Travel Luggage For Dad

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Tumi is in the midst of a makeover.

With over 50 retail stores around the world, Tumi is one of the leading brands in the luggage industry known for its muted all-black style and zipper-to-zipper lifetime warranty.

Enter David Chu, the executive creative director of Tumi, who has embarked on an ambitious brand expansion and revamp that looks to change everything we think and do with our Tumi.

The results of Chu's design work can be seen in the current retail lineup at Tumi stores across the country.

"A new retail concept has been introduced," says Chu. If you liked the old Tumi, though, never fear. The "quality, utilitarian bags" that Chu says he found upon arrival at Tumi still have a presence in the collection (albeit toward the back of the stores we visited). I'm inspired by the early days of air travel. In the window cases of the retail stores is Chu's new Townhouse Collection, where he aims "to create a more premium lifestyle collection," which is a series of contemporary suitcases, duffels and carryons crafted from Tumi's nylon, but with shiny Vachetta-leather trim and silvery chrome accents meticulously tailored atop two metallic wheels.

After watching luggage brands such as Coach and Louis Vuitton explode in popularity under the creative direction of designers like Marc Jacobs, an obvious parallel, perhaps even a formula, emerges: "Louis Vuitton evolved from a travel company to one of lifestyle and fashion accessory. When traveling abroad he stresses that people should "pack well, with products that work well and look elegant. How you travel is a reflection of your personality."

For extended trips, it's the Townhouse Langham Wheeled Duffel.