Away just celebrated its second anniversary, and the direct-to-consumer luggage startup continues to grow. It’s sold 300,000 suitcases to date, opened four stores across the country, and grown to a team of 140 employees.
One part of the company’s strategy is to release a steady flow of new products, which usually involves iterations of the same polycarbonate hard shell case in different colors and textures. Away has partnered with everyone from Rashida Jones, who helped select colors inspired by Scandinavia, to the NBA, which created colors representing some of its teams.
This week, however, it expanded into a new material: Aluminum. The new cases have the same silhouette and sizes as traditional Away cases with chargers on the carry-on models, but feature a couple of tweaks. These bags have two locks, rather than a zipper and leather-trimmed handles. They also carry a heftier price. While a polycarbonate case costs $225, the aluminum version runs $475. In other words, this is Away’s premium edition.
With these aluminum cases, Away is now competing with other premium suitcase brands on the market, including Rimowa which is known for aluminum cases–and high price points. A comparable Rimowa aluminum carry-on can cost more than $1,000, meaning Away could very well steal some of Rimowa’s customers.
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