A new startup wants to keep nasty odors out of your gym bag with a new duffel that can kill its own germs.
Sigma Fit, an athletic clothing brand founded in Cairo, Egypt that began its U.S. operations in Chicago in May, is introducing the Transforma X, a gym bag that uses solar power to sanitize clothes and charge electronics. Now that the fitness clothing brand is establishing itself in Chicago, its co-founder Nabil Khalifa, said the company wants to raise capital to expand its brand across the U.S. and eventually abroad.
In the next couple weeks, the company is launching a Kickstarter campaign to launch Transforma X. The bag uses a portable UV and Ozone air filter to remove germs and odor-causing bacteria from clothes and shoes in as little as 20 minutes, without using water.
The bag also comes with compartments to hold electronics and keep food or beverages cold. The startup also created stain-resistant t-shirts coated with nanotechnology that keeps clothing dry, he added.
“Human beings consume water [when] they wash their clothes and with the water they drink, so if we can reduce that, we can save a lot of water,” Khalifa said. “Also, with the bag, because it has the solar power, we try to use solar power to charge [electronics], so there’s less electricity consumed.”
Sigma Fit currently has four U.S. employees and 15 employees in Egypt. Khalifa is based in the U.S. and his other two co-founders, Omar El Metwally and Eslam Rashwan, are based in Egypt but travel to the U.S. frequently, he said.
Khalifa formerly worked as a petroleum engineer for Schlumberger and a founder of a Menidy platform which sold quilts, cotton scarves and other Egyptian handmade artifacts.
Sigma Fit currently operates in the U.S., Egypt and Kuwait. Khalifa decided to open up Sigma’s U.S. office because of his wife, a Chicago native who he met in Egypt. He later discovered the city’s startup community and abundant business resources. In the future, he said he foresees the company expanding to California and New York.
“The people were incredibly nice and helpful, and the city is so diverse,” Khalifa said of Chicago. “People really wanted to listen to me and listen to what I’m offering, and that made me love the city.”
