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For the last two decades, Victor Sanz has shaped the creative direction of TUMI beyond just a luggage label.
“We’ve been able to continue to push the brand to the point where it’s really a brand that’s a bit of this fashion house with a product design lens,” he told GRAZIA during his recent trip to Dubai.
First joining the brand in 2003, Sanz went on to become creative director of TUMI in 2016 and during his 22-year tenure with the label, he’s seen its trajectory take a massive shift opening it up beyond a simple businessman clientele.
“When I joined the brand, it was really just about businessman, all black, very little colour, very function forward with everything. They had brought me in to really start speaking to a younger customer,” he explained, adding the team eventually started speaking to creatives, athletes, chefs, musicians and more, understanding they were also embodying the TUMI mantra.
“It made us think about that the brand wasn’t just about the functionality, but it was about this true lifestyle and we started leaning more into this lifestyle,” he noted.
With a big focus on the Middle East with the recent opening of its TUMI flagship in Dubai, where ambassador Lando Norris was there to help cut the ribbon, GRAZIA sat down with Sanz to discover more about his two-decade career with the brand, the changing landscape of travel and the label’s expansion in the Middle East.
GRAZIA: Talk us through your career and leading the creative direction for TUMI.
I started with TUMI in 2003 and prior to joining, I was designing digital cameras for Kodak. So I’m a trained industrial designer. I wanted to become a sculptor when I was young and kind of started my early career and I went to university in New York and I discovered industrial design. It’s this idea of creating products that people can use every day, but also it’s a way to kind of get my art into people’s hands. And then I had, early in my career, I started thinking about fashion. I had an interest in fashion and I, you know, came across this brand TUMI and I was like, what a great brand where they’re doing things that are being worn by individuals, not quite full fashion, but they were also doing like almost like a product design-esque. When I joined the brand, it was really just about businessman, all black, very little colour, very function forward with everything. They had brought me in to really start speaking to a younger customer. So they were seeing that they, they were appealing to a more mature customer. How do we put the younger customer? And by young, you know, we’re talking early thirties.
We started doing more collaborations and very quickly, we realised that who we thought our TUMI customer was, it was a very narrow vision of who they were. We started talking to athletes, musicians, graffiti artists, chefs, and more. It made us think about that the brand wasn’t just about the functionality, but it was about this true lifestyle and we started leaning more into this lifestyle.
GRAZIA: Over your two decades at TUMI, how have you seen the function of luggage change and develop?
We’ve been able to continue to push the brand to the point where it’s really a brand that’s a bit of this fashion house with a product design lens. We don’t see ourselves as full fashion, but we say aesthetics are as important as having the right amount of pockets, because when people are confident and how they’re showing up, they perform better. So now you see we’ve expanded into a lifestyle category. We’re in fragrance, eyewear, belts, electronics, outerwear.
Our women’s category has become a more important for us as well, and really dedicating more efforts to continue to grow our women’s category. You’ll see some new things coming out in the new store, but also discovering that even like a collection like Banking Degree, it appeals to both men and women. It has a point of view. Yeah, it’s this, it becomes this expression of who we are, of where we see the idea of art, design, engineering, craftsmanship, timelessness, and we’re bringing it all together. So that’s about 20 years in a nutshell.
GRAZIA: What would you say was the pivotal moment where you noticed TUMI was moving into more of a lifestyle focus?
VS: That kind of tipping point, was when we really started speaking to people that we never thought about as our core customers. When we started speaking to those athletes and those DJs where sometimes you view these individuals as these icons of industry outside of your own circle or your own orbit, and when we spoke to them, their language and their narrative was the same as that business person that we were really focusing on.
GRAZIA: How does TUMI differ to anything else that’s on the market, would you say?
VS: We have a team that I’m lucky enough to be able to speak to it. We have a fantastic team that work on it. For us, one of the things that I think really distinguishes us is we really do study our customers and we want to evolve our products with the customers’ lives. So let’s say new tech, I remember being at the brand and we saw that Apple was launching the iPad. Tablets had been out, but they weren’t like, okay, when Apple launched, we said, wow, okay, how is this? And we very quickly saw that our customers’ lives started to change from these larger laptops that they’re carrying around down to the iPad and said, okay, let’s very quickly pivot. Let’s give them those options that if they still have the laptop, they can, their iPad, how do they carry it, accessories.
And even within the world of travel, because our product lasts so long, we really focus on the design as well, that it needs to be timeless. I know it can be a little bit cliché, but if you’re going to have something for 20 years, you want to make sure that when you use it, you still feel confident in the product.
GRAZIA: What travel trends do you see here in the Middle East that different to other markets?
VS: This region to me is always about the future. They love their heritage, but it’s always future forward. And that’s something that resonates with us as a brand, where we’re always looking towards the future. We understand our past, but we’re continuing to evolve. And particularly with this market, one of the things we see is they’re always striving to have the very best of what something is, whether it’s, you know, how do you change culture with architecture? How do you change a perception of what a mall is or what a shopping experience is? And that’s something that for us is a trend that’s quite unique to this region. I think there’s other pockets of the world that also have this, but here it’s in such a concentrated amount where things like doing titanium with a piece of luggage, fully accepted, they understand it, they want it, they understand the durability, but they also understand the quality and the value of the product.
GRAZIA: What’s next? What can we expect to see like next year? Now we’re closing out 2024. What’s the plans for 2025?
VS: Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that you’re seeing here, and one of the key reasons we’re here, you know, moments and experiences like the Dubai store and we want to bring new experiences to the customers, but also bring more lifestyle products to them.
And it’s across the board, whether it’s, you know, looking at the world of scent, where we just launched our women’s fragrance. So we have, okay, we could launch one, no, we’re going to launch four. And it’s all in the context of travel.
We’re doing a set of candles also – so kind of expanding the tuning into the world of home. There’s lots happening!
