‘Functional Luxury’: How Rimowa Keeps Growing in a Downturn

Cologne, GERMANY – Rimowa chief executive Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert says travel isn’t returning to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon. And that’s OK.

Social media may make it look like people are travelling like never before, but the industry is in fact settling into a “new normal” that’s still below pre-pandemic levels by some measures. In Europe, international tourist arrivals were still 4 percent below 2019 in the first half of the year. Global air traffic is on track to inch above pre-pandemic levels in 2024, but passenger volumes are still about one billion short of the 10.5 billion journeys trade group Airports Council International had previously forecast. Individual travel is growing, but “business travel will probably not fully recover,” Bonnet-Masimbert said.

Despite that lingering sluggishness, Rimowa “has returned to our pre-Covid growth track.” The brand’s sales have nearly quadrupled in five years, and are growing by double-digits this year, Bonnet-Masimbert said, even as most luxury brands report falling revenues.

While owner LVMH does not report sales for individual units, Rimowa was one of only three brands called out for “confirming their solid momentum” along with Loro Piana and Loewe during the conglomerate’s most recent results.

Bonnet-Masimbert said the brand is even still growing in China, the key market that’s caused many luxury firms to teeter. Rival group Richemont reported China sales down 27 percent in its half year results reported last Friday. “We probably have been affected, since our growth [in China] in previous years was out of this world, but there is still a strong positive trend,” he said.

Bonnet-Masimbert succeeded LVMH scion Alexandre Arnault (one of five children of the conglomerate’s chairman, Bernard) as Rimowa’s CEO in 2021, when the younger Arnault moved to New York to help steer a relaunch of jeweller Tiffany. Arnault had led Rimowa’s helm since 2017, when the French luxury conglomerate bought an 80 percent stake in the brand.

During Arnault’s tenure, the luggage maker radically repositioned itself in the luxury space — using sleek, minimalist branding and store openings on tony shopping streets to set itself apart from the more utilitarian ethos of rivals like Tumi and Samsonite. The brand burnished its clout and wedged itself into the cultural conversation with celebrity-fronted campaigns and a spate of collaborations with of-the-moment brands like Off-White.

Marketing Mix

Bonnet-Masimbert has sought to keep up the momentum while adapting the strategy for a bigger business in a changing market.

The brand has continued with its collaboration strategy under Bonnet-Masimbert, teaming up with top-end Italian coffee machine maker La Marzocco and cult New York menswear brand Aimé Leon Dore.

But the tie-ups are just one marketing tool among many, and highlighting the enduring values of the Rimowa brand is key.

“Durability is our strictest goal,” said Bonnet-Masimbert, emphasising the long-term elements of Rimowa’s strategy and the longevity of the suitcases themselves — for which Rimowa rolled out an unconditional lifetime warranty in July 2022.

The tone is still fresh, with Rimowa tapping into the lucrative world of sports marketing with ambassadors like Kylian Mbappé and Lewis Hamilton. But there is a renewed focus on preserving the brand’s German identity, with designs rooted in practicality and benefitting from the “Made in Germany” quality seal (40 percent of all suitcases are produced in the Cologne factory, the rest in the Czech Republic or Canada).

Rimowa has also continued to take back control over where and how its suitcases are sold. “Over the past years, Rimowa’s distribution has radically evolved from primarily multi brand wholesale driven, to almost exclusively mono-brand retail,” Bonnet-Masimbert explained. 20 percent of sales come from its own e-commerce shop.

The shift to retail has allowed Rimowa to claw back the markups from wholesale and eliminate discounting — giving an added boost to growth as well as burnishing brand appeal. While Rimowa does not disclose numbers, industry sources estimate its yearly revenue around €1 billion.

‘Functional Luxury’

Another driver of Rimowa’s success is strong demand for what Bonnet-Masimbert calls “functional luxury,” which has held up even as sales of high-end fashion decline. “Our customers are wowed by design and purpose,” said Bonnet-Masimbert, who emphasises the brand’s technical and practical ethos.

Brands selling high-end travel accessories, wellness trackers and athletic wear are all surfing a similar wave. “Arcteryx, On — outerwear and sportswear are doing well in Asia, not traditional luxury,” said Erwan Rambourg, global head of consumer and retail research at HSBC.

Rimowa may be sold on the same streets as Chanel and Ferragamo, but its dual appeal as both a status symbol and ultra-functional workhorse for frequent travellers has overlap with emerging luxuries like cold plunges, high-end coffee machines, LED face masks and other useful splurges.

“We’re at a pivotal moment where the concept of ‘luxury’ itself is being redefined,” said Sebastian Manes, the former buying and merchandising director at Selfridges (Manes himself has sought to seize on momentum in the travel category with his suitcase brand Harper Collective, co-founded in 2023 with Jaden Smith). “Luxury is about purpose, innovation, sustainability, and meaningful connections to the products we use,” said Manes.

Amid strong momentum in the travel accessories category, LVMH stablemate Louis Vuitton has sought to underscore its heritage as a luggage maker by featuring its trunks on the runway (and in a sponsored number at the Olympics). Rival Gucci relaunched its Valigeria line, opening dedicated stores and tapping Ryan Gosling to front a marketing push.

Category Expansion

Rimowa has also worked to shake up its perception as a mono-product company.

The brand has pushed iPhone cases, backpacks, packing cubes and a $550 “luggage harness” (think of a nylon belt bag for your carry-ons, with pockets for liquids and laptops).

While these travel-adjacent additions are closely related to Rimowa’s core business, they inchingly laid the groundwork for the brand’s most recent release, the Original — Rimowa’s first-ever handbag, which debuted this September.

The top-handle bag looks like a fusion of a lunchbox and a tiny suitcase, and is made out of the brand’s signature grooved aluminium. It’s the brand’s first big push outside of the world of travel goods.

When asked about the rationale behind launching a product in the notoriously hard to crack handbag category, Bonnet-Masimbert smiles. “We are humbled by the challenge, ” he said. True to Rimowa’s slow-but-steady, functional approach, the bag is only available in silver and black for now. “Had we launched 20 bags, it would have been frivolous and not Rimowa-like.”

New product lines have the benefit of giving heritage brands like Rimowa something to talk about — but Bonnet-Masimbert said actual sales have been impressive, too. “We are seriously struggling to keep up with demand for this bag in our supply chain — it’s a headache with the holiday season coming close.”

The core business remains luggage, but fashion efforts like the Original could eventually scale. After all, the world’s biggest luxury brand Louis Vuitton started as a luggage maker, too.