Originally Posted by
gobluetwo
Which is, right or wrong, part of their strategy. They don't want a premium travel goods brand - they want a luxury travel good brand. And, of course, a big part of transitioning to becoming a luxury brand is artificially creating scarcity through reducing production, changing the product names to create separation from the past, charging more, and making it harder to find. I assume they are trying to cut out all distributors and sell only through company-owned channels and, once they feel they've elevated the brand enough, allow sales through select high-end third party outlets.
Just like luxury watches, purses etc etc, they plan on protecting "THE BRAND" and hopefully places like KOFFERDIRCT will no longer ruining the RIMOWA Market and bring everyone inline on what must be paid to own a RIMOWA now...