One Guy Recommends: Muji Luggage

It’s been awhile.  Far too long, actually.  For everyone that has subscribed to my blog, thank you for your support.  I will do my best to get back to posting as regularly as I can.  My first few posts back are going to centre around things that I’ve stumbled across in the last few months and havejumped out as things I’d like to share.

Relatively recently, I changed jobs.  A major part of my new position is travel.  Over the last few months, I’ve been living out of a suitcase roughly 60-70% of the time.  Luckily I enjoy travelling, and, by sheer luck, I’ve happened to be near friends and family for the vast majority of this time.  Nonetheless, it can be a tiring process.  The more someone travels, the more it is understood that your luggage and the rest of your travel kit need to help and not hinder. 

Given my impending travel needs, I realized early on that it was time for a new suitcase.   You’ll recall that I actually featured one in my inaugural Christmas List post.  I thought hard about purchasing a beautiful piece of luggage (given how much I would be using it) from the likes of Globetrotter or something from a well known manufacturer like Tumi – but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how ridiculous that would be.  Images of my bag being stuffed by an overworked flight attendant into a tiny overhead bin on my flight from Saskatoon to Des Moines made me shudder.  Therefore, despite my love for Tumi, I believe I’ve found a more realistic and equally efficient alternative: Muji.

Muji is a Japanese company whose only North American store can be found in SoHo (on Broadway) in New York City.  They make a wide variety of different things, from pens to clothes to personal organizers to aromatherapy items to luggage and just about everything else in between.  It’s the luggage (and the pens) that I’ve been most impressed with.  I settled on their black carry-on case.  Made from ballistic nylon, it’s built to stand up to quite a beating (and, lets face it, travel nowadays is a beating, both for the passengers and their luggage).  It’s incredibly light (I can lift my empty bag with purely my pinkie finger – despite it being able to hold at least a week’s worth of clothing).  It’s incredibly well priced ($135US – that Tumi I referenced earlier costs $600US).  The designs are elegantly simple (I like the minimalist, brandname-free lines).  Most importantly, it features four 360 degree wheels.  Having never owned a four-wheel suitcase, I never quite realized what I was missing.  All of a sudden, I’m striding through airports with my arms naturally at my sides, neither pushing nor pulling my bag.  Rather, my luggage effortlessly rolls beside me, more an afterthought than something I need to “lug”.  

To summarize, I’ve found a product that, for the measly sum of $135US, has revolutionized my travel experience.  I would highly recommend these suitcases to anyone that can find one, either in New York, London, Japan or via some other avenue (I managed to track one down at a small store in my city – but this, apparently, isn’t the norm).   They’re available in a number of colours, sizes and now, in hardcase form (think Rimowa).  Hell, the next time you’re in NYC and you’ve done a bit more shopping than you’d expected, stop in at Muji on your way to the airport and pick up a carry-on to haul your stuff home with.  You might just be more excited about the luggage than its contents by the time you get through your front door…

Muji can be found online here: http://www.muji.us/store/travel/luggage