On a sunny day in Berlin last week, Rimowa presented its third annual design prize for German students, hosted at Gropius Bau, an historical arts exhibition space that stands at what used to be the border between east and west Berlin. The prize ceremony was set to a backdrop of aluminium structures, surrounded by the finalists’ work: interpretations of the theme, ‘mobility’.
“We created the prize to empower young design talents and to celebrate German design. We feel that German design is a patrimony at Rimowa that we need to celebrate, grow, extend,” Rimowa CEO Hugues Bonnet-Masimbert tells Vogue Business at Gropius Bau, ahead of the ceremony.
Entries were received from 39 universities and design schools across Germany. The winners, Elisabeth Lorenz and Marc Hackländer, designed a wearable device, ‘Hottie’, which combines heat therapy and electrical nerve stimulation to relieve period pain. They took home €20,000. “We believe that mobility is about freedom to live your life fully, without limits, and menstrual discomfort shouldn’t be an obstacle to that,” the winners tell me over email. “The Rimowa Design Prize provided us with great insights and feedback. It motivated us to expand our horizons, improve our approach and keep exploring how design can create real change.” The duo plans to continue developing the product with the aim to bring it to market in the near future.
Special mention winners Tom Kemter and Niels Cremer redesigned the classic forearm crutch to improve its functionality and walked away with €10,000. All other finalists received €5,000. Other creations included a shareable digital memory box, an air pollution-measuring device, a modular bench system for urban spaces, an ergonomic hand truck and a wearable device to help dementia patients navigate their way home.
It was an intentional decision to focus the design prize around new product concepts rather than asking students to redesign the Rimowa suitcase. “We wanted to stay away from anything that would look like a commercial opportunity for us,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. “We tried to find a theme that would be relevant within the Rimowa cultural landscape without asking, ‘Please design a new luggage’, or the next brilliant idea for our own product portfolio.”
Perhaps even more valuable than the prize money was the mentorship the finalists received, as they were each paired up with a member of the jury, including design experts such as Adidas’s SVP of product design Nic Galway and eyewear brand Mykita’s founder and creative director Moritz Kreuger. “The most important thing we offer to participants was this opportunity to be mentored by impressive design authorities within the realm of German design,” says Bonnet-Masimbert.
Bonnet-Masimbert has spent almost 30 years at Rimowa parent company LVMH holding various positions at Loewe, Celine, Louis Vuitton and Berluti, before arriving at Rimowa in 2018 as executive VP of sales and client operations, overseeing the brand’s distribution and e-commerce refresh. He took over as CEO in 2021 and was tasked with developing the brand’s lifestyle category, continuing to improve the efficiency of Rimowa’s operations and protecting the German brand’s heritage, innovation and creativity — which led him to launch the design prize as an initiative to support creativity and innovation among the next generation of talent. LVMH does not break out sales for individual brands, but Rimowa says it has been achieving “robust” sales growth.
Heritage vs innovation
Rimowa was founded in Cologne in 1898 by Paul Morszeck and was acquired by LVMH from his grandson, Dieter, in 2017 for €640 million. LVMH founder and CEO Bernard Arnault’s son, Alexandre Arnault, became CEO of Rimowa after the acquisition, age 25. Arnault spiced up the brand with exciting collaborations from the likes of Supreme and Fendi, limited-edition suitcases, Web3 experiments and fresh product lines, which broadened the reach and upped the hype of the house.
German design is renowned for its focus on functionality, with a history rooted in industrial design. When Rimowa was founded, cars and planes were still in their infancy, and most travelled via ship or train. Rimowa’s first luggage items were large trunks, which were already popular at the time, but typically lacked any organisational sections on the inside — until Rimowa incorporated an organisation tray into its product. When duralumin — a lightweight and durable aluminium alloy — was discovered near Cologne in 1906 and adopted for German aircrafts, Rimowa utilised the material for its suitcases. In 1919, the all-metal commercial aircraft launched, featuring a corrugated exterior that Rimowa then adopted for its signature design. In the 1980s, the brand created the first-ever water-resistant suitcase, which has been adopted by photographers since. In 2000, Rimowa became the first brand to create a polycarbonate (a high-strength plastic) suitcase, which is now an industry standard.
“At Rimowa, we not only have a history, we have product patrimony — all of our lines have been there a long time, they are permanent products that we improved over time. For this patrimony to grow, stay alive and always be superior, that’s when innovation kicks in,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. “We have to constantly ask ourselves, ‘How do we challenge the performance of our products?’”
At its heart, any innovation Rimowa experiments with must improve the functionality of the product or the customer experience. “We have defined who we are and who we are not. We know if we improve the core functionality of the luggage — weight, components, noise, safety — it’s a direct and undebatable improvement to the customer experience,” Bonnet-Masimbert says. Rimowa resists the temptation to diverge in gimmicky directions. “If we were to create a button that you press and orange juice comes out of your suitcase, that would be debatable,” he jokes. Likewise, there’s a focus on innovations that have longevity: Rimowa does not include a battery nor any electrical element to its cases, unlike some competitors, as these components risk becoming outdated.
The brand plans its innovation pipeline five to 10 years in advance, with a team dedicated to inventing the future of luggage. “I cannot emphasise enough how long term all of this work is — sometimes frustratingly so, because some of the ideas are super exciting,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. “Right now, we probably have 80 to 100 innovation products going on, out of which probably less than 10 will come to fruition, so it’s a humbling process.” Next year, the brand is introducing a separate innovation lab, Das Lab, in Cologne, which brings together scientists and other experts from various industries to explore designs and materials that will allow Rimowa to reach new heights.
One perk that Bonnet-Masimbert is particularly proud of is Rimowa’s lifetime warranty, which was introduced in 2023. “Alexandre [Arnault] mentioned this idea to me when I joined Rimowa. He had discussed it with the team and they said it was not such a good idea — it was such a new way of looking at things — and I told him, ‘Honestly I side with your team,’” Bonnet-Masimbert says. He changed his mind when he took over as CEO, having reflected that the future of travel must be responsible and sustainable.
Crucially, the brand repairs — rather than replaces — damaged luggage, including damages caused during airline transportation (which is where most damage will occur, but which most luggage makers refuse cover). Rimowa actively excludes design ideas that will prevent the product from being repairable. “We feel our responsibility is to commit to durability and to develop products that are going to be repairable for life — especially because we are not a fashion product, we are a functional product,” says Bonnet-Masimbert.
What’s next for Rimowa
Rimowa has its eyes on new lifestyle categories, expanding the notion of travel to “urban mobility”. In September 2024, Rimowa introduced its first handbag, the Original bag, which looks like a mini Rimowa suitcase with a crossbody strap. Prior to this, the brand had introduced nylon backpacks, totes and pouches. Last month, the brand launched an eyewear collaboration with Mykita (in which LVMH has a minority stake).
“I’m well aware that implementing a new product territory takes time and repetition and passion. What we decided from day one is not to diverge into too many directions. We have two categories: lifestyle and luggage,” says Bonnet-Masimbert, adding that the lifestyle category has performed very well recently. When I suggest whether Rimowa would consider expanding into hospitality, Bonnet-Masimbert gives a resounding “no”. “We pride ourselves on distinctiveness, and we excel at what we are unique at,” he says.
Rimowa is one of the few brands that has maintained growth in China, where many others are struggling (including LVMH’s fashion division as a whole). “Chinese customers are intense travellers and they value the reliability of our products. We are not very frivolous — we remain German at heart — and I think that makes us credible,” Bonnet-Masimbert says. The brand is also strong in the Middle East, Central and South America, and entered India two years ago. “The reason why the brand stands out is that there’s little in the way of high-end luggage,” explains Bernstein luxury goods analyst Luca Socla, who has been covering the brand since its acquisition by LVMH.
Bonnet-Masimbert says the current focus is on expanding Rimowa’s retail footprint. “For every geography, we want to have a number of stores that allow us to tell the brand history and have a proper client-care era,” he says.
“I think the most important change at Rimowa has been distribution, moving from wholesale to retail,” says Solca. “This allows for a much better brand execution — especially when it comes to price discipline, [lowering or eliminating] discounts.”
Despite a growing number of competitors entering the market, from Away to Beis, Bonnet-Masimbert remains confident that Rimowa’s proposition is unique. “We regard it as a good thing that the market is dynamic, because we are gradually changing the way people look at luggage from being a container to something that expresses who they are. How we behave towards this emerging competition is by acting very confidently on our superiority,” he says, referencing the manufacturing process at Rimowa’s three factories (in Germany, Canada and Czech Republic), the lifetime warranty, reliability, and the design of the product. “Our only challenge is to be superior — it’s not a trivial one, but if we stay on top of the game in innovation, design and creativity, that’s what will allow us to continue leading the luxury travel segment.”
As Rimowa prepares for a future of responsible travel, it is keeping purpose at the centre of its proposition. “It’s a really strong feature of German design that function matters, but with this younger generation, purpose matters,” says Bonnet-Masimbert. “That notion persisted through all the projects we received [for the Design Prize]. It’s not only functional design, but spirited design. There’s something reassuring about that to me.”
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