Travel Goods Show - Brands!
Peak Design
Thousands of products at the Travel Goods Association show, and 2 made us stop for completely different reasons.
We’d known about Peak Design for years, but had never spent time with the products in person.
One thing we’ve noticed over the years is that highly functional products often become overly complicated. More features, pockets, hardware, and decisions. Somewhere along the way, the user experience gets lost.
Peak Design felt different.
Everything had intention behind it. The magnetic dividers in the Everyday Backpack adapt in a way that felt almost playful. They reminded me of Magna-Tiles. Their upcoming hard-sided luggage with carbon fiber trolley poles follows the same philosophy, from repairability to maximizing usable packing volume.
After talking with the team about the development process, we understood why. They give themselves the time to explore, refine, question, and challenge every decision before bringing a product to market.
We were SPEECHLESS. We had never worked on a product with that kind of runway. The reality for most designers is budgets, timelines, and the pressure to get to market. Watching a team protect the development process, instead of compressing it, was genuinely inspiring.
Then there was Solgaard Design Inc.
What stood out was the people behind it.
The moment we walked into their booth, the conversations were open, curious, and collaborative. When we posed a design challenge, the founder disappeared for a few minutes, then came back with ideas to keep the conversation going. That willingness to engage says a lot about a company.
Their Carry-On Closet is another product we’d seen online but never fully got. Experiencing it in person changed the perspective. It's a good reminder that not every product can be judged through a screen.
The interesting part is that these brands feel completely different, yet they share a few things in common:
• Deep product conviction
• A willingness to invest time in getting it right
• Strong communities that genuinely believe in what they're building
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