Anything that is sold in big national department stores can't be made by small custom shops due to volume. It's thousands upon thousands of bags. In terms of brands it is easy to see the difference.

There are brands like Abboud, Cole, Furstenberg, Lauren. Those are fashion labels who ask an OEM manufacturer to produce a line of luggage according to their designs. Outsourcing is perhaps even given to more than one manufacturer in order to keep up with demand, push the price down, be more independent of delivery and so forth.

To be on the safe side, I'd go with a manufacturer that does nothing but luggage or does luggage principally e.g. Delsey, Samsonite, Rimowa, BR, Travelpro, Paragon/Pathfinder. It is quite likely that these brands not only produce their own brand but also for other brands, as is the case with P/P doing some of the (or all, I don't know) Kirkland stuff for Costco.

You will find that often but not always these manufacturers have better warranties. Prices might not even be higher because instead of paying for a fancy designer name, you pay for quality. The exception, of course, are luxury luggage brands like Tumi, Vuitton or Halliburton. They do have good quality (not so sure about Halliburton) but you pay a premium for the luxury brand.

In terms of quality you might find a good compromise with rather small companies like Eagle Creek, RedOxx or Tom Bihn, if you can find a model that suits you.

I must say though that the Pathfinder TX2 carry-on bag I have seems to have the most rugged build of all my luggage. The thing is built like a tank. It was the former top line of that brand. The current top line shouldn't be worse and is available on discount, too.

For price/value the Pathfinder and Travelpro top lines at discount will be hard to beat. Not much prestige, though. See above.

Till