According to newspaper accounts unearthed by Merriam-Webster's Jim Rader, the Dopp Kit was first produced by Charles Doppelt, a leather goods designer who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the early 1900s.

Dopp kit was designed by Jerome Harris for his uncle Charles Doppelt a German immigrant to Chicago in the early 1900s. The kits became widely known during the Second World War. Doppelt's company was purchased by Samsonite in the early 1970s.