Bluesmart

Last updated
Bluesmart Inc.
Company type Private
IndustrySmart Luggage
Founded2013;11 years ago (2013)
Founders Tomi Pierucci, Diego Saez-Gil, Alejo Verlini
DefunctMay 1, 2018;6 years ago (2018-05-01)
Headquarters
Area served
Worldwide
Website bluesmart.com

Bluesmart Inc. was a global travel technology company that developed and produced Internet of Things travel products. The brand launched a carry-on suitcase, the Bluesmart One, on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo in 2014. [1] The campaign raised US$2.2 million in contributions and became the highest crowdfunding project ever for a travel product at that time. [2]

Contents

On May 1, 2018, Bluesmart Inc. announced they would be shutting down operations, due to a ban by major US airlines on smart luggage with non-removable batteries. [3] The company's intellectual property was sold to Travelpro and the company's products will no longer be supported. [4]

History

Crowdfunding campaign

In October 2014, the company launched its first product on Indiegogo, asking for support of their campaign – offering pre-orders of their product as rewards. [5] The company met its goal in two hours and broke records in the Hardware category by pre-selling 10,000 units to 114 countries and collecting more than $2.2 million in contributions. [6] In November 2014, while their extended Indiegogo campaign was still ongoing, the company was selected by Silicon Valley–based startup accelerator Y Combinator to be part of its program for the Winter 2015 batch. [7]

Production of the first smart carry-on

After Bluesmart Inc.'s manufacturing prototype passed its first reliability tests in June 2015, they set up a Mass Production division and local team in China which quickly grew to 15 employees.[ citation needed ] Bluesmart Inc. began shipping what would be known as the Bluesmart One in August 2015. [8]

Products

In late 2015, the brand released Bluesmart One. [8]

In 2016, the brand released the premium Bluesmart Black Edition carry-on, which was more durable, and had an upgraded exterior anti-theft system. [ citation needed ]

In June 2017, Bluesmart Inc. introduced its Series 2 products including the Bluesmart Cabin, Check, Laptop Bag and Passport Pouch. [9]

Bluesmart Inc. was awarded the Red Dot Best of the Best Design Award category. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suitcase</span> Form of luggage

A suitcase is a form of luggage. It is a rectangular container with a handle and is typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popularity of mass tourism at the time and were meant to hold dress suits. They were originally made using heavier materials such as leather or steel, but, beginning in the 1930s, were constructed with more lightweight materials like plastic and cardboard.

Travelocity.com is an online travel agency owned by the American Expedia Group. It has 12.4 million monthly unique visitors, making it the third most popular website owned by Expedia Group, after Expedia.com and Hotels.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samsonite</span> Luggage manufacturer

Samsonite International S.A. is an American luggage manufacturer and retailer, with products ranging from large suitcases to small toiletries bags and briefcases. The company was founded in 1910 in Denver, Colorado, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baggage</span> Travelers accoutrements container

Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip necessities. On the return trip, travelers may have souvenirs and gifts. For some people, luggage and the style thereof is representative of the owner's wealth and status. Luggage is constructed to protect the items during travel either with a hard shell or a durable soft material. Luggage often has internal subdivisions or sections to aid in securing items. Handles are typically provided to facilitate carrying, and some luggage may have wheels and/or telescoping handles or leashes to make moving them easier.

Smartwings, a.s. is a Czech airline with its head office on the property of Václav Havel Airport Prague in Ruzyně, 6th district, Prague. It is the biggest airline in the Czech Republic, and it operates scheduled and chartered flights, mainly to leisure destinations. The airline also wet and dry leases its aircraft to other airlines. It also owns 30% of Czech Airlines and has subsidiaries in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delsey</span>

Delsey is a French company which manufactures luggage and travel accessories. It is based in Tremblay-en-France, in the Paris suburbs. Delsey employs 400 staff, and has a turnover of about €130 million. As of 2010, it held second place in the global luggage market, behind Samsonite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baggage allowance</span> Bags allowed per commercial transportation passenger

On commercial transportation, mostly with airlines, the baggage allowance is the amount of checked baggage or hand/carry-on luggage the company will allow per passenger. There may be limits on the amount that is allowed free of charge and hard limits on the amount that is allowed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solar Roadways</span> American company

Solar Roadways Incorporated is an American company based in Sandpoint, Idaho, aiming to develop solar-powered road panels to form a smart highway. Their proof-of-concept technology is a hexagonal road panel that has a glass driving surface with underlying solar cells, electronics, and sensors to act as a part of solar array with programmable capability. The concept has been criticized as unfeasible and uneconomical as either a road surface or a photovoltaic system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kickstarter</span> US-based crowdfunding platform

Kickstarter, PBC is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiegogo</span> American crowdfunding website

Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows people to solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. Indiegogo charges a 5% fee on contributions. This charge is in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 3% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.

Rimowa GmbH, often stylized as RIMOWA, is a luxury luggage manufacturer. The company was founded in 1898, in Cologne, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skully (helmet)</span>

Skully was a brand of motorcycle helmet with a heads-up display and a rear-facing camera.

Pretail is a sub-category of e-commerce and online retail for introducing new products, services, and brands to market by pre-launching online, from creating an interest waitlist of signups before launch to collecting reservations or pre-orders in limited quantity before release, realization, or commercial availability. Pretail allows new product ideas/prototypes to be mass produced only when they have reached an initial threshold of buy-in from investors/consumers. Pretail includes pre-sale commerce, pre-order retailers, pre-launch marketing services, incubation marketplaces, crowdfunding communities, and demand chain management systems.

Sensibo is a manufacturer of air conditioning controllers.

Cosmos is a UK independent tour operator providing a range of package holidays to the UK market. The tour operator is connected to the international Globus Travel Group, founded in 1928, which remains family owned with headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland. Under parent company Cosmos Tours Ltd, the tour operator offers holidays through two brands: Cosmos and Avalon Waterways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ZX Spectrum Vega+</span> Handheld video game console based on the ZX Spectrum home computer

The ZX Spectrum Vega+ is a handheld game console based on the ZX Spectrum and designed by Rick Dickinson as a follow-up to the ZX Spectrum Vega handheld TV game which was released in 2015. Only a small number of Vega+ machines were released, before Retro Computers was wound up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Tian</span> Canadian entrepreneur

Simon Tian is a Canadian businessman, inventor, entrepreneur and investor. He is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Fonus and Neptune. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Tian dropped out of pre-university college at the age of 17 to start Neptune, and, as of late 2017, has raised around $7 million from private investors as well as a total of more than $2 million from crowdfunding sources alone. Tian is a 2015 Thiel Fellow, having been awarded $100,000 by PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel through the Thiel Foundation, and was named one of the top 30 Quebecers under 30 by Les Affaires in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neptune (company)</span> Canadian consumer electronics company

Neptune Computer Inc., commonly known as Neptune, is a Canadian privately held consumer electronics and wearable technology company, founded in 2013 by Simon Tian in Montreal, Quebec, and currently based in Toronto. The company has raised around $7 million from private investors, and over $2 million from crowdfunding sources like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anova Culinary</span> Smart kitchen appliances

Anova Culinary, officially known as Anova Applied Electronics, Inc., is a company headquartered in San Francisco that specializes in smart kitchen appliances designed for home cooking. Their product range includes devices such as sous-vide cookers, combination ovens, and vacuum sealers. In 2014, Anova introduced the Anova Precision Cooker, the first sous-vide cooking device with Bluetooth connectivity, followed by a Wi-Fi-enabled version in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Away (company)</span> American travel and lifestyle brand

Away is an American luggage and travel accessories brand founded by Jen Rubio and Steph Korey in 2015 and based in New York City. Having raised $31 million in financing, Away is one of the highest funded female-backed startups.

References

  1. Souppouris, Aaron (October 20, 2014). "Bluesmart wants to crowdfund the 'world's first' connected luggage". Engadget .
  2. Vivion, Nick (December 17, 2014). "How Bluesmart became one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever". Phocuswire.
  3. O'Kane, Sean (1 May 2018). "Bluesmart shuts down after airlines ban smart luggage". The Verge . Vox Media.
  4. Heater, Brian (1 May 2018). "Bluesmart sells assets to Travelpro following smart luggage ban". TechCrunch .
  5. "Self-Tracking Suitcase Passes $1M on Indiegogo". 17 November 2014.
  6. "Bluesmart: World's First Smart, Connected Carry-On".
  7. "YC-Backed Bluesmart Raises $2 Million for Its Self-Tracking Suitcase". 23 January 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Bluesmart: World's First Smart, Connected Carry-On". Indiegogo . November 20, 2015.
  9. "Bluesmart Series 2: Smart Luggage System".
  10. "Bluesmart Carry-on Suitcase - 2016 | work | Red Dot Award: Product Design". Archived from the original on 2017-10-15. Retrieved 2017-06-07.