Once upon a time, no intrepid traveller or mountaineer would have ventured out
without a piece of Globe-Trotter luggage. It was the only way to travel. Today,
thanks to a privately funded rejuvenation, Globe-Trotter is finding its way onto
the wishlists of a whole, cool new generation. Yet it’s still manufactured on
Victorian machinery and composed of unique ‘vulcan fibre’. Luggage to survive
outer space, even? KATE PATRICK is suitably intrigued
IN Burlington Arcade the Christmas lights appear undimmed by harsh financial realities. Beneath the
twinkling fronds, the bow-fronted windows present gleaming faces, none more so than the Globe-Trotter boutique where rows of vibrantly coloured travelling bags radiate every bit as much joy as a shop full of barley sugar sweets. You just want to reach out and grab one. The bag that Edmund Hillary took with him to Everest base camp. The attaché case that carried Churchill’s papers. The luggage of choice for upscale steamer passengers and pilots in the days when travel was a luxury for the few. This is luggage made to survive recessions, wars, mountain-scaling and no-frills airlines – and it’s still made in exactly the same way, in Britain, as it was when the company was founded in 1897.
Globe-Trotter’s comms chief, Gary Bott, is in no doubt about the value of this heritage. Well-crafted products that come with a sense of authenticity, as well as dollops of quirkiness and eccentricity that tend to appeal to lovers of all things British, are likely to resonate well in a climate where spending may be scaled back and targeted towards a very few, very high quality purchases. “We fully intend to keep this heritage alive,” says Bott. “It’s something we’re lucky to have.”
Globe-Trotter was founded by an Englishman, David Nelkin, working in Germany in the 1890s. The signature characteristic of a Globe-Trotter case is its construction from so called ‘vulcan fibre’ – a uniquely reinforced paper which makes it the traveller’s ideal: simultaneously as light as aluminium and as strong as leather. You can stand an elephant on one without it buckling. Exactly how vulcan fibre is alchemized is a secret known to few beyond Globe-Trotter except possibly Mr Spock of the Star Ship Enterprise; in its 100-year history Globe-Trotter has had very few imitators, and none that has established world-class credentials.
The company is still privately owned by a small group of HNW investors who made it their mission about six years ago to winch it up before it fell off the mountainside. Up to then, the classic shape – rectangular, with leather corners and a strap to wrap around the outside, the way you might secure a bulging school trunk, had basically never changed. Bott, with agency background, arrived three-and-a-half years ago to help drive the shake-up.
“We’ve had a bit of a renaissance,” he explains. “When we began to invest in building the Globe-Trotter image back up again, and opened the flagship store in London in 2004, we found that this started to stimulate demand in other markets.
We have expanded into Europe, Korea and China (through Lane Crawford). But we are an extremely niche, handmade product, and can only facilitate a certain level of growth. We use the original Victorian machinery and this dictates the level of output, so we have to manage it carefully. We could invest in new machinery, and we could also move the operation overseas. We’d be far more profitable. But we’d lose something very special, something integral to the soul of Globe-Trotter. It would be a shame to kill that tradition. So we’ll continue to handmake the hard cases using traditional processes in the UK, but we’re also listening to customers, developing soft luggage, for example. Bill Amberg designed a five-piece soft luggage set to mark our 110th anniversary.”
The London flagship was crucial also in attracting the new generation of customers whose memories were not long enough to remember Globe-Trotter’s earlier glory days. One of the rejuvenated brand’s first collaborations was with British-Japanese design duo Eley Kishimoto, which helped build appeal to the younger market. Most recently, the legendary industrial designer Ross Lovegrove has designed a sleek, contemporary, ‘engineered’ version of a Globe-Trotter case which is highly likely to appeal to customers who can’t quite get their heads around the ‘satchel’ look of the original, even though these are confidently carried by modern role models such as Kate Moss and Daniel Craig. “It gives us great credibility and word-of mouth appeal to have such high-profile customers,” says Bott, adding that the company has never paid for product placement or celebrity endorsement, and that its only advertising (notably in British and Japanese Vogue) has been to promote store openings.
With only one standalone store in the UK, a joint venture with McIntosh in Burlington Arcade, Globe-Trotter works hard on its relationships with agents and distributors. “In the UK we are a bit London-centric, with the flagship store plus areas in Harrods, Selfridges, Browns, the Conran Shop and Mitsukoshi.
We don’t currently have a store in the US, but watch this space,” previews Bott.
As with several other small British brands based on craftsmanship, detail and, in some cases, heritage, Globe- Trotter has enjoyed particular success in Japan where it is sold through a British luxury-concept store chain that is actually called Vulcanize. There are five of these, in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, retailing like-minded British brands such as Turnbull & Asser, John Smedley and Bill Amberg: a one-stop shop for the many Japanese devotees of British design and craft.
And craft is what it comes down to. Globe-Trotter consists of a factory in Hertfordshire in the UK employing about 20 people, some of whom have been there for decades; a relatively small sales, marketing and communications office in London, a separate team in Japan and a partner in the US. Product development has seen the introduction of laptop bags, totes and small leathergoods such as coin purses and card holders (a very important category for the “fanatical” Japanese), but beyond that it’s more about changing the colour of the fibreboard, linings and trim, depending on whether the client is Corso Como in Milan or Liberty in London. But that’s the great part about doing things the old-fashioned way: you can manage small runs, limited editions, seasonal variations, as well as your core collections. “Any brand that has a strong heritage and craftsmanship value can call itself ‘true luxury’,” opines Bott – and these may well be the characteristics that see the company through a rocky economic period. The other factor that may help is that, despite the product being exceptionally durable, its average retail price is £500 – about half the price of other luxury luggage brands (LV, Goyard, Valextra). A Goyard tote can cost you $1,000 in Barney’s – the same as four Globe-Trotter medium-sized hard cases. The company has yet to embrace e-commerce wholeheartedly, preferring to show the products online and then take enquiries (although international mailing is often done). “I don’t believe it’s the same as buying a holiday online,” says Bott. “Investing in luxury goods you still need the experience of visiting the store.” VIP events at the store are enhanced by being able to use the whole arcade – customers inside the shop, string quartet outside.
Earlier in 2008, the stage adaptation of The 39 Steps (a comedic version using just four actors) featured Globe-Trotter luggage being authentically loaded onto the train at Edinburgh.
The play’s Tony nominations gave the company a great excuse for a party, with cast and all – and also food for thought. Today Globe-Trotter luggage is creating a buzz in the fashion blogosphere, on ‘cool’ people’s wishlists: yet it’s right at home on a steam train at Waverley Station in 1914. How cool is that.
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