John Diggle is Oliver Queen's best friend, confidant, adviser, and non-sidekick sidekick. Without Dig, Oliver probably would have gone insane, and definitely would have died many times over during his late-night excursions as The Arrow.
Diggle is probably my favorite superhero sidekick out there, mostly because he's not really a "sidekick". He's ex-special forces and can generally hold his own alongside The Arrow in combat, especially after he starts training with Oliver.
Thankfully John's style is relatively easy to replicate. So whether you're dressing like him for a costume/cosplay, or just because you like the style, you'll be able to find the clothes that you need.
Clothing Purchasing Guide
We recommend:
Close Match: Levi's 514 Jeans (Midnight)
Close Match: Oxford Shoes (Black)
Close Match: Smith & Wesson S.W.A.T. Watch
Jackets
Shirts
Pants
Shoes, Suit, Ties & Watch
John's style overview:
- Moto & bomber style leather jackets
- Dark suits
- Dark jeans
- Polo-style shirts & button-up long-sleeve shirts
Suit Up!
When John is first introduced on the show, he's hired as Oliver Queen's bodyguard, and throughout most of the first season, John almost exclusively wears suits.
The suits are always a dark grey, black, or navy color, and two-piece (I don't recall him ever wearing a vest). As with most men's suits, the real variation/personalization comes with the ties and dress shirts.
If you don't already own a suit like this, I'd highly suggest purchasing one at a brick & mortar store rather than online, but if you know your measurements you can probably get away with purchasing one online. Going with a well-known brand when buying a suit online is another thing to consider, as their sizes are more likely to be true-to-size.
Considering all of these things, my recommendation is this Calvin Klein two-piece suit. It comes in most of the colors that Dig wears, and has a wide variety of sizes too.
Dress Shirts
When it comes to the dress shirts John wears with his suit, he sticks with pretty standard colors/looks. Usually we see him in a white dress shirt, but sometimes it'll be an off-white, or a grey.
If you don't already own a dress shirt in one of those colors, and you know your size, these Calvin Klein dress shirts would work well.
Diggle's Jackets
Dig pretty much sticks with leather, moto-style jackets in varying colors. He does have a military/field type jacket that he wears as well, which is all black.
Dig's Big-collared Black Jacket
It's hard to tell sometimes, but I'm pretty sure this is a leather jacket (sometimes it almost looks like canvas instead of leather). It's more of a bomber style jacket than moto, but John wears the collar both up and folded down. And finally it's got two breast pockets.
My first guess on the brand of this jacket would be Danier since Arrow's costume designers seem to favor that brand, but I wasn't able to find a match on their website.
I did find a couple of pretty close looking jackets though. The big thing I worried about matching style-wise here was the collar. I think this stand collar jacket is the best match for John's jacket. The breast pockets don't match exactly, but the rest of the jacket has the same style as John's.
The other one I found is this faux leather jacket. It's closer to a moto look than John's jacket is, but it still looks really close, and has the same style.
Standard Moto Jacket
There really isn't much to this jacket, it's about as moto as moto-style jackets get. It's all black, has the standard small stand-up collar, and one (slightly slanted) left breast zippered pocket.
Other than having a right-breast zippered pocket, I think this moto jacket matches Diggle's perfectly.
Light Brown Classic Bomber Jacket
John wears this jacket earlier on in the series, and the time that sticks out to me is when he's walking around with Carly Diggle, his sister-in-law.
Again it's a standard style here, this time of the bomber variety, with a nice folded down collar.
I think this jacket looks pretty close to John's, although the collar doesn't match perfectly, the color and style look pretty close. And this jacket is another great match, and the collar looks a lot closer too.
John Diggle's Grey Moto Jacket
According to Arrow Fashion Blog, this is another Danier, but once again, it's no longer in production.
The style is again pretty basic, it's a standard moto jacket with two zippered breast pockets, and in the color grey.
My first alternative choice to this jacket is this grey moto. It matches John's jacket almost exactly, the biggest difference just being the design/pattern on the shoulders.
Black Leather Military-style Jacket
I'm pretty sure we only see Dig wearing this jacket when he and the rest of Team Arrow head to Nanda Parbat during the end of season 3.
It's a hip-length jacket with two breast pockets, two hip pockets, and a relatively large stand-up collar.
Other than the collar (which you could probably stand up anyway), I think this military coat looks pretty close to Diggle's.
Next is this Leatherfad double collar military jacket, which is really nice, and matches the style. But it's a waist-length jacket rather than hip-length, like Diggle's.
Dig's Brown/Red Bomber Jacket
John wears this jacket a bit later on in the series, when he and Felicity go to Lian Yu in search of Oliver.
As far as style goes, it's your normal bomber with two zippered breast pockets. The color is where this jacket stands out though - it looks like a reddish/brown color, and it looks really good.
It's another Danier that's no longer in production, but I found a few jackets that look pretty close.
My favorite is this WenVen bomber, the color is pretty close to John's jacket. The only thing it's really missing is that the breast pockets aren't the same, but that's a relatively minor detail.
Next, I also really like this bomber. The color is a little more red, and this one has zippered breast pockets, but also more zip pockets right below them. It definitely breaks up the front style of the jacket more than Dig's, but I still think it looks pretty close.
Mr. Diggle's Shirts
John's shirts don't really change much throughout the series of Arrow. When he's first introduced in season 1, he's almost always seen wearing a suit. Later on we see him in short sleeve polos, a long sleeve work shirt, and of course long-sleeve dress shirts.
Long-sleeve Work Shirt
Most of the long-sleeve button-ups that John wears are dress shirts, but he does have a rougher, "work" shirt that he wears. When I see it, I immediately think of Carhartt and Dickies.
So naturally, my recommendations here are this Carhartt work shirt (in gravel), and this Dickies work shirt (in charcoal).
Short-sleeve Polos
Short sleeve polo-style shirts are pretty easy to find. The style that John wears is a bit shorter on the sleeves, and solid colors - usually grey, dark blue, or black.
As far as colors and fit go, these short-sleeve polo shirts fit Diggle's style really well. If you want something a bit more of an athletic fit, these H2H polos would still work perfectly for the style.
Button-up Long-sleeve Dress Shirts
These aren't the shirts that Dig wears when he's got a suit on, I'm talking about the times when he's wearing dark jeans or dress pants (without the coat of course).
Out of all of these shirts that Dig wears, my favorite is the dark blue (maybe almost purple?) shirt that he seems to wear pretty often. My favorite match to this is the casual button down in navy.
For the rest of John's colored dress shirts, I'd suggest these J. VER dress shirts. They come in so many colors, you can match pretty much all of John's.
Undershirt
John mostly sticks to tank tops, but we also see him a few times in a black short-sleeve t-shirt. Depending on which look you're going for, you may or may not need it, but I like these Russel tank tops.
If you're going with the t-shirt look, then I highly recommend American Apparel's t-shirts, they fit really well.
John's Jeans & Dress Pants
The style of his jeans look like straight legs to me, and Dig always sticks with darker colors. It makes sense, since he's usually wearing button-up and polo-style shirts.
These Levi's 514 jeans match Dig's style well. I'd go with a darker color like "Midnight" or "Burch".
Dress Pants
As far as colors go, I don't think Dig wears black dress pants, they're usually a grey/dark grey color. As for style, they just look like normal flat-front pants.
These flat-front Dockers in the various "Storm Heather" colors would be a perfect match to John's pants. If you prefer the slim-fit look, these Calvin Klein dress pants would work perfectly.
John Diggle's Shoes, Ties, & Watch
It's kind of hard to tell exactly what John's shoes look like. From the best shots that I could see, they look like low-top lace-up shoes in black. They also look a bit shiny. I'm assuming they were going for a shoe that looked decent with dress pants/dark jeans, but also would allow Dig to run.
These KEEN hike oxfords are the closest match I could find, and I think they look pretty good. They're basically a really nice looking sneaker, which is what John wears.
I also think these Keen dress oxford work shoes look really close, but the tread on them does look a bit too think to be an exact match.
Dig's Ties & Watch
Like most of his clothing, John sticks to darker colors when it comes to his ties. Dark greys and blues would work well, with a bit of a light pattern.
This Stylefad tie in navy blue looks a lot like a tie he would wear. I also really like this Difou tie, it's dark with light, diagonal stripes (it is a bit on the expensive side though).
I don't think John is always wearing his watch, but when we do see it, it looks like a military/outdoors style watch. It's all black with a relatively small dial, and from what I can tell, probably a rubber strap.
These military watches can get pretty expensive, but John's look's like it's probably not too fancy. I'd recommend this Smith & Wesson S.W.A.T. watch. It's relatively cheap and matches Dig's watch pretty well.