Two bags with the same advertised capacity can hold very different amounts, and the difference is usually an end tunnel.

What a shoe tunnel is actually for

Odour is the reason people give. Grit is the better one. Shoes carry gravel, dust and floor grit, and abrasive grit loose in a main compartment is what wears the inside of a bag out from within.

Separating the shoes keeps the abrasive material in a lined box you can tip out.

It only helps with smell if it is vented

An unvented shoe compartment is a sealed container with the worst thing in the bag inside it. That concentrates the problem rather than removing it.

Vented at the inner end, with a wipeable coated lining, it genuinely improves the whole bag.

The number that disappears

The tunnel takes its volume out of the main compartment. A headline capacity that includes it tells you almost nothing about what you can pack.

Ask for the total capacity and the usable main compartment as two separate numbers. Any supplier who has actually measured their bag can give you both.

When to skip it

If your members carry a lot and change shoes rarely, a larger main compartment is simply the better bag, and a separate lined shoe pouch costs less than the tunnel does.

We will tell you which way round your use case falls before you order a thousand of the wrong one.