Cole Haan launches luggage, positioning itself as a travel brand

This isn’t Cole Haan’s first foray into travel; the brand has sold duffle bags, backpacks and other travel accessories for decades. But the company is now ramping up its offerings as it works to establish itself as a modern lifestyle brand attuned to the post-pandemic era. Cole Haan’s customers want products that perform in all types of settings, from office meetings to dinners — an ethos the brand has described as “nine to five and five to nine.” Now, Cole Haan wants to bring that same versatility to travel products.

“Our target customer, even as it has fluxed over the years, has really over-indexed in travel,” Jeanine Farucci, vp of global brand marketing at Cole Haan, said in an interview. “[Travel] has really become an organic part of how they live and work. As we dive further into expanding what the Cole Haan lifestyle feels like, travel is an essential component of that. … The goal is really to play a bigger part in that travel market by creating a more robust ecosystem of what we can offer.”

Cole Haan is investing more in travel as it gears up for its 100th birthday in 2028. Formerly an independent company, Cole Haan came under Nike’s ownership in 1988 when Nike paid $95 million for the brand. In 2012, Nike sold Cole Haan to the private equity firm Apax Partners Worldwide LLP for $570 million. Although Cole Haan planned to go public in 2021, it scrapped plans for an IPO. At the time, Cole Haan revealed that its revenue for the year ending June 1, 2019 totaled $686.6 million, up 14.1% from a year earlier.

Over the last five years, Cole Haan has gone into various new categories, from tennis sneakers to golf apparel. The brand’s first-ever suitcases launch on Aug. 17. There are four collections in total, varying by price: Legacy Grand Top Tier ($450-$700), Heritage Pro Top Tier ($350-$550), Legacy Grand Mid-Tier ($250-$350) and Traverse Series Mid-Tier ($200-$300). All have TSA locks and are made of polycarbonate.

Farucci said Cole Haan is applying the same R&D principles for its footwear to its luggage, including balancing “innovation versus craft.” The brand worked with manufacturer Travelway Group to create bags that are sturdy and lightweight, with smooth wheels. Cole Haan wants to “give [shoppers] that premium feel that comes along with the brand,” Farucci said.

The GrandPrø Packwell Sneaker, which launches Aug. 6, was also designed to look and perform well, Farucci said. It hopes to solve a specific traveler pain point: saving suitcase space. The shoes, which come in men’s and women’s sizes and retail for $140-$160, have a slimmed-down silhouette and an unlined interior, making them easier to stuff into a bag’s corner or pocket. They also have grippy soles to handle different terrains.

For travelers, the sneaker is “just one less thing to plan, one less thing to think about,” Farucci said. “That is the consumer mentality we want to service.”

Indeed, data indicates that shoppers value versatility when making a travel-related purchase, said Beth Goldstein, footwear analyst at Circana. “In our consumer research, versatility increased as a purchase driver year over year, while price and promotion became less important,” she told Modern Retail. Still, she emphasized, “Quality remains the top purchase consideration.”

Cole Haan plans to highlight its new travel offerings in its more than 500 stores. “The hope is that we do have a dedicated travel section in stores, one day,” Farucci said. For now, though, stores will have vignettes showing off the GrandPrø Packwell Sneaker and luggage. Cole Haan plans to stress how the merchandise fits with the rest of the assortment, including belts and sunglasses.

As Cole Haan expands its travel SKUs, it’s also looking to have a bigger presence in tourist hubs. It is opening a location in Disney Springs (near Walt Disney World Resort), as well as Boston, this fall. Meanwhile, its new location in King Abdulaziz International Airport is its 18th store in Saudi Arabia and operates 24 hours a day. Going into more airports “is part of the consideration, for sure, especially globally,” Farucci said.

While North America is Cole Haan’s biggest business, the brand is sold in more than 100 countries, up from 13 in 2013. Focusing on tourist hubs “is really in service of providing an immersive brand experience for not just domestic travelers, but also international travelers,” Farucci said. “For many of them, it might be the first time they engage with the brand.”

Cole Haan will face competition as it guns for a greater piece of the travel-gear pie. The idea of a “travel-gear wardrobe” has gained traction, with suitcase brands such as Antler and July rolling out new products, new colorways and new categories.

The U.S. travel-goods market, overall, spiked in 2021 as vaccinated consumers got back into traveling. However, demand has since normalized. Per Circana, for the 12 months ending April 2026, travel goods dollars declined 2%, but unit sales increased 1%. One consistent bright spot has been social media. Per Circana, 44% of consumers said that they have purchased luggage or travel bags as a result of seeing them on social media.

To that point, Cole Haan’s bigger focus on travel will also apply to its marketing channels. The brand is looking to work with more social-media content creators — both people who are dedicated travel creators and people who are travel aficionados. The latter, Farucci said, may be “going on 20 trips a year, and they are taking us along with them.” “It goes back to: Travel is more of a lifestyle,” she added. Overall, Cole Haan is growing its brand ambassadors and creators twofold-to-threefold over the course of the next year.

Ultimately, Cole Haan hopes its bigger push into travel goods will resonate with new customers and existing customers alike, Farucci said. But the brand also knows it will take time and effort to sway shoppers, and it views its main challenge as “differentiation.”

“People have a lot of options,” Farucci said. “So, how do we stay true to our core DNA, [while] still providing what they expect from us, but also meet[ing] them [in] price and affordability, availability? We want to make sure that we’re checking the boxes for them … so that we are high up on that consideration set.”