooper's Doppler Effect Halloween Costume

One of the most popular Sheldon Cooper costumes is one he actually wears on the show.

Everyone remembers that classic episode in the first season where the gang inadvertently all wear the same The Flash costume for Penny’s Halloween party.

They all decide that since everyone wanted to go as the flash; nobody can go as The Flash. Sheldon goes to a Halloween party dressed as the “doppler effect”. Hilarity ensues as party goers try and guess what exactly Sheldon is dressed as.

Luckily fans loved this episode and costume so much you can now actually buy his doppler effect costume here.