Chef Kwame Onwuachi is a busy man. The New York Times just crowned his restaurant, Tatiana, the best in the city. His memoir, Notes From a Young Black Chef, is a bestseller and is about to be turned into a movie. And on top of everything, he’s always on the road, launching food festivals and cooking at events.
Onwuachi has a trick for keeping things streamlined and organized when he’s traveling: It’s the aluminum Rimowa Pilot Case. And he’s not alone. The $1,500 suitcase has achieved cult status among busy multihypenate creatives. The brand’s latest campaign features a range of well-known people who are all real-life users of the case, including celebrity tattoo artist Dr. Woo, diver and model Ocean Ramsey, musician Hans Zimmer, and champion surfer Kelia Moniz Termini.
Rimowa first launched the Pilot Case in 1994 with airplane pilots in mind. Like other roller luggage, it has wheels, but instead of unzipping around the perimeter of the suitcase, it opens on a hinge at the top, making it easy for pilots to access items they might need in the cockpit, from their documents to a sweater. “It was carefully designed to fit neatly behind the pilot’s seat,” says Emelie De Vitis, Rimowa’s SVP of product and marketing. “Our goal was to make it easier for them to do their jobs. The top opening made it more functional.”
The brand’s strategy worked; pilots quickly adopted the suitcase. But on the downside, it was a highly specialized product for a relatively small market. So in 2018, Rimowa discontinued it.
Last summer, as part of the brand’s broader expansion into different categories of products—including handbags and backpacks—Rimowa decided it was time to bring back the Pilot Case, this time with the hope that it could tap into a market beyond pilots. The brand’s designers updated the case with new features to make it even more functional and versatile, hoping it would appeal to business travelers. There’s a padded section in the middle for a laptop, a holder for a water bottle, two smaller pockets to store valuables. Since the relaunch, the suitcase developed a following among creatives, who found that it helped them in their own professions.
DJs realized it was perfectly sized to fit vinyl records, so they could wheel their music to sets. Celebrity stylists loved being able to wheel around hair tools to fashion week and red carpet events in an indestructible container. Athletes carry their previous sneakers or skates with them, so they’re easily accessible when they get to their destination. Chefs, including Onwuachi, often carry their knives with them. “About twice a month, I’m cooking in a kitchen I’m not familiar with,” Onwuachi says. “I normally pack light. Just the pilot case with just what I need for the trip.”
The Pilot Bag has now become a cult product. De Vitis says it has become a bestseller within the product line, selling out repeatedly since last year. (It is currently out of stock, but Rimowa is constantly manufacturing more.) She believes it is on track to become another classic in the brand’s portfolio, alongside the aluminum cabin bag and polycarbonate bag.
Even before the relaunch of this Pilot Bag, Rimowa’s suitcases were popular with designers, many of whom were drawn to the brand’s deep roots in industrial design and engineering. Apple’s former chief design officer, Jony Ive, has used the brand’s classic suitcase throughout his career, and the late designer Virgil Abloh was a devoted fan.
Rimowa was founded 125 years ago as a family business in the city of Cologne, Germany, where the founders made suitcases and travel trunks out of wood. In 1950, as air travel was just beginning to take off, its designers developed an aluminum suitcase with grooves on it, inspired by the first-ever all-metal airplane. In 1977, the brand incorporated wheels onto the case, creating the now-iconic wheeled cabin bag it is best known for. Over the decades, it has invested heavily in its factories in Germany and Canada where all of its products are manufactured.
But in 2016, Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH, acquired Rimowa, and that’s when it began to make inroads in the world of fashion. Alexandre Arnault, son of LVMH’s founder, was made CEO, and he kickstarted a range of fashion collaborations with legendary brands from Supreme and Fendi to Dior. He also brought in major stars like LeBron James and Rihanna as ambassadors. All this helped to propel the brand’s sales, allowing it to surpass $1 billion in revenue in 2021 for the first time.
In many ways, the resurgence of the Pilot Case as the creative set’s suitcase of choice unites the brand’s heritage in problem-solving with its new identity as a luxury fashion brand. “We were thinking through the specific needs of pilots, and we’ve kept making improvements to make it as useful and versatile as possible,” says De Vitis. “But it turns out this functionality is useful across many industries.”
Hans Zimmer, for instance, has used the Pilot Case for years, describing it as a “moving studio.” He says, by email, that he carries his computers, synthesizers, and Apple headphones with him, so he can have a mobile work station. “I can come up with an idea and I can complete the idea,” he says. “With that case by itself and a power source, I could probably do a movie.”
Dr Woo, the most sought-after tattoo artist for celebrities, says he takes his supplies and equipment with him when he travels to his clients, which happens frequently. “I can use the case itself as a tool, sometimes as a little table or a little chair,” he says.
Over the past few years, many direct-to-consumer luggage startups have popped up, from Away to Monos, offering suitcases at a fraction of Rimowa’s cost. But in the face of this new competition, the German legacy brand has managed to keep growing. A big part of Rimowa’s success has come down to blending its heritage and craftsmanship with a keen understanding of what travel means today. And for many people, travel is about experiencing new things to allow you to live your most creative life. “I spent my childhood traveling, and all of those experiences go into my writing and the dishes I create,” says Onwuachi. “I keep traveling because it continues to inspire my work.”
The Pilot Case campaign encapsulates this. Rimowa has managed to transform a simple aluminum bag into a symbol of something much bigger: A tool for living a rich, creatively fulfilled life.
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