SHOP $165, lucchese.com
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Not everything needs to be reinvented, but we’re obsessed with optimizing. Optimizing ourselves, optimizing products—it’s all part of this weird improvement-and-newness complex. My algorithm will show me ads for smart bar carts, smart vacuums, and smart toilet seats. The Internet wants to sell me the comfiest pants ever made or barefoot shoes that will fix how I walk. (Do I need to fix that?)
The travel world is one of the worst offenders. There are a million brands that make a million travel-hack products that will all end up in a landfill pretty soon. You know what I actually need while traveling? A bag—sometimes a suitcase—and a Dopp kit. I want all three of those things to last me as long as possible. About a year ago, after a few years of searching, I found this Lucchese Dopp kit that looks like it’ll go to the grave with me.
Yes, you need a Dopp kit.
When I surveyed friends, coworkers, and random men in bars, pretty quickly I discovered that a lot of guys are in need of a good Dopp kit. Some have never owned one. They just put their toothbrush in a Ziploc bag and call it a day. Others have one from one of those travel-hack Instagram brands that is falling apart at the seams.
Let me address the first crowd: You need a Dopp kit. No one’s life is so bare-bones to not need one. My travel “routine” includes dental care, face wash, cologne, and a razor if I’ll be gone for more than a weekend—no serums, moisturizers, or whatever else. I still pack this Dopp kit every time I pack a bag. Beyond holding toiletries, it has three smaller compartments for my other essentials. Need my phone charger? In the Dopp kit. Earbuds? In the Dopp kit. Keys to my car when I get back home? In the Dopp kit. It all just makes life easier.
SHOP $165, lucchese.com
This is as good as a Dopp kit gets.
For the other crowd, you have a shitty Dopp kit now, or you’re looking to buy a good one, and your algorithm suggests one made of water-repellent neoprene or ballistic nylon (whatever that is). Stop. Don’t buy those. Why are leather purses more coveted than synthetic ones? They get better the longer you own them. Same thing here. Despite what other brands want to sell you, leather is still the most reliable material for these small goods, and no other American brand matches Lucchese in terms of leather quality and construction.
I’ve spoken to higher-ups at Lucchese. They, the individuals and the company at large, are obsessive about leather quality. This Dopp kit is full-grain cowhide. Full-grain meaning it uses the whole of the animal’s hide, so it’s dense, durable, and gets better over time. Then the trim and corners are reinforced with an extra bit of smooth leather. To finish it off, there’s antique brass on the zipper and snap closures. Sure, the price might be higher than for the Dopp kit you saw on Instagram, but that is not touching this in terms of quality.
SHOP $165, lucchese.com
You’ll never have to buy another.
Price and quality bring up a good final point here. This Lucchese Dopp kit will run you double or triple the cost of the cheap and colorful synthetic ones. Those, however, have a max lifespan of about ten years. This one will last your entire life, and I can pretty much guarantee that. Lucchese can’t say that for legal reasons, but unless you take a knife to the stitching or throw it through a chemical wash, it’s going to be in your medicine cabinet when you die. For all the online talk of sustainability and bargain hunting, buying one Dopp kit to use for the rest of your life is probably the most sustainable and frugal move you can make.
I don’t really know what other way to sell you on a Dopp kit. It’s something every guy can use, in some capacity or another. It doesn’t need to be all that fancy. It just has to hold your stuff, look good doing it, and last a long time. I spent a few years looking for a Dopp kit to do that. This was the one I settled on, and now I’m dropping out of the race. I encourage you to buy one and do the same.
SHOP $165, lucchese.com
Photographs by Joe Lingeman. Prop styling by Heather Greene.
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