THIS IS THE ULTIMATE GYM-TO-OFFICE BAG
Williams & Hiraka
4 Minute Read
With a velvet lined jewelry pouch, a laptop sleeve and space to show off your weightlifting belt with pride, training backpacks have never looked this beautiful—or been this functional.
Dany Garcia, a former professional athlete, decided that she’d had enough of subpar training equipment. Within the universe of the gym, accessories have forever been designed for function only. Yet Garcia wanted tools that aligned with her style, and she was proud to carry around. She felt there was a gap in the market for robust training backpacks that women could equally pair with their everyday outfits. Military-style backpacks were functional, sure, but they weren’t feminine. So she decided to create Danimás and set about the mission to amplify the lifestyle around training that truly reflects the multi-hyphenate woman.
Give a woman carte blanche to redesign a backpack, and she will create one that enables you to carry your whole world on your shoulders. It will look sophisticated, too.
The Danimás Pro backpack is the world’s first luxury training bag. “Women shouldn’t have to leave their taste level at the door whenever we enter the gym,” says Garcia, chairwoman of the Garcia Companies, Hollywood producer and entrepreneur, who took up bodybuilding after her 40th birthday and earned her pro card five years later. Garcia is the definition of a multi-hyphenate, balancing a busy work schedule with intense training days. She took all those days, weeks, and years spent juggling it all and created a backpack that enabled women to do a million things at once. “Women are always multitasking,” says Garcia. “The Pro backpack will set you up to win.”
Crafted from 100 percent recycled Italian nylon, the Danimás Pro backpack features all the intuitive functionality you’d expect from a bag designed by a woman and aimed at women. In the spirit of 5* service, it includes features you never knew you needed. Do you, for example, take your diamonds off at the gym, to go swimming or when you decompress in the sauna? There’s a dedicated, velvet-lined jewelry pouch for that. You won’t leave your earrings behind in the locker ever again.
Amber Pinkerton for Danimás
Do you usually head to the gym before or after work, and therefore need to pack spare shoes, gear, beauty products, underwear, a hairbrush—basically everything but the kitchen sink—each day? No problem. The bag has 12 pockets, pouches and compartments to comfortably pack everything in. There’s space for your trainers and separate spaces to keep your gear—and plenty of available compartments to separate clean from sweaty items. There are two side pouches big enough to fit a one-liter water bottle, and a front zip pouch that offers handy access to everything from your bank card to your AirPods and passport—this backpack doubles up as an excellent flight bag.
Designed for daily use, it’s also a smart option for the office as it’s capacious enough to carry everything you need. As a unisex design, it’s sizable enough to be carried and loved by men, too. There’s an interior and an exterior laptop compartment, which means you can organize your bag to keep your work essentials separate from your training tools; you don’t need to carry a separate bag. Consolidating your training bag and your office bag is a time saver—there’s only one bag to pack, so there’s less to think about—but it also frees up your arms. Avoid feeling like a bag lady on busy commutes. The collection also includes the Pro Water Bottle Bag, which is insulated to optimally store your hydration; this is an athlete-first design at its finest. Stay tuned for new colors of both styles, which will be unveiled soon.
“Women are always multitasking. The Pro backpack sets you up to win.”
Luxury handbags have always been a status symbol; people communicate something about themselves through the bags that they carry. A Hermès Kelly or Birkin telegraphs prestige and rarity; a quilted Chanel brings a quintessential uptown polish. Gym bags have never been considered in this same vein before. What if we were to romanticize our training tools? After all, a gym bag can be considered more meaningful than a luxury handbag as it is a symbol of our personal growth and self-development. It’s a bag that reminds us that we are investing in ourselves. Each time we pick it up, it signifies that we are affording ourselves the time, energy and headspace to train.
Women carry the majority of the emotional load at home. Often, those hours spent at the gym are the only moments of personal time. That’s why we need daily tools that enable us to carry the things we actually need to carry. We need bags that do much more than simply look nice. Though the Pro bag really does look nice. Available in black and iridescent blue, which shimmers underneath the lights, the chunky, silver-toned Italian zippers bring the bling: Garcia likens them to jewelry. This hardware adds glamour and polish, making the backpack feel appropriate for the office, drinks or dinner.
The Pro backpack is a daily reminder of effort. And effort, says Garcia, demands true beauty and intentionality as well as functionality. Not only that, a woman’s effort deserves to be acknowledged with luxury. Women deserve tools that reflect the magnitude of their commitment to themselves through strength training; they deserve a tool that becomes their trusted ally. One that’s by their side, in their locker or on their backs, throughout their journey. Discovering your own strength is transformative, and the equipment should therefore return that gravitas.
Amber Pinkerton for Danimás
The piece de resistance of the Pro backpack? The ability to carry and externally showcase your weight belt. It features specially curated loops and fixtures to fasten your belt, transforming your tool for strength into a style statement. It acts as a signal to the outside world. “I am strong”, it says. “I take my training seriously.” Purposefully, this feature frees up space inside your backpack for everything else the day demands.
Give a woman carte blanche to create a backpack—your backpack—and she will create a bag that’s so intuitive and so meaningful, you won’t know how you ever trained without it. Are you ready to join the movement?
Invest in your strength. Discover the shop.
