Today I want to talk about July — a luggage brand founded by Athan and Richard. These two young founders broke into a market long owned by Samsonite. It’s pretty inspiring how they innovated an ordinary suitcase into something people really love. The crazy part is, they once lost 95% of their revenue — and still bounced back with 1000% growth the next year.
So, let’s dive into how Athan and Richard made all this happen from Athan’s first-person perspective.
Where Did the Product Idea Come From?
Sex toy, nail kits or Suitcase?
We were working in the same co-office, and that’s how we met. Richard had a furniture business and knew how to source products from China, while I had always been in marketing. So, we thought, why not do something together?
So we started looking at what was selling well at the time. It was sex toys and shellac nail kits. But you know what? Not only was it hard to differentiate from competitors, but let’s be honest — sex toys market were hard to go into for us two straight men.
Richard eventually dropped the idea of suitcases. At the time, I thought it was just too ordinary, so the brainstorming stopped.
Father-in-Law Inspired Me
Later that day, I was taking my father-in-law to the airport and asked him what he thought of luggage, since he was always traveling for work. To my surprise, he spent at least 10-15 minutes talking about how much he loved his suitcase.
His passion made me realize that consumers actually care about their luggage. And we could make something that would get people excited, even a basic suitcase.
How to Innovate an Ordinary Product?
Where's our shot?
The funny thing is, once you start looking into suitcases, you realize just how big the market actually is. But you’ll find it’s basically all owned by one company — Samsonite. They own 5 brands, including American Tourister and Tumi. It all looks the same, just different logos.
So , people don’t really have much choice on suitcases. If your flight’s tomorrow, you just head to a store and grab whatever suitcase is there. You probably buy it because you’ve heard of it, or your parents have one.
That’s when we realized: there’s actually a gap in the market, and the way to break in was by turning ordinary luggage into fashion accessory.
One thing’s clear: They proved to us that startup isn’t always about some random ideas. What really impressed us was how they spotted an opportunity and had the courage to go after it.
What are travelers complaining about?
We looked at over 4000 one star and two star reviews of our competitors and noticed almost everyone had the same problems:
- It’s easily gets bent or broken after airport tosses.
- The handles and wheels are hard to use, either too stiff or short.
- Shopping for luggage is a terrible experience. Most of it is boring business-style stuff.
- Phones die way too fast while traveling, juggling a suitcase and a power bank at the same time is hard.
So we thought: the shell had to be tough enough to survive the airport toss, but still look stylish. And why not add a removable battery, so people can charge phones or laptops on the go. Plus, the handle had to be multi-stop. It can easy to adjust for sneakers, heels, or even clogs.
Suitcases, but make it fashion
July is the most common travel month globally, you’re either traveling or wishing you were. So it felt like the perfect name to connect our product with that holiday vibe. We couldn’t believe our luck when we found out the name was still available.
We wanted to sell luggage like selling ice cream: fun, colorful, and full of choices. Something that wouldn’t feel boring but get people imagine about their travel.
Did Our First Production Go Smoothly?
Luckily, we raised $250,000 before July was officially registered back in July 2018. One of the investors was actually Richard’s good friend.
We locked ourselves in a co-working office for almost six months, tweaking the design over and over. Then it was all back and forth with suppliers in China, sampling, adjusting, fixing. Most of that $250,000 went straight into the first 1,000 suitcases. Just figuring out how to make the edges rounder and tougher costs us $50,000 for a single prototype.
And even after all that, the lead time was delayed to February next year. The plan was to launch before Christmas. It was a big hit. Honestly, we weren’t sure if the stock would sell after the whole Christmas gift season was over.
So we had to get creative. We bought an embossing machine off eBay and decided to make some premium custom leather tags ourselves, hoping this would win people over.
What Challenges We Face & How We Overcome Them?
Sales looked great right after the first launch and we attracted $10.5 million in funding. That time, we were feeling pretty confident, aiming to hit $5 million in revenue by 2019.
But what we didn’t see coming was the pandemic, just 8 months later. Suddenly, no one was traveling anymore. And that didn’t just kill new sales, it also triggered a wave of returns, thanks to our return policy.
By 2021, we’d lost 95% of our revenue. It was terrible. But we couldn’t just sit there and hope things would get better. We had to do something.
First, we shifted our focus to building new products — backpacks, totes, anything that wasn’t a suitcase. Turns out, that was successful. Bags are just like suitcases, it’s all about having the right space and compartments. So we started designing different bags for students, employees, etc.
Then, we started looking at global markets that were still open during the pandemic, — places like China and the US. Most Aussie brands only think about going international once they’ve nailed the local market, but for us, there wasn’t much of a choice. We had to grab every chance.
How We Marketed Our Product?
At first, we did many paid ads on Facebook and Instagram. The key is great photography. Photos that not only made the suitcase look good, but showed what made it different from other suitcases. It’s not just a pretty box. It charges your phone, the handle stops exactly where you want, and the wheels glide smooth and silent.
Beyond Meta ads, we’ve also jumped into podcasts and interviews to really boost brand awareness.
Consumer don’t care how much you spent on marketing but their experience. A lot of customers also told us they wanted to see and feel the product before buying. So we did something no other luggage brand in Australia had done — we opened a physical suitcase store in Emporium Melbourne. It was a pop-up store to test the waters and build some brand awareness as a new player.
Just asked customer what they want and co-create the product. Take the handbags we developed for the U.S. market, for example. It keeps selling out and the Interactive video has 4.8 million views now.
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