About
Designed in Johnstown, PA. Ships from PA.
I used to lift with a drawstring bag. I hated leaving it in the locker room and I hated carrying it, because the strings caught on everything. That is the bind. Either your stuff sits somewhere you do not control, or you drag something annoying around with you all session.
So I left it in a locker. Then I spent the whole workout walking back to it. Belt. Wraps. Sleeves. Six trips on a leg day, and six more to put it all back. Get there, unpack in the locker room, put the keys away, train, then walk back to the locker room again before I can leave. Never just out the door.
Every bag I tried after that made it worse. They slouched into a pile the second I set them down. They were too big to keep with me. They had straps hanging off them.
So I wrote down what it had to do and built to that.
- Stays with me. It never goes in a locker.
- Stands up on its own, loaded or empty. No slouching into a pile.
- Small enough to sit at my feet at the station.
- Belt rides on the outside so it does not eat the inside.
- Zippers that outlive the bag.
- Buy it once.
That is The Forge. A 4mm thick metal wire frame so it holds its shape full or empty. 1680D Oxford. #10 metal YKK zippers. PVC base feet, because it is going to sit on a gym floor every single session.
Every one of those was the more expensive option. 1680D costs more than 600D. Metal YKK costs more than nylon. The wire frame is why it stands up and it is also why it was not cheap to make. I specced it the way I would want it if I were buying it once, then priced it from there instead of the other way around.
They are in my garage and I pack and ship every single one myself. When your bag shows up, I am the person who put it in the box.
If it is not what I just described, send it back inside 90 days and I will refund it. If it ever fails on the build, I will replace it. That is the whole promise and I am the one on the hook for it.
Zach Hancock
Founder, Ventra Gear