When every gram matters — whether you’re fastpacking into the hills or squeezing one more piece of kit into your hand luggage — the Nomadix Ultralight Towel earns its keep. Weighing just 225 grams and packing down to the size of a small bottle, it’s built from recycled MicroSuede that’s buttery soft, highly absorbent and quick to dry. It shakes off sand, resists odour, offers UPF 50+ protection and comes with its own tiny stuff sack to keep things tidy in your pack. Designed for life on the move, this is the towel that disappears when you don’t need it and performs brilliantly when you do — a proper go-anywhere essential for travellers, hikers and anyone who’s always chasing the next trail, swim or sunrise.
Spend enough time living out of a duffel, chasing coastlines, or bouncing between trailheads and you start to realise something: the more you carry, the less you actually get to roam. That was the lightbulb moment for three friends — Zack Helminiak, Chace Petersen and Hunter Robinson — somewhere between desert highways and mountain passes in a packed-to-the-brim ’98 Subaru Outback. If they could own less, they’d do more. So they built a brand around that idea.
Nomadix makes the kind of gear that earns the space it takes up — versatile, durable, beautifully made products designed to replace half the stuff in your pack. Their all-in-one towels became the cult favourite that launched the brand, a single piece of kit that works for travel, camping, yoga, surf sessions and the odd river-dip rinse-off. And they didn’t cut corners to get there. Most Nomadix textiles are made from 88–100% post-consumer recycled polyester, crafted through a closed-loop process that diverts plastic bottles away from our oceans and turns them into hard-wearing fibres. They’re a proud Social Purpose Corporation, a 1% for the Planet member, and one of the outdoor industry’s loudest voices calling for better, cleaner manufacturing — from ditching PFAS in their insulated blankets to avoiding water-polluting dyes from day one.
A decade on from their scrappy Kickstarter debut, Nomadix has gone from niche towel disruptors to a global name trusted by adventurers, yogis, van-lifers and weekend warriors alike. You’ll now see their towels and puffer blankets in more than 1,000 stores across the US — including REI — proof that their philosophy resonates far beyond that original road trip. Because in a world drowning in plastic waste and throwaway gear, Nomadix is pushing for something better: fewer things, used more often, built to last longer, and made in a way that protects the places that inspire us. Own less. Do more. And go further with gear that’s ready for every adventure after.
