How CamPaq Clear Camping Bags Were Featured on Kidspot
Before there was CamPaq, there was one very frustrated woman standing in a camper trailer on the road to Uluru, unable to find a single pair of clean socks.
That trip became the moment CamPaq was born, and it's the story Kidspot's Josephine Agostino sat down to write about: how a Queensland traveller turned a packing problem into a business.
The trip that started it all
Back in 2016, Therese and her husband Andrew set off on a six-week road trip to Uluru in their camper trailer. With no proper clothes storage on board, everything went into duffle bags, and finding anything at night turned into a nightly headache.
"There was no clothes storage, so everything was in duffle bags, and six weeks of that gave me the irrits," Therese told Kidspot. "That's when I thought there had to be a better way to organise our belongings and find things at night. I searched for clear bags, but I couldn't find any."
It wasn't until early 2021, when Therese's government contract work dried up during COVID, that she decided to actually solve the problem rather than just live with it.
From spare room to camping show
Ten months later, CamPaq existed: a range of heavy-duty clear PVC bags with built-in storage dividers, designed so you could see exactly what was packed without unzipping a single thing.
"I could have cried, I was so excited," Therese said of seeing the finished product for the first time. "It was like, 'Oh my God, I've done this. Even if I never sell any, this is what I've done all by myself.'"
CamPaq launched at a caravan show in October 2021, and the very first sale is still one Therese remembers vividly. Since then, the bags have sold in the thousands, ranging from $49 to $79, and one camping show alone brought in $5,000 in just three days.
Built on belief, not certainty
Getting CamPaq off the ground wasn't a small bet. Therese dipped into her savings around $50,000, to fund the first run.
"I truly believed in it," she said. "I had looked around, and there was nothing else like it on the market." By the end of the first year, the business had broken even, which Therese counts as a genuine win. "I don't expect to make a profit yet. I don't have my head in the clouds about how a new business works."
Life on the road, full time
What started in a spare room is now run entirely from the road. Therese and Andrew sold their house and most of their belongings to travel Australia full time, taking CamPaq to camping shows along the way.
"My husband does all the driving, and I'm always on the laptop working," Therese said. "When I have a bad day at a show, he's so supportive. I couldn't do it without him."
These days, CamPaq bags are used well beyond the original camper trailer trip that inspired them. "My daughters and granddaughter use it all the time, and we have four large bags under our bed in the caravan for clothes, shoes and linens," Therese said. "We wouldn't go anywhere without them."
You can read Josephine Agostino's original feature over on Kidspot. And if you're after the same clear, organised packing system Therese designed after that long trip to Uluru, take a look at our camping bag bundles.