• by Sara Guaglione , November 14, 2017

Hearst's men's magazine Esquire has relaunched its online Style section, redesigning its landing page to a more visual, grid-based design and doubling its fashion and style coverage.

Esquire.com’s Style section will now focus on more original photography, celebrity style features and long-form trend articles and market stories, according to the publisher.

Style is “part of Esquire’s DNA” and is “a pillar of our brand," Esquire.com site director Michael Sebastian said.

“Now we’re giving it more of the attention and care it deserves. We’re creating high-production, quality content around what we know our readers are already looking for — whether that’s the best winter coats, the hottest new sneaker launches or the most stylish watch,” he said.

According to Hearst, Esquire.com has seen a 15% increase in traffic to fashion and style content year-over-year.

Sebastian, who took over as Esquire’s site director in May, told WWD earlier this month: “Style was the area that kept coming up where we thought, ‘We do a lot of good stuff, but it’s not as high profile as some of the stuff we do around politics and entertainment.'”  

Esquire.com has hired "Blamo!" podcast host Jeremy Kirkland to publish a weekly column on the latest watch trends. His first installment reviews Shinola’s Lake Erie Monster watch.

Author and essayist Lucas Mann has also joined the site as a columnist. He will be producing humorous commentary on the latest men’s fashion trends.

The site has also bought back the “Esquire Endorsement” column, which previously appeared in the magazine, to feature one editor-selected product, hack or tip each week. The goal is "to find the best ways to spend your hard-earned cash,” according to the blurb describing the column.

The first “Esquire Endorsement” column is dedicated to Levi’s trucker jacket.

These new franchises are a concerted effort by Hearst to boost revenue from ecommerce affiliate links; publishers get a cut of purchases made by readers who click on their link and buy a product on an ecommerce platform, such as Amazon.

Esquire.com says it has received a recent surge in ecommerce affiliate revenue. Esquire.com is one of Hearst's top sites when it comes to such strategies, Sebastian told WWD.

As part of the Style section's relaunch, the brand premiered a weekly YouTube video series titled “Re-Fashioned.” In the series, style influencer Sabir M. Peele highlights the fashion trends making a comeback, from baggy pants to fanny packs, every Thursday.