Is Rimowa worth the investment?
 

How good are these suitcases? Specifically, the Cabin Sized suitcases.
I travel a lot within the UK, mainly by rail for weekends away etc. I do city breaks in Europe. I also use a small suitcase in addition to hold luggage, just incase the latter goes missing.

Rimowa's are plainly very expensive. But are they worth the investment? Is it like buying a MacBook Pro versus an ASUS etc.

I usually get through a suitcase a year or so, as I manage to break the zips, the wheels, or the handles.

What was the brand/model of the last couple of suitcases that only lasted you a year ?

For a weekend bag - I could see a TravelPro Crew Expert Global lasting you several years for a fraction of the price.

Just cheapish suitcases. Probably around £60 for a small Carry one, 4 wheeler. Can't remember the model, but think they've mainly been IT Luggage

Here is an option for you.

TravelPro UK

3 around the world trips (TRANSPAC + TRANSATL) plus numerous smaller trips and my Rimowa Bolero carry-on is still going strong. Love it. Couldn't imagine using anything else. This is with a large (max size) personal item on the handle too.

For cabin size, if you plan to drag them around most of the time, yes it worth the price.

For checked in luggage, you might better off with cheaper brands.

I have both cabin size and checked in size Rimowas that I use extensively.
The small one have gone through around 3 years (approximately 40 trips) and still going strong. I also have similar size Samsonite which is older than the Rimowa and it still in good condition.

For checked in luggage, after around 15 trips on the hold, it still have all the parts although there are some scratch and dent on the main body.
My older Samsonite was quite unlucky as the wheel rubber part breaks after 3 years (around 10 trips in cargo hold)
I do have another American Tourister luggage which so far clock similar number of trips as the Rimowa and still have all the parts attached.

Honestly, if youre going through a bag a year go with something with a lifetime warranty like Briggs and Riley. Had my baseline for 11 years, over 2M miles, 1000s of flights. Had the handle break after 10 years. Dropped it off at the BR repair facility, had it back 5 hours later, new handle, new wheels, etc. They repaired more than I asked and it was all free and hassle free. Never buy another bag again.

The Rimowa wheels roll extremely well on flat smooth surfaces of airports.
If you're doing more city duties with the luggage - to and through train stations and such - you might want to look for larger, more rubberized wheels, that roll better and more quietly on rough pavement.

A bag a year, hmm you must be really hard on your bags or some really cheap stuff. What is the inconvenience of a bag failure during a trip and having to replace ? The math says if you buy cheap versus something that last x more years is simple, but there again for the far more expensive take the post from the BR owner of lifetime warranty, as long as it doesn't break on a trip the cost for me was a small portion, it would the SOL in some trip and having something break mid travel.

I have a BR and I lug it on weekly trips for 3 years now, sometimes checked-in mostly carry-on, miles and miles in airport, and a few tough miles on streets, subways etc. It's got mileage and still going strong. Every time I go by the Costco here and see their cheap/value spinner wonder how well it would go, of course they got "liftetime" costco, but you can tell it is less well built and what if it fails at the most inappropriate time.

You got to pay for quality, but paying a lot doesn't always assure quality. Manytimes people buy quality which almost always require lots more money to become image.

As a point of reference, I’ve been using the same Tumi roller suitcase since 2004. It has been in the cabin and in the hold many many times, covered well over 1,000,000 miles and is in perfect shape. I’ve had it serviced twice I think.

I like my Rimowa bags, and they're pretty well designed and made, but I don't really consider it a "hardy" bag. If you need a workhorse trolley, I wouldn't really consider Rimowas (and I don't think a dinged up aluminum luggage looks great, but that's subjective). I think many are attracted to Rimowa's design and aesthetics rather than durability.

Luggage should not be considered an "investment".

Regardless of brand, you will never turn a profit off "flipping" luggage (aside from the rare cases, such as the Supreme collaboration).

Luggage should be considered a tangible asset, that has an expected lifecycle, and depreciates over time.

If you are going through luggage at the rate of one per year, I don't see the value in the premium price of a luxury brand.

In that case, I would go with industry leaders, such as Pelican whose market focus is on actually protecting the contents of what is stored inside.

As someone who is used to Pelican for photography gears checked in:
I decided between the metal sports trunk with the latches and the at that time new 1615 Pelican Air as that case's weight has came down a lot with the Air line that it is comparable to the sports trunk. I went with the Pelican Air and is happy with it with no regrets 3 years and 500k miles later.

Since the LVHM takeover I consider Rimowa not interesting anymore. Useful features dumped (e.g 2 wheels, attach a bag), after the updates they look now as their own knock-off and the prices went through the roof. Definitely going after a different demographics.

As long as my alu suitcases and cabin bags hold up (hopefully still many years to come), I'm good, but once they are beyond repair, I'll look elsewhere.

The loss of the two wheeler is certainly regrettable.