The Dopp Kit Is Named for a Leatherworker Most Men Have Never Heard Of

In 1919, according to the Wikipedia history of the toiletry bag, a German leatherworker in America named Charles Doppelt patented an idea he called Dopps. It was a small leather case for the things a man needed to wash and shave, and it was about to outlive almost everything else he made.

The holiday travel season is the time of year when the bag comes out of the back of the cupboard. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26 this year, and many men will pack the same zipped case they have carried for a decade without knowing why it has a name at all. The answer is a family business, an Army contract and a trademark that lapsed and came back.

From a workshop to the Army

Doppelt was a leather goods maker who had emigrated from Germany to the United States. The leather maker Moore and Giles, in its history of the Dopp kit, says he invented the toiletry case in 1919 with his nephew's help. Some retailers' histories give a later date, but both sources we opened agree on 1919.

For its first years the case was a local product. Doppelt sold it near home, until the Second World War gave him a far bigger customer. He won a contract with the US Army, and Moore and Giles says the Army supplied the kits to all recruits, which made Doppelt's name known across the country.

That is the moment the Dopp kit became a habit. Recruits learned to keep their shaving and washing things in one case, and Moore and Giles says soldiers kept using them after the war. A product that had been sold locally became something men expected to own.

How a brand became a word

The rest of the story is about ownership. Wikipedia records that Doppelt's company was bought by Samsonite in the early 1970s and later acquired by Buxton in 1979. The trademark was cancelled in 2003 and reacquired in 2017, with Buxton listed as the current owner.

By then it hardly mattered. The term is now generic, Wikipedia notes. Men who have never heard of Doppelt call any small toiletry case a Dopp kit, whether it is leather, canvas or nylon, and whoever made it.

What fits in the bag, by our count

The modern Dopp kit has a second job its inventor never imagined, getting through airport security. The TSA liquids rule allows travel sized containers of 3.4 ounces, or 100 milliliters, or less per item in a carry on bag, all packed into one quart sized bag. Medications and infant and child nourishment are exempt. Larger containers belong in checked luggage.

We did the arithmetic on what that allows. A US quart is 32 fluid ounces.

Nine is a ceiling, not a target. Bottles are round and the bag is flat, so in practice a quart bag holds fewer than nine full travel bottles. The answer is to carry fewer liquids, not smaller ones.

Packing one well

Start with the bag. A good Dopp kit opens wide, stands up on a sink, and has a lining that wipes clean. Leather looks best with age, and a waxed canvas or nylon kit is easier to clean if a bottle leaks. Keep the liquids in a separate clear quart bag inside it, so you can lift them out at security without unpacking everything else.

Then decide what earns a place. A razor and a small tube of cream, as in our guide to safety razor shaving. A toothbrush and paste. A sunscreen, because our SPF guide applies in a December airport too. A small moisturizer from the routine in our skincare basics, and a travel spray of whatever you wear, chosen from a fragrance wardrobe rather than the whole collection. The rule covers liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes, so a bar of soap leaves more of the allowance for the things that have to be liquid.

Check the rules on blades before you fly, and pack the kit last, on top, where it can come out in one move. The Army handed Doppelt's case to recruits who had to pack fast. It still works best packed that way. For more, see the whole Grooming section.