I love the innovation occurring in the luggage arena. We saw the Bluesmart carry-on run their successful Indiegogo campaign last year and this year, luggage manufacturer Delsey launched a campaign to assess the tech needs for consumers in their smart bag. It is nice to see advancement being made with one of the most ubiquitous items in an airport so as to fit various needs and conveniences of travelers.
The Barracuda Carry-on
Another carry-on crowdfunding campaign has launched and this has gotten big – fast. The goal was $20,000 and as of this morning, it is currently up over $1 million with 3 days still to go! The design and features of this bag certainly resonate with potential customers since the funding has gotten so large!
Some of the major points with this bag include the ability to:
- fold down to fit in slim spaces (great for when you are at home or on an extended trip somewhere)
- a tray table (great addition to a bag’s handle to allow computer work)
- USB port (love it – you can always use more power in airports)
This is the Barracuda collapsible carry-on. It also has an add-on option of tracking via mobile networks and a proximity sensor. This add-on will cost $50 on top of the bag – which is currently available for $245.
The features of the Barracuda
As bags go, the design photos look pretty great. They have added several stretch goals so that there is now extra pocket for a laptop, a larger battery, and an additional USB port (for a total of 2). It does all of this while keeping the dimensions within the allowable specs as a carry-on and weighing in at 8.5lbs. Since that is right in the ballpark with other carry-on bags, it is pretty amazing it is able to do it while packing in the extras.
If interested, head over to Kickstarter within the next 3 days to pick your color and bag. My biggest wish is that the big luggage manufacturers would start to sell some more innovative carry-ons. But, what is most likely happening is that they are observing the market reception by these upstart products/companies and, if they are indeed big sellers, companies like Travelpro, Briggs&Riley, and Tumi will jump in and possibly even crush these other companies if they can roll them out before these bags end up shipping.
What do you think? Is it a bag you would be interested in?
