「縦型」「キャスター付き」スーツケースが生まれた軌跡

Currently, suitcases are used not only for business situations such as travel and business trips, but also for carrying bulky and heavy items such as clothes for traveling, shoes, pamphlets for business negotiations, and concert goods . It is sometimes used as a transportation tool to move around comfortably.

Today's suitcases are ``vertical'' and equipped with casters.
However, until the 1960s, the suitcases developed and popular overseas were of the ``handheld bag'' type, horizontal, without casters, and carried as hand luggage.

Smaller travel trunks came to be called "suitcases."

As transportation methods and purposes have diversified due to advances in technology, the form of carrying has changed from trunks used for traveling by boat, and smaller trunks for travel have come to be called "suitcases." .

In the 1950s, as air travel increased in the United States, lightweight suitcases made of ABS resin and aluminum alloy became popular.

An airplane symbolizing the liberalization of overseas travel

Japan hosted the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 , and the liberalization of overseas travel marked the beginning of overseas travel for the general public, leading to an increase in air travel. In the same year, Ace entered into a technical partnership agreement with Schwider Brothers (currently Samsonite), learning Americanized advanced technology and rational manufacturing.

Our Japanese company is involved in manufacturing using the knowledge we have acquired. It was also an expression of our commitment to manufacturing products that will "achieve comfortable transportation that is loved by Japanese consumers." We believe that it is our social significance as a company to create products that are truly easy for Japanese people to use, and that suit the physique , habits , transportation conditions , and land of the Japanese people. We proposed new improvements and developments .

These were "vertical type" and "caster".

Normally , it would be difficult to improve a product from the perspective of a technical partnership , but due to our long-standing relationship of trust and shared enthusiasm for bags , we were able to obtain approval for spontaneous development. It took .

 

Wardrobe, the first vertical suitcase with casters

When you travel abroad, you inevitably end up carrying a lot of luggage, and suitcases get heavier accordingly . At that time , it was difficult to easily procure locally needed items, especially due to differences in the products handled depending on the climate and customs of the destination , as well as language barriers . Probably .

It was common for suitcases to be transported by a carrier , but as the number of overseas trips increases each year, there is a shortage of carriers , and more and more people are transporting their suitcases themselves .

After witnessing the exhaustion of small Japanese travelers, and after repeated trial and error to see if there was a way to make it easier to carry, we came up with the revolutionary idea of ​​attaching casters to the bottom. .

At first, I tried adding casters to the conventional horizontal model, but it was quite difficult to carry it in a crouched position. Therefore, we changed to a ``vertical'' type that makes it easier to pull while standing up, and a ``horizontal'' type that makes it easier to open the suitcase even in a narrow space when opening the suitcase and taking out the contents.

Not only Japanese people, but people all over the world experienced the ease of movement, and the current shape of suitcases became established.

This is "hospitality luggage " born from flexible ideas .

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