Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Buying A Dopp Kit - How To Buy A Quality Bathroom Bag - Men's Toiletry Bag - Blue Claw Co
Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, I'm going to be talking
to you about the Dopp kit.
If you haven't already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel. By doing that, these videos
will come right to you. In addition, if you like this, if you find it useful, the "like"
button is right down there and I would appreciate the like.
Also, if you want to learn more about men's style, I just recently updated my free 47-page
e-book on men's style. I got rid of the blank pages, made it even better. And so, you can
grab that. There's a link right down below this and it will take you to the page in which
you can download that and jump on to my free newsletter.
So let's go ahead and start talking about the Dopp kit. All right, now here is a Dopp
kitt, basically a very simple bag and it's used for holding your toiletries. And in fact,
it's got quite a few names, so you'll hear toiletry bag, bathroom bag, toilet kit, soap
kit. This thing has really become popular.
Well, the story goes back to this German immigrant. I believe it was Charles Doppelt and before
World War II, he developed this bag. What happened in World War II is that he got a
contract with the US Military and literally millions of these bags were issued to GIs.
So we come back from World War II -- well, not "we". My grandfather was there, but I
wasn’t, but it was one of those things that people got used to having that. It made sense.
We'll talk about why it makes sense, but they came back with that habit. Millions of them
were sold.
Now, Samsonite owns the Dopp brand, but there are many companies such as Blue Claw Co. who
was kind enough to support this video and they make great Dopp kits. So let's go ahead
and talk about what makes a great Dopp kit.
Well, I've got four things which I really look for on a Dopp kit, and the first one
is going to be a tough outer exterior, so this one uses ballistic nylon. Again, this
is the Bay Head bag made by Blue Claw Co., and this uses a ballistic nylon that's really
tough. You could probably, I don't know, sit on this and get dragged by my truck for a
while and be okay, and I'm not going to test that.
The other thing is the inside of this. I don't know if you can see it, but it's waterproof.
Why is that important? Because if you're putting shampoo bottles, if you're putting shaving
cream, anything in here which in a sense could leak or could bust open, or any type of lotion,
all of a sudden, you're not going to have to worry about it getting on your clothing.
You may think, "Okay, Ziploc bags are going to be fine. Why would I go out and spend money
on a Dopp kit?" Well, let's just say they're not always very careful with your luggage
in the airports or any other places, and you're going to find that whenever you do need this,
if you don't think ahead and you don't protect your clothing, you're just going to have that
instance, and I've had it happen to me, when you open up your suitcase and you're like,
"Why didn’t I think to make this investment?"
The best thing about this, and I'm going to get to the third and fourth point here in
a second, is that I love if you buy a quality Dopp kit initially. You're never going to
have to buy one again. And just to give you an example, I've had this bag since I was
16. I don't like the look of it and I think it's a bit overcomplicated. This one has three
pouches, but yeah, if you buy a quality Dopp kit when you first get started, you're going
to have this thing for 30 to 40 years. I can't imagine how it would get destroyed.
Okay, so that last two things that I'm looking for in a quality Dopp kit are going to be
portability. And so, you don't want something really large. The great part about this size
is that you're limited by the size. No matter how much stuff you stick in here, it's just
not going to get bigger. And by that, it makes sure that it's portable.
I like a simple, good-looking design, and the reason I like this is there is something
to aesthetics. And the reason I don't like this bag is it's incredibly ugly and it's
not a simple design. It's got three openings, which this opening actually has two pockets.
Here's a funny story. I opened this up, I don't know, maybe it was a couple of months
ago, and I found something in here that I hadn't seen for probably 15 years. I don't
even know if it's -- there are probably things still hidden in this stuff, but it's not simple
and it's not classic.
Again, this is the basic design that Charles Doppelt came up with. It's not super complicated
and I think this is something classic that you should stick with. So make sure you've
got a good, tough exterior. Make sure the inside is waterproof. Make sure that it is
a small, compact design, and keep it stylish.
So that summarizes the Dopp kit. I would love to hear from you guys in the comments. Maybe
you've got a particular brand or company that you've been very happy with. And if you want
to learn more about Dopp kits, make sure you go to the link down below. I'm going to link
you to an article and we go over this in much more detail.
Guys, I will see you in the next video. Take care. Bye-bye.