Stronger, smarter, sleeker Samsonite

Imagine a world with no more lost luggage. A world where your suitcase is so smart you can communicate with it via mobile phone. A world where your baggage has the invincible strength of Samson and the empire-toppling beauty of Delilah.

This is the new world of travel being created by Samsonite. Having stood for sturdy reliability these past hundred years, the luggage company is spinning a glamorous new image for this century with its upmarket Black Label collection, which it launched last month in Hong Kong. Five new luggage lines boast not only the height of technology but also enough design savvy to compete with the most fashionable luxury brands today.

Take, for example, the Signat. Originally a men’s attaché case that was a success in the ’60s, Samsonite shrank it, splashed it with hot colors and a flower print and is reissuing it as a women’s handbag. Now a mini-briefcase that’s as pretty as it was once powerful, Signat (pronounced "signet") is being touted as this year’s "It" bag by all the press who’ve previewed it. Looks like Samsonite has a hit on its hands.

Then there’s Pro-DLX, so favored by Virgin Airlines founder Richard Branson that he’s agreed to be its image model. This armored nylon, virtually indestructible line was inspired by travel in the old days, when cowboys rode horses but kept their hands free for a lasso or a gun. Much like saddlebags, Pro-DLX is luggage that can be broken down into separate, smaller components like a computer bag with pockets for Bluetooth, or a garment bag. These separate bags all attach and integrate into a single piece of mobile luggage you can maneuver with one hand.

"We’re going back to the roots of travel for today’s modern businessman, who has his coat, luggage, briefcase, phone and Blackberry to deal with," explains Samsonite CEO Marcello Bottoli. "The concept is to do as much as possible with one hand."

Credit for Samsonite’s stylish makeover goes to dynamic new head Bottoli, 43, who joined the company in 2004. "It is a sleeping beauty," he has said of his now billion-dollar employer. "It is a great brand that’s been around a long time, and it just got fat and tired, and we’re trying to make it a young brand that’s pretty and slim."

Fresh from inhabiting the same post at Louis Vuitton Malletier, Bottoli says there are few comparisons to be drawn between the two companies, though he seems to have taken a strategy or two along with him. If Vuitton’s point man for design is Marc Jacobs, Bottoli hired designer Quentin Mackay as Samsonite’s global creative director. After a long search, the Italian CEO found Mackay in the luxury accessories sector, crafting chic handbags for Loewe and Tanner Krolle.

"What this man’s going to bring to us is the future of Samsonite," says Bottoli. "A very important component which is design, aesthetics, and fashionability."

From the start, when Samsonite was founded in 1910 by the Shwayder brothers in Denver, Colorado, function was key, with heavy trunks and front packs in fashion.

By the ’30s and ’40s, luggage had evolved, "becoming more of a personal carry-on item rather than a large trunk," says Mackay. Jesse Shwayder also renamed the company after Samson, one of his biblical heroes, wanting to emphasize the strength of the luggage.

With innovations like magnesium cases, recessed locks, a wider range of colors and styles and the breakthrough of softside luggage in the ’60s, Samsonite was always on the cutting edge of travel. They were the first to put wheels on cases in the ’70s, the first to make vertical luggage, and the first to put four wheels on cases in their Spinner line, a favorite choice for navigating through cramped airports and plane aisles.

Samsonite has long supplied presidents, royalty and celebrities with baggage. "We just don’t want to show it," says Bottoli, who was happy to emboss the White House logo on a set of black hardside suitcases for US President Bill Clinton.

Like travel itself, the future of luggage is always changing. "Small pieces of luggage are becoming much more of an accessory item," Bottoli observes. "Large suitcases – you don’t care how it looks; you care how it protects your belongings. But if you have a small bag for meetings, daily activities, the attitude you develop is very similar to what ladies have with their handbags – it’s an extension of your personality."

And sometimes, an extension of your cell phone. "Today we have revolutionary luggage with Bluetooth," adds Mackay, "intelligent luggage that can communicate with your mobile phone."

Last December, we flew to the former Crown Colony on Philippine Airlines for the Black Label launch. At the Hong Kong Design
Center, Bottoli and Mackay toured the press through a comprehensive exhibit tracing the brand’s history. With old items circa Samsonite’s 1910 beginnings in Denver, Colorado, the bags on display ranged from Titanic-era monolithic trunks to the neon-colored, futuristic cubes of guest designer Marc Newson.

This season, Black Label has five new luggage collections to suit every possible need and taste – from the most diehard fashionista to the most tech-savvy business traveler.

Samsonite first dipped its toe into designer waters in 2000, inviting Philippe Starck to design for Black Label. Today, Bottoli plans to hire a guest designer every year – starting with Newson, who’s put his hip, modern stamp on everything from watches to furniture to restaurant interiors.

"We’ve known Marc for some time, and in terms of product design he’s the best around," says Bottoli. "He’s incredibly demanding, so he pushed us to the limit."

Newson’s line Scope features technology that he used only once before, for Nike sneakers – a system of molded foam and mesh that took two years to develop. The result? "Un-luggage" that is "light, simple, bright," says Bottoli. Newson’s belief in the line is so strong that for the first time he’s agreed to appear in an ad campaign.

Equally exciting for style mavens is Black Label Vintage designed by Mackay: a feminine, fashion-forward collection inspired by vintage trunks that allows a woman to organize clothes and shoes as she would in a real wardrobe.

"Fifty percent of travelers are female, especially in business, and that’s increasing," notes Bottoli.

"Luggage is inherently a masculine product: black and square, usually," adds Mackay. "We needed to add more emotion because we found that 80 percent of the people purchasing luggage were women who want to express their personality as they would in shoes or a handbag."

While fashion labels usually take best-selling handbag styles and supersize them to luggage, Samsonite is going in the opposite direction by making smaller styles and complementary bag sets for today’s globetrotter.

Later that evening at the launch party, I got emotional myself as Samsonite gave Hong Kong actress Kelly Chen a complete Vintage set, making her the first Asian woman to tote the gorgeous round beauty case that caught my eye.

Funnily enough, for a luggage company, Samsonite is starting to rely less on selling suitcases and more on that student staple, the backpack. "Eight out of 10 people prefer backpacks over briefcases because it’s much more convenient," says Bottoli, who himself relies on a single-strap version. "We strongly believe that the future of business travel is in backpacks."

Backpacks feature prominently in the lines Pro-DLX, Marc Newson Scope and Mackay’s high-tech X’lite, an all-black line with crimson interiors that uses woven polypropylene for the "strongest, lightest product ever produced." X’Lite also has a special TSA lock that conforms to the new "no padlocked cases" Travel Authority rule in this post-9/11 world.

"After 9/11, luxury suffered less, and the cheapest things survived," says Bottoli. "What suffers most is what stays in middle, so the middle is where you don’t want to be. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do with Black Label – move the brand to the next level."

On Jan. 1, the first Asian Black Label concept store opened in Singapore’s Raffles Hotel. Amid its signature colors of black and orange, the store will carry not only luggage but also clothing, shoes, eyewear and watches, completing Samsonite’s evolution into a lifestyle, "travel solutions" company.

Spanish flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes has already been photographed for a new ad campaign. Work has started on a new line with an as-yet-unnamed fashion designer. Bottoli is excited about yet another upcoming campaign that will feature a mother-daughter team of actresses/models that he refuses to name. Whether it’s Madonna and Lourdes or Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson is anybody’s guess, but it can only spell more good news for the 21st-century traveler.

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Black Label is available at Samsonite stores in Podium and Rockwell.