#HTE

Freitag’s Inflatable-Structure Rolling Suitcase

Freitag is known for their sturdy bags made from recycled truck tarps. But one thing they’ve never been known for is a rolling suitcase, because they’ve never made one. Until now.

To design a rolling suitcase from their signature tarp material presented a design challenge. The tarps are heavy and require an internal structure in order to hold the shape of a suitcase. But adding a conventional structure would add even more weight to the bag.

Freitag Product Developer Nicola Stäubli came up with an innovative solution:

As a former architect, I’m familiar with air-supported structures. I also used to be a bike messenger and was impressed by folding bikes that are fully functional when mounted, and compact when you stow them away. I could not get rid of the idea of using a common bicycle inner tube to replace the rigid and space-consuming structure of conventional luggage.

I sewed an inner tube into a big piece of tarp, had it inflated, and realized that the pressurized air was indeed able to replace the usual bulky metal structures. That was the moment when I realized, “Hey, this could actually work!” Thanks to our in-house prototyping atelier we then finally managed to make the big step from an unconventional idea to a product ready for manufacturing.

The Zippelin, as they’re calling it, can be deflated and neatly stowed away between trips, taking up just a fraction of the space of a regular suitcase. That should come as a boon to urban dwellers with little closet space. And a nice fringe benefit of Freitag’s random-pattern material choice is that you’ll never mistake which bag is yours on the baggage carousel.

To gauge interest in the Zippelin, Freitag is holding a Kickstarter campaign:

Incredibly, the campaign launched just this morning and has already exceeded its $120,000 funding goal with $164,602 in pledges at press time.