The Evolution of Luggage: From Trunks to Smart Suitcases

Did you know that the contemporary wheeled travelling luggage bags in Sri Lanka with retractable handles that we now see everywhere actually started to gain popularity during the hippie era? It was the latter half of the 1960s, a time of rapidly shifting trends in fashion, art, politics, social mores, and product design. Every aspect of life was changing, including suitcase design.

There were reports that significant advancements and the evolving needs of vacationers prompted luggage designers to give the idea of making wheels and retractable handles a standard component of travel bags serious consideration. So, how did travel luggage in Sri Lanka appear prior to the swinging 1960s?

The Trunk Era (Late 19th century).

A single tourist would require an army of hired help or servants to carry their bags until the late 19th century. Back then, a large trunk composed of wood, leather, and a substantial iron foundation would be considered luggage. Although exceedingly heavy, it was strong enough to endure the rigours of transit by steamship and train.

Only the wealthy, who could afford to hire attendants to carry the large, heavy trunks for them, were allowed to travel during this time. The trunk didn't start losing favour until the first decades of the 20th century. The demand for smaller, more portable luggage increased as more people started to travel, whether for work or pleasure.

Early 20th century: The Suitcase Period.

The emergence of mass tourism as a phenomenon can be dated to the early 1900s. As was the case during the preceding centuries, journeys were no longer restricted to migration to industrial towns and cities or pilgrimages to holy locations. Thousands of people were now travelling to far-off places to relax at this time.

During this time, air travel was also beginning to take off as a substitute means of transportation that could get people to farther areas faster than trains or steamships. The suitcase was invented as a practical replacement for the bulky trunk, which was difficult to transport to remote destinations.

The first suitcase was a case designed to transport suits, as its name suggests. It has a side hat box and an interior sleeve for holding shirts. The demand for suitcases soared in the following decades and up until the middle of the 1900s, when they replaced the trunk as the ultimate travel emblem.

Early bags were heavy by modern standards and resembled enormous hardback books, yet they were still far lighter than trunks. They were either constructed from leather, wicker, or a thick, rubbery fabric stretched over a strong wooden or steel frame. It had a single handle linked to its long side, and it had metal clasps to close and unlock it.

Step forward, wheeled luggage.

Even though a wheeled trunk and a wheeled suitcase were both patented in 1887 and 1945, respectively, wheeled baggage didn't become widely used until several decades later. In 1970, a new patent for wheeled luggage was granted to Bernard Sadow. The majority, if not all, of travellers now choose air travel as their preferred means of transportation.

The lighter-weight luggage developed by Sadow has subsequently become the standard for travellers all around the world. It is important to note that both the travel luggage sector and the aviation industry saw tremendous transformation during this time.

In order to keep up with the rising number of passengers flying and the rising volume of cargo, new regulations were put in place by the aviation industry between the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Additionally, the size of airports had to be increased, resulting in far longer walks for passengers. Additionally, for the first time, customers had to select luggage that complied with airline regulations because the dimensions of travel bags had to stay within certain bounds.

In response, baggage manufacturers began creating pieces that were easy to transport and complied with the updated airline size specifications. In other words, the wheeled luggage we use today was created to comply with new flight regulations and simplify travel.

The luggage of today differs greatly from that of the past in numerous ways. The weight is where there is the biggest variation. The materials used to make modern luggage are aluminium frames and lightweight, durable polymers or synthetic fibres. Modern baggage incorporates zippers as opposed to the metal clasps that were typically used as locks on early trunks and suitcases.

The Future of Travel Bags.

There is no denying the connection between luggage design and recent advancements in public transit, particularly air travel. Given the most recent developments in aviation technology, it won't be long before brand-new aeroplanes with cutting-edge facilities take to the skies. By then, new requirements and guidelines for air travel will have been put in place.

Imagining what future luggage might look like is interesting. Will only new materials be used in its construction? Will it weigh less than our existing luggage? Types that self-propel and follow you through the airport to the check-in counter have previously been prototyped.

Many airlines later outlawed the use of smart bags with GPS tracking systems because they were worried about the lithium batteries' potential to catch fire during take-off and landing. Smart bags with a new sort of battery that doesn't pose an in-flight fire risk would likely be the most helpful advancement in luggage technology that would help tourists the most.

Whatever the simple suitcase’s future may hold, it has certainly evolved from the bulky trunks and hefty travelling bags in Sri Lanka that tourists used less than a century ago, especially when purchasing travel bags online in Sri Lanka.