If you are an entrepreneur and you do a lot of traveling then you understand the importance of having good luggage. You are likely grabbing a lot of last minute flights to meet with potential customers and investors which means you need a really good carry on bag. I’m a fan of bags (if you haven’t noticed) and I’ve recently stumbled upon the perfect carry-on bag for the start-up founder.
Requirements
To set a little context on what I needed for a good carry-on I’ve listed the requirements:
- Roomy — weight/space ratio is maxed out
- Lightweight
- Easy to move around
- Fits in all over-head storage bins across all airlines
- Durable
- Fun
- Cheap
I added fun to the list because I think anything that aids in networking is useful for a startup founder. Having a fun bag means that you’ll have a good spark for conversations with strangers.
Rinowa Topas
The best bag I’ve found that meets most of these requirements is the Rinowa Topas series — specifically the multi-wheel trolly:
Rinowa Topas Multi-wheel trolley
This bag has four wheels that make it effortless to move it around. It can roll on all four wheels or you can tilt it and roll it on two wheels depending on the situation. This makes the bag versatile as it can roll over a lot of different surfaces. These wheels are so good that I can often push the bag once and walk next to it as it rolls next to me. (Without needing to keep my hands on the bag.)
This bag is very roomy. The bag has a thin blue liner to separate the aluminum exterior from the interior but that’s it. So it maximizes the space available for your stuff. The blue liner also has two dividers, one for each side that holds delicate items like ties or intimates.
The bag has two latches with locks that can easily be opened by the TSA. The bag is durable like a tank. It is made from corrugated aluminum so it can take a beating. You can over-stuff the bag and then apply pressure (sit on it) to get it to close and the latches will securely hold it all together. There is little worry of it popping open.
The bag comes in aluminum (they make other colors too) and I’ve been decorating it with stickers from start-ups that I meet with. The bag starts to look really good after you get it covered with stickers. You can use any type of sticker, they all look good. Once the bag gets a little weathered it actually starts to look better. It ages really nicely.
The bag isn’t cheap. That’s the only part that makes it hard to recommend for everyone. For me the durability and the fact that it looks better with wear and tear means that I’ll likely have this bag for a really long time. Still its a big up front investment.
That pretty much sums up why I like this bag. I’ve been using mine for a few months now and I love it. I get many compliments on it from others and I’m pretty sure a few folks have actually gone out a bought one after seeing mine in action.
If you have a better bag, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Originally published at www.joshkerr.com on April 28, 2015.
