Eliminating that climbing shoe stench

Every climber knows the shame of hiding their mangled and musty climbing shoes. No corner of any closet, car or dorm is ever deep enough to stop the rankness from filling the air. Every climber knows the embarrassment of carpoolers crawling in, only to get scent-slapped by the world’s most rotten (and expensive) air fresheners. However, a life-long climber from Texas hopes to change that with a new invention called the Odopac.

The Odopac uses activated carbon cloth to trap the organic matter within gasses released by odor-causing microbes—much like a carbon filter that cleans water—and allows the shoes to breathe and dry for their next use. It’s designed as a small pouch to easily slip shoes in and stores them neatly in backpacks. Eventually, the carbon material exhausts, but it only needs “reactivation” once a year by letting it sit in direct sunlight for about ten minutes.

“We are dedicated rock climbers who know the struggle of what climbing shoe odor can do to backpacks, cars, and other small spaces,” Odopac’s mission statement says. “We simply want to help climbers from this contamination for two reasons; personal hygiene, and reduce the amount of backpacks and bags that become ruined and are thrown away.”

Founder Dillon Moody once trained on the Team USA climbing team as a speed climbing and bouldering competitor before starting Odopac. In his years traveling around the world, Moody learned that one of the only things more annoying on a plane than a crying baby is a smelly pair of climbing shoes.

“I created the Odopac to combat shoe odor because of traveling to rock climbing gyms across North America for competitions, and commuting to practices 4 times a week,” Moody said. “I wanted to help out other climbers that were having problems of funking up their gear bags or cars.”

To cope, Moody and other competitors would routinely throw away the backpacks they used to store their shoes and repeat the cycle once the backpacks became oversaturated with shoe-stank. As a student studying sustainability at the University of Texas Austin, Moody knew he could do something about the problem.

“We also want to help climbers stop throwing away gym bags, tote bags, and ruining expensive climbing backpacks and gear. Therefore reducing their personal amount of waste and the climbing community as a whole.”

Moody hopes to release a new version of the Odopac with larger size options and color choices in the near future. To learn more about Moody’s invention or to purchase one, visit odopac.com.