Back in the early 1980’s a few river guides pondered the one piece of gear that could make the difference between a cold wet night and a dry cozy one: the dry-bag. Why, they thought, hadn’t somebody done anything to advance the concept beyond the cheap roll-down sacks everybody used? They only worked with just the right amount of gear inside, painstakingly rolled and folded. If you wanted to get that guidebook out of the bottom, a fifteen-minute unpacking and re-packing ordeal would ensue, only to find a damp wad of pages.
Unless, of course, you had lined it with trash bags, “just in case.” And when the inevitable flips, swims, and pins occurred, there was a good chance that everyone would be drying their gear around the campfire instead of singing songs. So they listed the short comings of the common dry-bag, and invented the ZipDry® bag as the ultimate waterproof luggage: 1. First and most obvious, was the CLOSURE…. – simply rolling something a bunch of times will not keep water out under submersion. Solution: the ZipDry® seal. Snap it shut like a freezer bag, and anything inside is protected – even underwater. 2. “Second was the FABRIC….” Even today, most bags are made from cheap PVC-coated fabrics. PVC is environmentally toxic (hence the fumes when it has been out in the sun), becomes stiff when cold, and wears out quickly.