Bag Troubles (Take 2): Victorinox Rolling Trevi

I was absolutely stunned when one of the handles of my Victorinox Rolling Trevi came away when I lifted it down some stairs in San Francisco on Friday. This is not a cheap bag, and I expected a lot more from Victorinox, but there was a huge difference between how the handle was sewn on at the front of the bag (two lines of stitching) and on the back of the bag (4 cm x 2 cm rectangle of stitching, plus an X of stitching in the middle of the rectangle). It was just poles apart.

I have owned this bag for less than three months, haven't used it all that much, and have not been rough with it. It's gone back to the shop for repairs ... but it has shaken my perception of Victorinox bags.

Have you experienced anything similar? Is there a more robust bag I should have purchased instead?

Martin says "Samsonite" (October 1)
Email from Martin earlier today:

"The thing about Victorinox is that they do not make their own bags – they make penknives and have jumped on the luggage bandwagon

My large Samsonite suit carrier lasted 18 years and some 30 countries, I have a carry-on which has lasted eight years and a shoulder bag that has been all over the place and lasted four years. The stuff never wears out and they make it all themselves so spares and repairs are easy. And it rhymes with Sampson! What more do you want?

Go buy!!

Regards

Martin"

Comments

[Gary Payne]

I had similar problems with a Targus - the leather in the carry handle split, rendering an otherwise good bag useless. A little webbing, velcro and sewing has made a new stronger handle that works well. But it's certainly a poor design to fail in such a load-bearing spot.

The Tom Bihn Brain Bags are reported to be pretty strong - there's a review at http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2447

[Lars Plougmann]

I am toying with the idea of having a bag custom made to my specifications: materials, measurements, stitching etc. A friend of mine had some prototype dive bags made in Malaysia and what fascinated me was that the custom jobs came in cheaper than buying mass produced brand name dive bags.

The same would be true for luggage, I suspect. I have had some really bad experiences in the recent past (including luggage classics such as Samsonite as well as the more dubious brand category jumps like Land Rover). I would love to know more about the dynamics of the luggage industry but it seems perfectly believable that low cost production facilities churn out $10 bags that get marked up to $200 or more and sold to gullible customers.

[Michael Sampson]

Looking forward to hearing what you come up with Lars. Sounds great.
M.

[AJ]

I experienced the exact same failure with this very same bag! The front handle gave way at the same front seam after only a few months of typical use! I had to send the bag to California for what was promised would be a 3 week repair. 1.5 months (and a new backpack to fill the gap) later, I received- not my bag repaired- but an entirely new bag in the updated version. Which leads me to believe that Victorinox/Swiss Army knows about this issue in the original and just gave up on it. Frustrating- the new bag is bigger, bloated and annoyingly styled. (I've since gone back to a new original via eBay, but your post worries me that I may soon have to deal with this sloppy design flaw once again... Perhaps Lars' Maylasian seamstress can reinforce our predicament! ) Thanks for your report.