In March 2012, the Travelpro staff headed to Las Vegas for the Travel Goods Show, hosted by the Travel Goods Association. (The Travel Goods Association, by the way, is exactly what it sounds like: a national organization whose members include manufacturers, distributors, retailers, promoters, sales representatives and suppliers of luggage and other travel products and accessories.)
CEO Rob Rankin (r) receives the design award for the Crew 9
The conference is a massive trade show and networking event — and a great excuse to enjoy the Strip for a few days — but the highlight for us was this year’s Product Innovation Awards, which celebrates the best new developments in luggage manufacturing for the year.
Travelpro took home an award for our Crew 9 21-inch Expandable Spinner, which the judges chose for its two patent-pending handle features: our PowerScope extension handle, which we engineered to be sturdier and less wobbly when it’s fully extended; and its complement, the Contour Grip, which we designed to be more natural and easier to maneuver when pushing our four-wheeled suitcase. It’s padded to comfortably rest the hand and has slanted guides to help with direction.
We were excited to be among the winners of this innovation-in-design competition…it’s a sign our designers’ hard work back at headquarters is really paying off. The real test, though: hearing from actual travelers about whether our Crew 9 series luggage made their travels easier and more comfortable.
We’d call that a bigger win than anything we could get in Vegas, slots machines included.
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