The Zippered STNKY Bag Locks Away Odors on Even the Grossest Worn Clothes
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The Problem: Gross clothes, plain and simple. Whether it's sweaty workout clothes leaving an odorous aura in my gym bag or trying to keep a week’s worth of already-worn clothes away from the clean ones on vacation with nary a hamper in sight, the problem is simply gross clothes.
The Solution: The STNKY Bag, an odor-blocking zipper bag that makes storing and cleaning worn clothes a breeze.
The Pitch:
Does this sound familiar to you? You’ve just spent a few hours at the gym. You’re about to hit the showers. You peel off activewear that may have looked great when you left the house, but are now so sweat-drenched and gross that once you have them off, you hold them away from you like they’re toxic waste. Yet, as gross as they are now, it’s gonna get even worse as their dampness, smell, and even bacteria lay dormant in your gym bag for the ride home, making everything in there, and the bag itself, downright disgusting by the time you finally get it home. What choice do you have but to open it back up, pinch your nose, reach in, and toss it all into the wash?
Or how about this one? You’re on vacation, away from the worries and troubles of home — but that also means you’re away from your hamper. So now you’re saddled with the by-product of fun in the sun, a week’s worth of sweaty, worn clothes. Do you come up with some convoluted organizational system to keep your clean socks away from the dirty ones in the confines of your suitcase? Or do you stuff it all in a plastic trash bag that, without being too gross, simply marinates the contents during your trip back home?
If either above struggles strike a chord with you, then you need to get acquainted with the STNKY Bag. I did, and I can tell you that neither I nor my gym bag and suitcase ever want to go back to a world without it.
So what exactly is a STNKY bag? It’s more than just a zippered laundry bag. It's your one-stop stink-spread-preventing sack that will keep you from ever having to handle sweaty clothes again. That’s because once it’s in the bag, it doesn’t have to come out until it's freshly washed and dried.
How does the STNKY bag manage to do this, you ask? Well, it’s all about the design. Its outer layer is made from an odor-resistant material that locks in moisture, odor, and bacteria. But the STNKY bag also sports an inner layer, a mesh bag that cradles the clothes tossed in, attached at the top of the bag’s interior — which is where the STNKY bag’s most clever feature comes into play.
The bag has zippers at both the top and bottom. The top zipper is where you deposit your dirty clothes, which are caught by the mesh inner bag. Once you’re home and it’s time to toss them in the laundry, simply unzip the bottom zipper, turning the bag inside out. With the mesh sack exposed and still sealed at the top, you just toss the whole sack into the washing machine as is and start a wash cycle. Once it’s done, take the newly washed bag with all its contents still inside, and toss it in the dryer. Then it’s just a matter of flipping the bag inward once more, zipping up the bottom, unzipping the top, and dumping out your freshly cleaned clothes.
The Test:
Of course, that’s all how it’s supposed to work. We’ve all encountered our fair share of purportedly helpful products that just don’t live up to their hype. I wanted to see if the STNKY bag passed the (literal) smell test, and luckily, I had just such an opportunity to put it through the wringer. Not only do I go to the gym three times a week, but I had a weeklong vacation to the West Coast planned (during a heat wave, no less), so I got ahold of the STNKY XL (which measures 18 x 25 inches as opposed to the STNKY Standard’s 14 x 18 inches) and decided to put it to the test.
First up was the gym. After 2 hours of intense exercise (and two episodes of Emily in Paris while on the treadmill), it was time to shower, so into the STNKY Bag went the workout clothes — shirt, socks, and all. When I later returned to the locker, I braced myself for the overwhelming “Eugh” that typically wafts out from a freshly opened locker containing less-than-fresh clothes. But instead, the STNKY Bag passed its first test with flying colors, keeping any whiff of foul odor trapped within its zippered confines. I was relieved to see it delivered on the promised odor resistance, but I wasn’t overly surprised. This was the feature of the bag I expected to function as advertised. It was the flippable mesh bag laundry element that had me far more skeptical.
Back home and in the laundry room, I unzipped the bottom and pulled down the mesh bag as instructed. As I looked at my clump of gross garments, I did feel briefly grateful to not have to be directly handling them, but that feeling was overridden by the overwhelming thought of “This isn’t gonna work.” The clothes were all too packed-together in the bag. Surely a stray sock, trapped in this congealed sweaty-clothes monstrosity, would emerge from the dryer, still soaked and gross. Nevertheless, into the laundry it went, along with a sizable household load, and then to the dryer. When the final bell dinged, out came the STNKY Bag. Flipping the mesh portion back, I unzipped the top and dumped out the gym clothes within. To my genuine surprise, every single item, socks and all, emerged fully washed and dried. Here too, it delivered completely on its advertised feature. Which meant it was ready for its third and final test.
Did you know that on the day Disneyland opened in 1955, the Southern California heat was so brutal that, the story goes, women’s heels actually melted into the concrete? Well, Anaheim decided to let me experience that same historic sweltering climate first-hand, as an Orange County heatwave coincided with my trip to the Happiest, and apparently Hottest, Place on Earth — so you can only imagine the state my week’s worth of worn clothes was in. Yet, the STNKY XL held them all, socks, underclothes, shorts, and a fair amount of ironically retro T-shirts, with nary a foul scent escaping. And despite being packed into that mesh bag pretty tight, when it made its way through the washer and dryer, every piece of clothing emerged clean and dry, purged of every drop of sweat, stain, and Splash Mountain water.
The Bottom Line: I can’t sing the praises of the STNKY Bag enough. The epitome of a “Why didn’t I think of that?” problem-solving product, it’s totally fair to think from the outset that it overpromises on its odor-blocking and laundry-assisting aspects, but in my experience, it truly delivered and continues to do so. I’m still using the STNKY Bag for every gym trip, and you better believe it’s coming along with me on my next vacation as well. Add a STNKY Bag to your packing list, and you’ll never want to travel without it.
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