Tumi Aims to Meet Consumers’ Lifestyles
The upgrades focus on functionality, and add new features to match consumers’ needs.
Tumi’s creative director Victor Sanz has been keeping closer tabs on the brand’s younger consumers to track how they live their lives.
Sanz said, “The global business has changed, and so have the demographics. More fashion tools are needed to meet a lifestyle that goes beyond travel.”
“It used to be just for business. Now [ bags are a part of one’s] fashion lifestyle. People are more self-aware of the items they are carrying,” Sanz said.
The creative director said younger consumers have been gravitating toward the brand, and a growing component of its business have been women buyers “who appreciate the functionality” of Tumi’s bags.
New for spring is its Latitude collection for travel, and upcoming in July for fall are two new bag collections for women, as well as an update of the current men’s bag lines. The new collections, and the tweaks made to the existing lines, are all about evolving Tumi in a way that caters to its customers and how they are now living their lives, whether it’s a more extensive trip abroad or going from one meeting to the next and then heading out for a weekend getaway. The newness is focused on minimalism, a nod to the Scandinavian inspiration for this year’s update.
Tumi has upped its game through new silhouettes, materials and styles. All three are part of the brand’s updated offerings. “When we look at wheel-aways and carry-ons, we are thinking about what other accessories our consumer might want, such as a removable insert that you can hang in the closet, removable shoe bags and jewelry pockets,” he noted.
Sanz also said one big difference between the men’s and women’s line is that the latter has a greater number of choices. “Females like more variety and more options,” he explained.
The Latitude collection that will be introduced today moves the line to a lighter, yet still durable, framework. “This is the lightest travel line Tumi has made,” Sanz said.
The material used for Latitude is a self-reinforced polypropylene, and the bags feature a new set of wheels, both of which make the cases lighter and more stable and are proprietary to Tumi.
The shells also have reinforcement rods inside, an interior lining, integrated low-profile TSA locks and the brand’s Tumi Tracer, a global locator that tracks the whereabouts of the bag at all times. Price points range from $645 to $795.
Tumi in 2016 entered the women’s