 In today's video, I'm gonna be giving you guys all the tips and tricks that I have learned over the years when it comes to traveling efficiently, bringing a duffel bag for a carry-on, and still allowing yourself to have space to buy souvenirs when you're on the trip to bring things back home as well. In the line of work that I have been in, I have been traveling a lot over the past 10 years, and trust me when I tell you, I have learned a lot of things along the way, so hopefully I can make your process just a little bit smoother for you as well. And if you didn't know by now, my name is DJ, and this is the DNA show. On this channel, I love talking about sneakers, giving you guys tips and tricks, and especially travel hacks like this. So if you haven't already, consider subscribing and joining the fam. We're on the road to a million subscribers, and you could be the next one to get us there. So step number one, you're gonna need to establish what type of trip is this, where are you going, and how long is the duration of the trip. So for example, this could be a vacation with the family where you do a lot of different things, or it could be a relaxing vacation where you don't do that many things at all. Or like me, it's kind of a mix between the two. I still have to worry about business, but I'm also able to have a good time on the trip as well. So once you know what type of trip you're going on, the next thing you need to do is check the weather on your phone for the destination and see what the weather is gonna be like in the daytime and at night time, if it's expected to rain, what the humidity is like, because on some trips, you don't even have to pack a pair of sweats or a hoodie at all because it's just gonna be hot the whole time, and you might only need that for your travel outfit. So now that we got the general basis on how our trip is going to be, and we're understanding what type of items we're going to pack, we need to understand what to pack and how we're gonna pack it in the bag that we have. So for me in particular, I'm a sneakerhead, but obviously I like to use the Kicks K sneaker duffel bag. I really love this bag because it's under 100 bucks and I'm a size 13 and I can stand my shoes up in here and actually fit four pairs of shoes in this bag, depending on the trip on where I'm going and what I'm doing and if I decide to do a check-in or not, but besides that, this has been a really good bag for me if I go on a weekend or a one week trip, I can fit everything in here that I need. So what I love to do first is understand what sneakers I'm gonna be wearing on the trip and then I can kind of curate my vibe with my outfits along those lines based off of the sneakers that I decide to wear. Now a lot of people always wonder what sneakers do I pack on my trips? Again, they're all going to vary depending on the trip, whether it may be I'm gonna be at a Disneyland or something like that and I'm walking around all day and I'm gonna be on my feet. I'm definitely gonna wanna make sure that I pack a nice good looking comfy shoe. I love to rock prestos. That's one of my favorite go-to rockers for comfy shoes and all day vibes and feeling good on my feet. Everybody has different preferences, but I definitely love the prestos. So on a quick weekend trip like this, I'm gonna pack two pairs of shoes plus the pair of shoes that are on my feet to give me three pairs of sneakers in total. So when it comes to packing these three types of sneakers, I always love to wear my bulkiest sneaker because that gives me the opportunity to have more space in my bag to fit maybe an extra T-shirt or more socks or small trinkets depending on what I plan on buying on the trip or simply just having a lighter bag as I carry it through the airport. Now this is gonna be another huge tip that I know not everybody has but I'm pretty sure most people will have the opportunity to get if you are watching this video and I have TSA pre-check and I'm telling you right now, especially for a sneakerhead or truly anybody who just wants to make their life a lot simpler when it comes to going through TSA and being able to get to the airport a little bit later, especially knowing that you don't have a check-in bag. When you have just a duffel bag and everything that you need, you don't have to worry about taking your shoes off, you don't have to worry about taking your laptop out of your bag. All those other things are so annoying it just takes extra time. You can literally just drop your bag, run it through the belt, walk through the beeper, your everything is good to go and you're out of there really fast. And another thing is when you're going through TSA, typically you have to take your sneakers off. So for me, like a sneakerhead, sometimes they put your shoes on the belt and they let it run through and it can actually scuff your sneakers and people are like, oh, who cares? But I had a thousand dollar pair of sneakers that ran through the belt one time and the people made me run it through and they ended up scuffing the entire side of my sneaker and then I had to go through a whole six month process to try to get reimbursement from TSA for my sneakers, which again is a whole nother story but at the end of the day, like I said, if you have pre-check, which now I do, I never have to worry about that anymore. So now that we know what sneakers we plan on taking on the trip, we need to pack those sneakers. So what are the best ways to pack the shoes? One thing that I love about the duffel bag here is you can see there's different compartments where I can put the shoes in individually and separate them from rubbing on each other. And another way to prevent creasing on the shoes is going to be making sure that you stuff the sneakers with your socks and your underwear because you're gonna have to pack them in the bag anyways, so it might as well make sense to stick them inside of there. That way you can prevent creases on the shoes, still fill that space and not take up other space that is not needed. So basically what I do is fold all my clothes up into squares, some people like to roll their clothes up. A lot of people have different methods but what I have found just folding my clothes into squares, neatly piled up, having my jeans on the bottom and then the shirts on top and then making sure I don't have a white shirt with anything that could potentially get it dirty and leave a stain on it and then all those different factors. But as I stack the shirts in there, it still gives me an opportunity to leave room to maybe throw a couple of hats inside of my bag. And typically when it's a weekend trip like this, I have extra room in the bag so I can now potentially buy a piece of merchandise whether it may be an extra shirt or some pants or go shopping at the store and pick something up, something like that. So it's always cool to know that I got a little bit of extra space in there even if I do end up deciding to throw my hats or other things in there as accessories that go along with my outfit. Now some people are probably wondering why I think it's so important to fit all of my stuff inside of my carry-on bag and not worry about checking bags. Now, typically when it comes to checking in your bags, that's gonna be an item that you have to either pay for or if you have a status depending on where you're at. I get two free check bags whenever I fly so I don't have to pay for it. But I know everybody doesn't have that status when it comes to flying it. So sometimes you have to pay 30, 40, 50, 60 bucks for a bag to check that in and that adds to your additional cost when you could bring it in as a carry-on item like we're saying here. And then now you don't have to worry about paying for that fee. And another thing that I get so scared of, if I'm wearing expensive sneakers or I have my valuable items that I love and cherish so much and I love rocking these things and my outfits and all that stuff, what if they lose my bag? Well now I have no clothes, no extra stuff, all my shoes are gone, I got nothing to wear, I'm gonna have to buy stuff when I get there. Hopefully they can find my bag in time and it's gonna ruin my whole day. Well, I never have to worry about that because I got everything in my duffel bag. So typically if I'm going on a trip like this, I never check it in a bag and I'm always using my duffel bag. And then as my personal bag, I always have that on my back and that's the bag that you typically put underneath your seat when you're flying on the plane. They always want you to put one in the overhead bin, the larger bag, and then the small bag like a purse or a backpack or something like that. Those usually go underneath the seat where your feet are at. And inside that bag, that's what I have on my camera gear and my microphones, my chargers, my cables, my extra mask, my different things like that, my laptop, you name it, all that type of technical stuff that I need for my trips as I go and make videos. I always keep everything inside of there. Now another essential item that I think every sneaker head must have or even just anybody who wants to keep their stuff fresh and clean is gonna be sneaker wipes. I think you need to make sure that you have those inside your bag. That way you can always make sure you can wipe down your shoes whenever you're on a trip and something happens. You may scuff it and you're on your way to a meeting or you got a party or something like that and then next thing you know, your shoes get messed up. So having sneaker wipes is always convenient. They don't take up too much space and it always keeps your shoes fresh. So at the end of the day, I hope this video was helpful and gave you guys more tips and tricks and again, if you're ever interested in the Kicks case bag, I make sure that I got a link for you guys down below in the description or pin in the comment section with the discount code. Don't forget to use the code DNA show and that'll get you guys a discount on your orders. I'm excited to see you guys as travel processes and hopefully you guys can send me some pics on your journeys as well and having your travel bags and how it looks on your setup and everything like that. Shoot me a DM on IG and I'd love to see it. I appreciate you guys as always. All right y'all, I'm off. Yo, if you enjoyed this video and wanna grow your collection or make extra money on the side, I built a VIP mastermind that will teach you everything that I've learned about growing my sneaker collection over the past 15 years. This will also give you access to the DNA fam in my VIP community where we talk about investing outside of sneakers and don't worry. If you don't plan on joining the VIP community, it's okay. I also set up a private DNA fam community that gives you access to all the behind the scenes looks from the studio and multiple chances to win free sneakers and gear from weekly and monthly challenges. So all you need to do is click on the link down below in the description or the first link pinned in the comment section. That will get you set up and into the community. I'm excited to see you guys on the inside.