We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
My favorite duffel bag is on a Cyber Monday sale, and if you didn't snag one last time it was discounted, take another look, because this is one of the best (and most affordable!) gym bags out there. I'm talking about the Adidas Defender. It comes in different sizes; I own the Small, which is on sale for just $26.99 in black today. Prices vary by color, but you can also get the Medium for $26.50 in black, or the Large for $38.50 in red, to name a few.
I’m not kidding when I say it’s my favorite gym bag. I bought mine five years ago, almost to the day. I’ve used it almost daily since then, and it still looks brand new. (Minus the purple ink that I spilled in one of the inside pockets, but I was able to get almost all of it out.)
This is my regular duty gym bag, and here’s what I normally carry in it:
A pair of Nike Romaleo 3 weightlifting shoes in the side pocket with the mesh panel
A wealth of snacks and electrolytes in the other side pocket, including a sack of fun-size sour patch to share with my friends.
Small items like my inhaler, lip balm, and a phone charging cable in the little front zipper pocket
A leather belt (Pioneer Cut 3” suede single-prong), which I keep in the main compartment, curled around all the rest of my stuff
Also in the main compartment, inside the belt: two pairs of knee sleeves, two pairs of knee wraps, a resistance band for my shoulder warmup routine, a water bottle, a training journal, and probably a dozen other things I’ve forgotten about, but they are in there when I need them, if I can find them, probably. (UPDATE: I found a long-lost phone battery in the bottom of my bag today. Water bottle is missing, though. Watch this space for more as this story develops.)
And this is the small bag! There’s even enough room to add a lunchbox and/or a packing cube with a change of clothes for when I go to competitions. The only place it feels cramped is in the shoe compartment: If I had bigger feet, I'd probably appreciate the Medium bag.
The Medium is also a handy size for non-gym purposes. Our managing editor, Meghan Walbert, snagged two Mediums for her teenager sons the last time these duffels were on sale. When I asked her today how they’re holding up, she sent a picture of them packed for a holiday road trip, with the note, “They’re great!”
I’ll add that if you want to use these duffels as a travel bag, you may want to pick up some packing cubes to use with them. May I suggest a two-pack of the U+U clean/dirty packing cubes that are also on sale today? Each one has a zipper on the back to put your dirty laundry in for the trip home (so the two-pack will give two people each room for their clean and dirty clothes—or one person can have a cube for their gym bag and a cube for their suitcase, which is how I use them.)
Here are those links again:
Adidas Defender duffel bag in Small (38 liter) ($26.99 in black, normally $40)
Adidas Defender duffel bag in Medium (66 liters), ($26.50 in black, normally $45)
Adidas Defender duffel bag in Large (110 liters) ($38.50 in red, normally $55).
These prices are for the classic black version with white logo, but there's a whole rainbow of colors available. (Though prices vary by color.)
