The Story of SkyRoll (short version)
 

So I'm sitting on a plane watching the other passengers board, a time killing exercise if there ever was one. It was pretty much the only perk I got from being an elite member of my airline's frequent flyer program. No, watching passengers isn't a perk, boarding the plane early is. It's nice to board early, lots of room to stow you stuff and find your seat before the crush begins. The downside is that you have all that time left over with little else to do but make a game out of watching everyone else struggle to get situated.

Anyway, I'm watching this guy trying to fit this ungainly garment bag into the overhead bin, not a pretty sight. This thing has so much crap jammed into it that it looked like an overstuffed kitchen trash bag with a handle. First it made me wonder why anyone would want to use a garment bag. Then it made me think that the shape of garment bags was inefficient and awkward.

Believe me, I was no packing wizard and also not known as a sharp dresser. I hardly noticed if my own clothes were wrinkled, something my friends enjoyed pointing out to me. But I did know the trick about rolling up your clothes when you pack them. I started to think about rolling up a suit and realized that no one traveled like this, for good reason. How would you roll up a suit?

When I got home I paid a visit to Home Depot, my favorite place to shop. I bought a section of very large diameter PVC tubing, about the width of my suit jacket. I also bought some fabric and Velcro and enlisted the pregnant wife of a friend who was handy with a sewing machine to help make an outer cover. I wrapped the suit around the PVC and held it there with the cover. It worked. The suit came out wrinkle free. I had a concept but was a long way from a product you could actually use to travel. Then the hard work began.

Fast forward about 15 years and I now run a luggage company. Pretty much the career path you'd expect from a guy who studied materials engineering (Go Gators!) and made computer chips at Intel. I do not know if a background in engineering has helped me design luggage. I certainly didn't take any luggage design courses in college. But being an engineer and having a personality where I enjoy complaining about things that don't work right does come in handy at times.

I like to think that SkyRoll does things better than typical garment bags and rolling suitcases. After all, suits were not made to be folded in thirds and stuffed into suitcases. I hope you agree, and I hope you enjoy traveling with your SkyRoll as much as I enjoy making them.

Don Chernoff, July '07