REVIEW – I have always been in search of the perfect bag. That means I own many bags for the different types activities in which I participate. The one activity that I have been unable to find the perfect bag for is for when I go to the gym. I go to the gym after work so I need it to be able to hold my gym gear plus the occasional small item or lunch bag I may take to work that day. Let’s see if the Kong Jr. gym bag by the King Kong company worked out for me.
What is it?
The Kong Jr. gym bag is a multi-compartment bag made specifically to carry your gym clothing and accessories to the gym.
What’s in the box?
The only thing in the box was the bag itself as you can see in the picture above. It came wrapped in a plastic sleeve in a standard cardboard shipping box. The bag is advertised as being 30% smaller than their standard King Kong gym bag. The dimensions of the bag are 11 inches tall, by 18 inches wide and 11 inches deep. The original bag has an extra inch on the height and depth and is 20 inches long.
Design and Features
The bag has several pockets and features that allow you to really organize your gym paraphernalia. The bag is made of 1000D nylon. It seems very well constructed with #10 YKK zippers and heavy duty buckles. Each zipper has a really nice pull tab on it in addition to the standard zipper pull. That makes it really easy to pull the zippers. They don’t use plastic on any buckle piece.
From the main picture at the top of this review, you can see that the bag comes with two pockets that run along the front side of the bag. One is a zippered pocket and the other is a Velcro flap pocket. The picture above shows both pockets open. The small black strip you can see at the top of each pocket is where the bag handles are sewn into the main body of the bag. In the Velcro pocket bag I have my weightlifting gloves and in the zippered pocket, I have some Beats headphones. I like the separate pockets so I know which pocket has what I need depending on the type of workout I am doing that day. I don’t wear headphones when strength training so when I do that, I know I just need to go to the Velcro pocket. There is more room for other stuff in the zippered pocket, but I just did not have anything to put in them.
One one end of the bag is a shoe holder. The first picture on the left shows my size 9 /12 women’s shoes in the pocket. The next picture shows my husband’s size 11 shoes. You can see there is still a bit more room for a larger shoe in the pocket. The shoe pocket is made with water-resistant 1000D nylon. King Kong advertises the pocket as a place to store wet clothing in there if you wished to keep your other gym items dry. My only complaint with the shoe pocket is there are no ventilation holes of any kind in the area. I have been using the bag now for several weeks and have not had any odor issues, but I see where this could possibly be an issue depending on what you put in there.
The next picture above shows inside the main compartment of the bag. On the left side are my gym clothes for the day. I have shorts, tights, shirt socks, and sports bra in there. The blue bulk on the right-hand side is the shoe pocket with my shoes inside. Obviously, the larger your shoes, the more internal room they will take in the bag. I still had plenty of room in the bag to place in there my lunch bag holding a sandwich and chips. I know on the larger bag folks talk about putting weight belts and other things inside the bag, There would certainly be room for that if you wanted to use that extra room for more things like towels or the weight belts if you did not put a lunch in there as I did.
Above the shoe pocket, there is a smaller zippered pocket. I put my Beats case in there so you could get an idea of the depth. Basically, this pocket takes the top half of the side and the shoe pocket takes the bottom half.
The opposite side of the bag has two nice external mesh pockets you could slip your keys or wallet to if you wished or anything else you might want.
Inside that side zipper is a full sized pocket that has a small zippered mesh pocket where I stored deodorant and comb. There was more room in that pocket for other things. This is a nicely sized pocket and could easily hold a gym towel or any other similar sized item.
Finally one of my favorite things about this bag is the carry handle. Every gym bag I have owned has always had a Velcro-based handle to hold the two carry straps together. I have had gym bag handles fail over time as the Velcro eventually wore out. The King Kong bag uses a pair of magnets. At first, I was skeptical thinking it would not really hold the handles together very well. Well, I am happy to report I was wrong and they do a great job. I also love how quite they are. I often open my bag at work to get things out of it and it is nice not to let the whole office know I am opening it due to no loud Velcro sound.
What I like
I love the size of this bag. It has worked out perfectly for me in that aspect. Only a couple of times I have wished I had a larger bag, but that was because I was bringing something extra into the office that I would normally not bring that was big and bulky. This bag will hold just what I need and not feel like I am lugging a big piece of luggage to the gym. I love the magnetic handle and the large shoulder strap with removable padding. The shoulder strap is held on with heavy duty swivel buckles so I don’t spend a lot of time untwisting the shoulder handle as I do on bags with fixed shoulder straps.
What can be improved
The only suggestion I have is for King Kong to add a couple of ventilation holes on the zipper flap of the shoe compartment. I feel that would really help keep the bag smelling fresher in the long run.
Price: $109.95
Where to buy: King Kong Apparel and Amazon
Source: The sample was provided by King Kong
