Goodby Tumi, Hello Rimowa

My main travel suitcase for the last decade has been my indestructible black Tumi. I’ve traveled with it all over the world and loved it so much I even posted about it on the blog a few years ago. But, around five years ago I spotted a beautiful aluminum Rimowa bag with another traveler at the airport, it was dented, scratched up and I just fell in love with the look. I decided once my Tumi fell apart I’d buy one but that day didn’t seem like it was ever going to come since my Tumi just wouldn’t die on me. So last week, I decided to forcefully retire my Tumi.

A friend of mine wanted to buy a Rimowa polycarbonate bag so I tagged along with her to the dealer. While at the store I found out that they had just gotten a new shipment of silver range of aluminum bags. The dealer tends to get a limited number of them (in this case it was 2 of each size) and the silver ones tend to sell out quickly. I was already tempted as is but they also had a silent sale going on so the bag I wanted was selling for slightly less than it did online AND to top it off, the dealer had gotten last years model (the Topas) with the now discontinued “Electronic Tag” feature which I’ve been fascinated with ever since they launched it. So I decided to take the plunge and get the bag (yes I used the word plunge here for buying a bag, but you’ll understand why later when I talk about the price).

I really think this is the hottest looking bag you can buy period. I haven’t packed it away in my cupboard yet and so every time I pass by it I can’t help but admire the design. The bag is made of aluminum and is held together by rivets. It’s a thin sheet of metal so the suitcase tends to dent which although sounds like a negative, is actually one of the reasons people are attracted to it. Bags will get worn out and scratched up with travel, but the more worn out and scratched up the Rimowa bags get, the more interesting and personalized they start looking. It’s why other manufacturers have also started introducing aluminum suitcases as well.

Then you have the “Electronic Tag” feature. This was Rimowa’s innovative idea where they wanted to replace the paper barcode tags they stick on luggage with digital versions. The idea was you’d check-in your suitcase and the airline would wirelessly transmit the tag to your luggage and it would be displayed on the screen. Only 4 airlines ever signed up to it and the idea never took off so Rimowa discontinued it last year. But, what I was interested in was the ability to customize that screen. You see Rimowa also allowed you to upload whatever personal information and image you wanted to that screen using their app. That’s why I wanted the “Electronic Tag” and that’s the first thing I did when I got the bag. The screen now has my name, email and phone number, with an image of my previous car which I had taken.

The screen magically doesn’t require any batteries to display the image. It uses two AAA batteries to power the Bluetooth connection, but once you transfer over the image and data, you can just remove the batteries and the screen will stay on indefinitely. No idea how that works, I still need to read up on the screen technology but I love it. But, although the screen is one way of customizing my bag, I still need to put a few stickers on it and I have a lot saved up to choose from.

The reason why it’s taken me so long to buy this bag isn’t only because my Tumi was refusing to die, but also because these bags are so freakin’ expensive. The bag I got isn’t really big, I think it’s their smallest check-in size and with the 10% discount they had, the bag cost me KD280. That’s really expensive and even when I made up some random maths in my head to try and convince myself that it made sense (280 spread over 10 years is just 28 a year!), it still didn’t make any sense. But, it’s something I’ve wanted for some time now and since I didn’t travel over Eid I figured at least I could buy a new suitcase.

One interesting thing I found out is that Jashanmal will no longer be the dealers for Rimowa in Kuwait which is why they currently have the bags discounted. This was the last shipment of Rimowa bags the dealer will be getting and that’s because last year the company LVMH (they own Louis Vuitton and a gazillion other premium brands) purchased Rimowa. So the dealership in Kuwait is now changing hands and my guess is that Habchi & Chalhoub, the company that has LV in Kuwait will be taking over the brand. They also have the rights for the Tumi brand in Kuwait, so no idea how that’s gonna work out for them.

If you’re interested in a Rimowa suitcase then this might be a good time to get one with their discounts. They’re available at the Jashanmal store in Kuwait City as well as their store in Avenues “Around the World”.