Most gear drying solutions are passive. You hang gear up, leave the bag open, or point a fan at a pile of pads. These approaches rely on ambient air conditions — temperature, humidity, airflow — that are rarely ideal, especially in Canadian homes in the fall and winter. ZipNDry takes a completely different approach.
The Core Idea: Forced Airflow Inside the Bag
ZipNDry is a motorized air circulation system that connects to your sports bag via a port. You plug the unit in, zip the bag shut, and the motor forces continuous airflow through the bag's interior. Air moves through every piece of gear, pulling moisture from the foam cores through the fabric and out via the exhaust system. The bag itself becomes a drying chamber.
Step 1: Connect and Zip
ZipNDry connects to your bag through a purpose-designed port. Once connected, you zip the bag completely shut. This is counterintuitive — you'd think you need the bag open to let air out. But sealing the bag creates a controlled airflow environment where the motor can push air through the gear rather than around it.
💡 Sealing the bag forces air to move through the gear rather than around it. This is the key difference between ZipNDry and a fan pointing at an open bag.
Step 2: Airflow Through Every Layer
The motor runs continuously, pushing air through the bag's interior. Because the bag is sealed and pressurized slightly, air finds paths through every piece of gear — through glove padding, through shin pad foam, through the layers of shoulder pads. Each piece of gear is exposed to constant moving air, not just on the surface but through the material.
- Moving air accelerates evaporation from foam cores by continuously replacing saturated air with dry air
- Continuous circulation prevents moisture from re-condensing inside the bag
- Airflow reaches the densest foam layers — the ones that take longest to dry passively
Step 3: 4–6 Hours to Completely Dry
In typical conditions, gear that would take 24–48 hours to dry passively is completely dry in 4–6 hours with ZipNDry running. That means you plug it in when you get home from an evening practice, and gear is dry before you go to sleep. For morning practices, it's dry before lunch.
Why This Works When Racks Don't
A drying rack gives you surface airflow — gear hanging in room air, drying from the outside in. The problem is foam: foam has very low porosity and the core moisture has no efficient escape path. ZipNDry creates airflow pressure that moves air through the gear from inside the sealed bag, forcing moisture out rather than waiting for it to slowly evaporate.
- Passive drying: ambient air touches gear surface only — core foam stays wet
- ZipNDry: forced air moves through gear — core foam dries in hours
- No unpacking required — works with gear packed exactly as it came off the ice
The Result: Dry Gear After Every Session
When gear is properly dried after every session, bacteria never establish the colonies that cause odour. Foam retains its protective properties longer. Gear lasts longer. And your house stops smelling like a rink. ZipNDry is a 20-year-in-the-making solution to a problem every hockey family has.