Cleats? Check. Jersey? Check.
Fashionable designer toiletry bag … check?
There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the handheld pouches that your favorite MLS stars bring to gamedays. When the league’s brightest strut into matches with trendy “tunnel fits” that showcase their style on social media, toiletry bags — at first glance — can appear as just an accent piece or minor accessory.
No larger than a book and having no discernible on-field role, how vital could they really be?
“Without it, then I feel like I’m missing something,” Max Arfsten, a U.S. men’s national team player for the Columbus Crew, told ESPN.
“It’s an essential,” added LA Galaxy forward Christian Ramírez. “You sort of feel empty if you’re walking without one.”
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Even for a two-time UEFA Champions League finalist like Marco Reus, who moved to MLS last year with the Galaxy, there’s no overlooking the necessity of always having your toiletry bag on hand.
“It’s the same feeling,” said the former Germany international with a laugh to ESPN when asked if his game would also be thrown off without his bag.
Blurring the line between fashion, storage and a physical representation of what you’ve achieved in your career, there’s an unexpected layer of meaning for this ubiquitous gameday item. Ranging from flashy designer bags that cost thousands to knockoffs bought off the streets of New York — and even plastic grocery bags from the local store — no day-to-day is complete without the small but ever-present gear.
Here’s what eight MLS players had to say about them, beginning with what they put inside them.
An extension of the players
“I always put something that I need,” said Evander, FC Cincinnati’s All-Star attacker, to ESPN. “Deodorant spray, toothpaste, [tooth]brush, soap, some perfume, cream, lotion.”
Grooming and body care products take up most of the limited real estate in the portable pouches, and while showcasing their bags, players gave ESPN a look into their hygiene routines and the personal items that they carry.
To name just few that stood out: Reus’ Goyard has a customized cologne with his name on it, Ramirez tosses a candy bag into his Louis Vuitton on gamedays, Arfsten has an “MLS Cup champions” pin in his own Louis Vuitton, while the San Jose Earthquakes forward Ousseni Bouda has a collection of fragrances from places like Europe and Morocco in his Coach bag.
Many hold similar hygiene products, but there is a personal touch to each and every one.
Glancing through the bags, it’s apparent that they’re an extension of the players who proudly opened up about them, which then makes sense as to why they would feel uneasy about not having them at practices, matches or, notably, during road trips.
“It would feel kind of weird,” said Evander when asked how he would feel if he didn’t have his Gucci bag. “Especially at away games when I have to travel and I have to take the wash bag. When you don’t have the stuff that you need there … you would feel completely weird.”
“[At] away games, it’s necessary,” added Bouda. “I don’t have any of those things in the away locker rooms or the stadiums.”
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For Cincy goalkeeper Roman Celentano, who tries to not be superstitious but needs certain items on gamedays — such as his own pair of socks and a beverage — a more direct route has been taken with the necessities that he likes to bring.
“My designer bag is found in most grocery stores in America. It’s just the brown plastic bag … a Kroger bag,” said the recent USMNT call-up. “Throw it in a grocery bag and then call it a day.”
The Midwestern-based grocer took notice. In an unanticipated gift for the player last summer, Celentano was given a Kroger-branded leather designer bag with his own initials on it. The goalkeeper is appreciative of the present given to him, but like others, he still has his own personal twist.
“I do use it, but it’s just got to go in the Kroger bag, in the grocery bag, because that’s what’s got us here,” Celentano said. “Why fix what isn’t broken?”
A fashionable ‘footballer starter kit’
If there’s a middle ground between the very modest (but roomy) grocery bag, and the more compact (yet stylish) designer bags, it must be a backpack. So why don’t more professional soccer players bring those to home games?
“The backpack sort of throws off the look,” Ramirez said. “Sometimes backpacks can add to the look, but the handbag or the toiletry bag just enhances it and lets the outfit stand out.”
San Jose’s Bouda believes that backpacks are in fact “too big.” Meanwhile Nashville SC’s All-Star striker Sam Surridge highlighted to ESPN that it’s easier to avoid a mess in his smaller Goyard wash bag, but the key overarching aspect of these toiletry bags are the aforementioned “looks” they can heighten when being photographed.
In MLS, players have the ability to showcase those looks during “tunnel fits.” Often chronicled on teams’ social media for home games, the tunnel fits are runway-esque photoshoots that put a spotlight on what players wear to games.
“In England, a lot of times you always wear your tracksuit, the club’s tracksuit to the games, you very rarely wear your own clothes — I’d never been at a club where you’d wear your own tunnel outfit and stuff, so it’s pretty cool that they do that in America,” Surridge said. “You can show a bit of your personality with your wash bag and your clothes.”
Showing off your character, and for newcomers, also showing off that you’re a professional player. “I look at the toiletry bag as, for lack of a better term, a footballer starter kit piece,” said E.L. Johnson, founder of forty-one, a soccer lifestyle platform specifically focused on the Concacaf region. “It’s like, ‘Hey, I made it when I have the luxury toiletry bag.'”
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Chasing the acceptance of their peers, some rookies don’t think twice about proving they’ve made it. After Arfsten signed his first pro contract, which he admitted “wasn’t even big” and that he “was not even making that much money,” the first purchase he made after earning a paycheck was a designer bag.
“I definitely got some banter like, ‘Oh, first check hasn’t even hit yet and he already bought the Louis Vuitton bag,'” he joked.
Sporting Kansas City’s Jansen Miller also wanted to quickly buy one after becoming a professional this year, but took a more frugal approach.
“I was in New York in Chinatown and I saw that they were selling them, fake ones on the side of the streets, and I was like, ‘Wait, that’ll be perfect, because then I don’t have to spend $2,000-3,000 on it,'” he said with a laugh. Twenty-five dollars later, and with nobody in the locker room taking notice, he’s now the satisfied owner of a knockoff. Although he’s told a few people, a majority of his teammates still have no idea.
“Nobody’s ever said anything,” Miller said. “It’ll be funny when the article comes out.”
Showcasing your next level on and off the field
If the toiletry bags are proof that you’ve made it as a pro, purchasing a new one can also be a symbol for growth. While some young players buy them to celebrate the start of their careers, others do so to celebrate personal milestones, both on and off the pitch.
Back in his lower-league days, Ramirez treated himself after a standout season in the now-defunct National American Soccer League.
“The one that I first bought, I bought it after my third year playing professional in the NASL, and I had just won the Golden Boot, so I was like, I’ll reward myself, and I spent $700 and I used that one for seven, eight years,” said the 34-year-old, who has since been given a new one by his wife. For Surridge, there’s a similar heartfelt connection with his Goyard, a birthday gift from his fiancée.
Whether they’re bought by the players themselves, given as a gift by a partner — or by a local grocery store — there’s also something to be said about how these bags are part of an off-the-field platform players are finding in the digital era of the sport. As their play on the field has garnered attention with the growth of soccer in North America ahead of the 2026 World Cup, so can the spotlight through their online personality, one that goes hand-in-hand with tunnel fits and the ever-present toiletry bags.
“As players begin to focus on their personal brands … fashion plays a part in that,” Johnson said. “It plays a role in them being visible and also being able to express themselves off the pitch in the same way that they do on the pitch.”
You don’t need to spend big money to accomplish this, either. Just ask Celentano, or if any up-and-coming players want to trick their teammates, Miller.
“Maybe I’ll add another knockoff to the collection,” said the Kansas City rookie. “Yeah, maybe a fur coat.”
