Our lives can be defined as rushing from one place to another—from going to the dentist, to running to pick up your kid from practice. One transition that many people have to undertake every day is going from work straight to the gym.
However, we all know—even us non-experts in CrossFit—that we can’t power through squats in pleated pants. This might mean that you pack a bag filled with your gym stuff or just throw everything you need in the back of your car. However, the best CrossFit gym bag can fit everything you need and so much more. It organizes your belongings and can help give you a sense of belonging to the CrossFit movement (as opposed to stuffing your towel into your daughter’s Hello Kitty backpack). Having the proper equipment can also make you feel more motivated to work out and ready to take on any exercise. We’ve comprised a list of 5 best product, and the Adidas Defender III just tops them all.
Extra features: available in a wide range of colors and 2 size options, reinforced 3D ripstop material for durability, FreshPAK technology eliminates bacterial odors
Rated as our Editor’s Choice, with plenty of amazing features, the Adidas Defender III is a 100% polyester ports bag made to last and designed to hold all your CrossFit or workout essentials.
The great thing about the Adidas Defender III that sets it apart from most bags on the market is that it is available in a wide range of colors and two different size options, so it can suit any athlete or situation.
Another great feature is that it comes with is FreshPAK technology, which helps resist and eliminate bacterial odors that often are associated with used gym clothes, towels, and shoes. You never have to worry about your gym bag stinking up the car or bring embarrassed of its stench as your ride the train home.
The Adidas Defender III comes with a roomy main compartment that stands tall for easy packing, especially if you find yourself in a very small locker room with a tight locker. The two zipper-end and zipper-outside pockets work great to stash the little essentials you may need.
You can easily carry this gym bag with the reinforced 3D ripstop material designed on the strap, which is located in the end pocket of bag. You can alternatively use the removable padded shoulder strap for extra comfort – we can all relate to the pain that is caused by a heavy bag digging into our arms! Especially since it comes in two different sizes, you can choose which one best suits the amount of equipment you bring to your workouts.
Extra features: durable water-resistant bottom lining
The NIKE Brasilia Medium Duffel Bag is made of 100% Polyester material, making it very tough.
The entire exterior and interior of the bag is durable, so you can rest assured that none of your things will slip out or break through the bag material. Even if you stuff the NIKE Brasilia to the brim, everything will be held in place.
The bag has a water-resistant bottom that helps keep essentials dry and protected. In this day and age, this is an extremely important feature since you’ll more often than not be carrying an iPhone or an iPad in your bag, especially if you’re coming from work.
To hold the NIKE Brasilia duffel, you’ll have dual handles and a removable padded shoulder strap for versatile carrying. Whether you want to be hands-free and talk on the phone while walking to the gym, or you want to get your hands on the straps to get a full-on hold of the weight, you can choose how you’d prefer to carry it.
There is a spacious main compartment for easy access and storage for everything you’ll need during your workout. You can also use the interior hanging pocket, which secures small items or the mesh side pocket, convenient for small-item storage.
Extra features: comes with a lifetime warranty, available in 8 color options and 2 sizes
The Mouteenoo gym bag is a sturdy and durable choice for a gym bag for any of your workouts—whether you’re into CrossFit or not. It is designed with high-quality water resistant material and held together with strong nylon threads. With all the extra reinforcement, you don’t have to worry about it ever falling apart.
The bag also secures together with SBS metal zippers for each pocket, so you won’t ever snag a zipper—no matter how full your bag is.
Speaking of full, you can fill the Mouteenoo gym bag to the brim, with a separate shoe compartment, specifically designed to keep your shoes and dirty gear in a separate location.
The bag comes with a shoulder strap that has a pad on it for comfortable wearing and it is adjustable, so you can wear it at the length that works for you. You can also alternatively use the handhold strap only.
In the bag, you’ll find enough places to store and stash your stuff – with a side mesh pocket, one side shoe compartment, two outer zipped pockets for quick access items, one inner pocket, and a main compartment. You can fit all of your gear – from your gym clothes to your shoes, from your water bottle to your wallet. It has everything you need to transport all your equipment to the gym and back.
Extra features: double-stitched seams, available in 5 colors
The King Kong Original 3.0 Nylon Gym Bag is one the of the most advanced, up-to-date bags by this brand. Perfectly designed for your CrossFit supplies and needs, you’ll have everything you could ever want in one bag. Although it’s specifically suited for CrossFit, you can use the King Kong Original 3.0 Nylon Gym Bag for any type of sports activity.
One of the most important features of the King Kong Bag is that it is virtually unbreakable. Since it is made with durable military spec. 1000D nylon, you can rest assured that no matter what you put it in it, your bag will withstand the pressure. Just like a CrossFit workout, no matter what’s been thrown in there, the bag still holds together. Its stronger, double-stitched seams and heavier-duty shoulder strap clasps definitely help keep everything inside and fit to carry.
The bag has a capacity of 11.9 gallons, which can easily carry everything you need— including your gym clothes, accessories, shoes, towel, and valuables. Even more, it has plenty of different compartments and partitions to help protect and organize your things, so you’re not just stuffing everything in there.
Its exterior is highly abrasion-resistant, making it virtually impossible to rip. It’s also water-resistant, which means you can easily stick in your wet towels or swimming gear—even throw in your leaky water bottle if you have to! The King Kong Original 3.0 Nylon Gym Bag comes with heavy-duty steel buckles and Ultra-Tough #10 YKK Zippers.
Extra features: elastic straps and loops for small items
Advertised as the ultimate CrossFit bag, the Rigor Gear Duffle Bag can hold all your gear, extra equipment, and anything else with ease. Since it has numerous pockets and two shoe compartments, is designed in a large size and has a padded shoulder strap, you can rest assured that it will be able to fit all your gear.
The Rigor Gear bag can hold up to 11.9 gallons of internal storage, so you don‘t have to choose what you can afford to bring – you can easily fit your towels, clothes, weight belts, and even foam rollers. Although you might think that it couldn’t possibly fit into a locker since it holds so much, the Rigor bag has no difficulties with this.
If you need to store both your biking and running shoes, you don’t have to worry about not having one or the other on any particular day. As the Rigor Bag has a dual-shoe compartment – you can fit both! The bag also contains five external mesh pockets, so you can air out all that used gym gear or reach whatever you need with ease.
All of the pouches on the Rigor Bag are secured with zippers and velcro, so you can keep personal items safe in their compartments.
Now that you have our top picks for the best CrossFit gym bag on the market, you probably need some help in deciding which is best for your situation, your budget, and your gear.
Well, the best decision comes down to a number of different factors. In this buying guide, we’re going to help break down those features you need to consider when choosing the right bag and hopefully, convince you that little bit more that owning a CrossFit gym bag is the right choice for you.
Advantages of owning a CrossFit gym bag
If you’re going to be traveling to and from work or storing the bag in your car to keep with you at all times, a specifically designed CrossFit gym bag can help you save you a ton of time, space, and hassle when transporting your gear from one place to another.
You need to have a bag large enough to fit all your gear. However, size isn’t everything. You’ll also need that bag to be sturdy enough to store and keep your gear safe. The various compartments and pockets will help keep your stuff organized with tough zippers and velcro, and will secure your items in place from things like water or your dirty gear.
Extra features can also come in handy. For example, an odor-resistant bag is a great feature to have if you’re planning to use public transportation on your way home!
All of these features, and more, can be found in a CrossFit gym bag – so getting one can be a great investment.
Features to consider when choosing a CrossFit gym bag
You’ll need an adequate size, the right number of pockets and compartments, a sturdily designed material, and certain straps to hold it all up.
Here are some other features you should consider:
Size – will all my CrossFit gym gear fit?
If you make a list—go ahead, we’ll wait—of all the things you carry to and from your CrossFit gym, you’ll need this list to help consider which bag is right for you.
Do you normally need one or two pairs of shoes? Do you usually store snacks or an already made protein shake that shouldn’t be getting mixed in with your dirty clothes?
What kind of gear do you take with you? You need space for your clothes, your sleeves, your belts, perhaps for your jump rope, and your change of shoes. You might even need a separate compartment for a water bottle! If you are playing racquetball or table tennis you should find the bag to fit racquets and paddles in.
If you’re planning on showering there, you’ll need a place for a wet towel (and enough room for a towel to begin with), you’ll need a separate compartment for your wet or stinky clothes, and even more, you’ll need a safe place to put your valuables that definitely should not mix—like your phone, headphones, any other electronics, keys, and wallet (maybe even a quick-access place for your bus pass).
Wet pocket and shoe compartments
It definitely is helpful to have a waterproof pocket that can help store your wet clothes and towel so that it won’t mix with your dry things. A shoe compartment also helps to keep them separated—particularly useful if they may have dirt on the bottom!
It also helps if the entire bag is waterproof—or at least has a waterproof bottom, so you don’t have to worry about placing it on the wet floor without ruining all your electronics.
Bottle holder
A bottle holder or a shake holder can go a long way. Not only does this keep it from leaking and tipping over while you move and walk with your bag, you can easily find it again when you need it the most—when you’re thirsty after your workout!
Material
Normally, you’ll see that nylon and polyester are the most common materials, like our most versatile pick, the Mouteenoo Gym Bag, and our best all-around, the King Kong Original 3.0. We believe nylon is the best, but polyester is quite good, too!
Nylon, although tougher than polyester, is also more breathable.
With all the wet gear, towel, and shoes you’ll have in your bag after a workout, you’ll want it to be as breathable as possible, eliminating the possibility that bacteria will grow.
Pockets and Compartments
Depending on how much gear you have and how separated they need to be, if you have more pockets and separate compartments, it will definitely help you organize your things better. If you’re worried about your valuables, for example, it’s helpful to have a separate waterproof compartment to keep all your wet things and even your bottle. If you’ll be using public transportation, you can even have look for a bag with an easy-to-access pocket to hold your wallet, keys and bus pass. The NIKE Brasilia bag, for example, has great small pockets and compartments to slip those essentials in. And it does not matter if you play football, table tennis. or you are an acrobat, spending days jumping on a trampoline, gym bags are an essential item to purchase for every self-respecting sportsman.
Weight
You’ve already done your heavy-lifting at your workout—you don’t need to exert yourself more carrying your bag home! Try to aim for a bag that is designed with the light material. Especially if you’ll be storing a wet towel and clothes, it’ll only add to the total weight, making you struggle after your workout that much more.
Style – Backpack or Duffel
This is highly based on personal preference. You can either choose to carry a backpack style or a duffle-bag style.
The duffel bags can help you organize everything in its proper place. They also are great to slip right into the locker. However, if you’re going to be walking long distances or biking to the gym, a duffel bag is not ideal. Backpacks are better suited for this purpose. Unfortunately, they don’t have that much space and have less separate compartments than a duffel bag does. As a result, it’s much more difficult to organize your stuff. In addition, they usually lack a wet-pocket/ shoe compartment.
Shoulder strap features
Having the option to be able to choose between carrying your bag with a shoulder strap and dual hand straps is great. The shoulder strap should also be comfortable, it helps if it has extra padding, like the Adidas Defender III.
Machine-washable
It definitely helps if you can just eventually throw your entire bag (after taking out the components inside, of course) into the wash and clean it. Especially with all the sweaty bacteria brewing inside, you’ll want to be able to do that every now and then to prevent stench from building up!
Warranty
When it comes to warranty, go big or go home. Try and aim for the bags that have a lifetime warranty, like the Mouteenoo Gym Bag, and stray away from those who guarantee just one year of service.
Before you purchase a bag, here are the answers to some of the questions you may have:
To help you finalize your decision, we’re going to present you with our top three picks on the market.
The Adidas Defender III comes with two different size options and is perfect if you’re on a budget. It also has reinforced 3D ripstop material for extra durability—proving that it is not made with cheap material. The FreshPAK technology helps eliminate bacterial odors, making it virtually odor-free.
The NIKE Brasilia Medium Duffel Bag is a comfortable CrossFit duffel, compact on the exterior and spacious on the inside.
The Mouteenoo Gym Bag is one of the most versatile options of CrossFit gym bags out there. Durable and with a lifetime warranty – never worry about having to replace your bag again.
We hope that our full guide has helped you choose the perfect CrossFit Gym bag.
