Canadian luggage brand Monos is opening its first stores in the US

Monos launched in 2018 and sells items across categories — including suitcases, tote bags, accessories and apparel — in 56 countries. The brand started as digital only but opened its first store in Canada in 2022. Historically, Monos has catered to the U.S. consumer via e-commerce, and it traces 75% of its revenue back to the U.S. Monos achieved more than $150 million in sales in 2024, up from $8 million in 2020. Now, the brand is betting on stores to better connect with U.S. customers in person and take the lessons it learned in Canada to a larger market.

With stores, “what excites us the most is facilitating this experience of travel before [customers] go travel,” co-founder Victor Tam told Modern Retail. “Most people who come into our physical retail locations have a trip coming up. Through stores, that’s when the brand comes to life.”

Writing a different retail playbook

Monos began as a result of its co-founders’ love of travel, they told Modern Retail. But they felt existing luggage didn’t fit their needs, and they set out to develop a product that embodied three principles: design, quality and accessibility. “When you look at what’s out there, typically, you see things that hit one or two of those criteria,” co-founder Hubert Chan said. “But for us, it was really important to offer something that could fit all three.”

Monos’s suitcases run from $275 for a polycarbonate carry-on to $775 for an aluminum trunk. The brand says it sells a piece of luggage every 10 minutes. Monos also sells a handful of travel-adjacent products, like wallets, packing cubes, water bottles and stickers.

As it grows, Monos is hoping to experiment more with “substance and storytelling,” Chan said. Chief among this effort is the brand’s Postcard concept, which it is introducing in Chicago first to “expand the Monos universe and how people experience the brand,” Chan explained. Postcard will feature a menu of snacks and drinks, including from local partners, and a rotating lineup of DJs each week.

Chan said Monos is introducing the Postcard concept to embody what it means to travel “through sound, through sight and through smell.” Beyond selling products, the brand wants to operate at “an intersection of music, food, hospitality and design,” he explained. “We see Postcard becoming a third space and a more thoughtful alternative to bars and restaurants. And we see this as somewhere that we can do music programming and events that bring the community together.”

Tam added that the brand wants Postcard to have the feel of a “lounge outside the airport.” Monos hopes to roll out the concept to new stores globally, and it is considering debuting Postcard pop-ups outside of its existing stores.

In addition to Postcard, Monos is making more changes to its business to better serve customers. In the U.S., it will be bringing products to its stores from its two U.S. distribution centers: one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. The brand previously had these distribution centers, but “they were used less, mostly for some returns management and some wholesale,” Tam said.

Even as it builds its U.S. business, Monos isn’t taking its foot off the gas abroad. The brand is looking to open more stores in its native Canada; it’s also launching e-commerce in Germany, its first non-English-speaking market. And, it’s preparing for category expansion into the home space, “beyond things that take you from A to B,” Tam said.

Competing for carry-ons

Monos is one of a number of newer luggage brands looking to stand out in the crowded travel accessories space. In the last 10 years, “the market for luggage has become much more competitive,” noted Beth Goldstein, executive director and industry analyst for accessories and footwear at Circana. Brands like Away, July, Béis and Dagne Dover have come on the scene, betting on special-edition color drops, lightweight materials and minimalist designs to go head-to-head with Samsonite, Travelpro and Tumi.

Even more recently, though, the luggage industry has had its fair share of challenges. Sales exploded in 2021 and 2022, when people were able to get Covid-19 vaccines and go travel the world. However, that boom has softened. In the U.S., dollar sales for luggage declined 6% from 2023 to 2024 and were flat from January 2025 to June 2025, per Circana. Luxury brands have fared better than others, thanks to their high-income customer bases, pointed out Michael Prendergast, managing director in Alvarez & Marsal’s Consumer and Retail Group.

One issue with the sector, though, is that “luggage is a low purchase-frequency category,” Goldstein told Modern Retail. “Now that we’ve passed a heavy replenishment phase, the market will likely be soft for the next couple of years,” she said. The luggage industry is also dealing with macroeconomic challenges. Tariffs and rising prices are major headwinds, especially for brands that source from outside of the U.S. and cater to U.S. consumers.

Still, hope isn’t lost for the luggage industry, Goldstein said. At this time, the best brands are “continuing to innovate,” she explained. “I call it incremental innovation because it’s not reinventing the wheel (or suitcase),” she said. Rather, Goldstein explained, it’s about “driving newness through color, increased functionality, materials and collaborations.”

Monos, for its part, has been experimenting more with mixing materials. Its newer Hybrid collection blends features of both aluminum and polycarbonate luggage. Some of its newer suitcases also have two TSA-approved combination locks, rather than one.

Other luggage brands are also betting on new stores for growth. Calpak, for instance, opened its first store in late 2024, while Samsonite opened a new location at Sydney International Airport earlier this year. Rimowa, meanwhile, recently unveiled a new flagship on Madison Avenue in New York City, its largest location in North America.