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Luggage Re-Designs Do Well on Kickstarter. Can You Deliver On Time?

Design entrepreneurs: Luggage seems to be a category in need of improvements, as evidenced by the rash of new, successfully-funded designs we’ve seen in the past couple of years. They’ve included features like expandable shelves, an integrated suit-packing system and folding fabric lids. On Kickstarter, the Trunkster featured a roll-top opening mechanism, a built-in weight scale and GPS while the G-RO was loaded with onboard charging gadgetry, a location tracker and a proximity detector.

London-based industrial design studio Morrama reckons most of the re-designs are gimmicky, and are instead focusing on function over flash for their Marlon carry-on bag:

Luggage redesigns seem to do well on Kickstarter. At press time the Marlon had garnered USD $270,000 on a $30,000 goal. The Trunkster collected $1,395,370 on a $50,000 goal, and the G-RO netted an astonishing $3,307,773 on a $125,000 goal.

But the latter two technology-loaded designs came with production delays. The Trunkster was intended to be delivered in August of 2015, but didn’t start going out until Spring of 2016. The G-RO was meant to be delivered this month, but the designers have missed the target and are now aiming for December. Whether the back-to-basics Marlon will meet its May 2017 deadline remains to be seen.