I find that it always exciting to be among the first to use new racquets, new balls, new gloves, and new bags. 🙂
Over the time that I’ve been posting on this website, I have done a series of posts about “What’s In My Bag”. There was a series of videos in 2017 from the pros taking stuff out of their bags that inspired the first post. I don’t want to see how much stuff it holds, I need to see how well it can organize that stuff and keep it accessible. My posts have therefore always focused on that aspect of the bag.
Gearbox has just released their newest Backpack, in a black and blue color scheme, that is similar to last year’s red Backpack. It will be released to the general racquetball playing public soon! As of this writing, it was only made available to sponsored players for all of the sports that Gearbox supports [Racquetball, Pickleball, Paddleball, and Squash]. The photos below will demonstrate what I’ve put in the bag, and where it fits, and even demonstrate that there are 2 extra external pockets that I didn’t even put things in yet!
Prior year bag articles: 2024, 2022, 2019, 2017
The following screenshots capture the Gearbox website for the bag which will be available soon.
You should also be able to see a copy of my review on the website, once it is live for all.
First image: The empty bag as it comes out of the box, along with 2 new t-shirts. One can never have too many Gearbox t-shirts. ICON & BLOCK
The next two images show the dedicated and isolated shoe tunnel. There are a pair of size 13 shoes in that tunnel for the rest of the series of photos.
The fourth image shows the mesh pocket. I’ve chosen to put my Gearbox Vision frames in that pocket.
The fifth and sixth images show the key/wallet pocket at the top of the bag. I keep my gym pass and my vehicle keys in that pocket while I am playing, I don’t tend to take my wallet into the facility at all.
The seventh, eighth, and ninth images show the right-side pocket, opposite the mesh pocket. This is big enough for a package of three balls. I’ve chosen to demonstrate this with the Electric Blue pack of three.
The 10th, 11th, and 12th images show the racquet pocket. This easily holds three racquets. My preferred racquet is the Gearbox GX1 170 Teardrop Blue.
The 13th and 14th images show the integrated hook, which is stored in that racquet compartment and can be used to hook the bag to an outdoor fence or to a locker in a gym. It seems to be very solid and well connected. I do not know how often I will end up using this hook.
The 15th and 16th images show an awl. I carry this to push wrist-cords thru the ends of racquets when they come loose. I used to use this much more frequently when I ran the racquetball league in Marietta, Georgia. The awl fits in a small pouch at the top of the racquet compartment.
The 17th and 18th images show the reinforcements of the zippers on that racquet compartment. I like that to be very secure when traveling into and out of the gym (and when the bag is in my vehicle) so I added a carabiner to keep the zippers tight at the top.
The 19th and 20th images show the glove strap. This holds three XL Movement gloves, allowing them to be quickly available and/or air-drying when playing multiple games and matches. It is a great little enhancement that makes a bigger difference than a novice would first expect.
The 21st, 22nd, and 23rd images show the main clothing compartment. The shoe tunnel is visible in the bottom of this compartment and the shoes are completely separated from the clothes. There are also some internal pockets here, I am not yet using any of those for specific things. This area is big enough to hold 4-5 XXL shirts, some shorts, and extra socks. When just playing for fun, I do always take 2 court shirts. When playing a tournament, I try to take as many as I can, with a minimum of two shirts per expected match. Dry shirts make a significant mental improvement between games 1 and 2. I do also have another two gloves, two headbands, and two patella knee straps [Amazon affiliate link there, all other links are to the Gearbox website] that see use when my outside-the-court injuries re-flare while playing.
The 24th and 25th images show the secondary clothing compartment, just in front of the main clothing compartment. In this one, I keep my medicine kit and a towel or two. I always keep business cards in that medicine kit as well, both for contacting me and for contacting Fix My Racquet.
The 26th and 27th images show the outermost two pockets. I have not yet decided what needs to live in these pockets. I love the organization already available in the first 14 pockets!
The last three images show the handle for carrying the backpack like a carryon bag and the backpack straps. With the prior backpack, I mostly used the handle. I suspect that I will do that with this new backpack as well.
Let me know on Reddit or Facebook what you would put in those extra pockets!
