Start-up that’s making the case for exciting luggage and on a journey to becoming the Nike of travel
Filipino-American Jen Rubio and Steph Korey knew nothing about luggage when they had the idea for Away. In two years they’ve sold 500,000 bags and raised US$80 million in funding. Now they want to be a global travel brand
On a rainy day during this month’s New York Fashion Week, as the fashion set was rushing from show to show, the young team at luggage company Away was wrapped up in a move from an office on Lafayette Street in downtown Manhattan to a much larger space in nearby SoHo.
The move reflects the remarkably quick growth Away has experienced. Founded in 2016 by Jen Rubio and Steph Korey, who met while working at online eyewear retailer Warby Parker, Away has already sold more than half a million suitcases and raised over US$80 million in funding.
Like so many direct-to-consumer companies, Away originated from a gap in the market that Rubio and Korey wanted to fill. After Rubio’s suitcase broke on one of her trips, it occurred to her that luggage was a category lacking any excitement and decided to team up with Korey, who by then had also left Warby Parker and earned an MBA, to come up with a brand to meet the needs of millennial travellers.
Rubio, the de facto face of the company, was new to the world of start-ups when she conjured up Away, but she had a knack for developing brands. Born in the Philippines, Rubio immigrated to New Jersey with her family when she was seven. Her parents expected her to become a lawyer but she soon became disillusioned with a career in law.
“If I’d had a completely American upbringing … I would have thought, ‘you can be a business owner, an entrepreneur’,” says Rubio when we meet at the old Away office.
“But that wasn’t something we ever talked about in my family. My family was more like, ‘you’re going to go to law school’. So looking back I think that I definitely had some entrepreneurial drive in me but was mentally trained to go down a different path.”