Dents, Stickers, Stories: The Beauty of What We Carry
In a world obsessed with the new, Rimowa reminds me that the things and people with the most scars often carry the richest stories.
Dented, Not Damaged: What Rimowa Can Teach Us About the Value of Experience
You can spot a Rimowa suitcase from across the terminal. All sleek lines and anodized aluminum. It ain’t cheap. But it’s not the new ones that you pay attention to. It’s the battered ones. The ones with stickers from five continents and dents that whisper tales of missed flights, spontaneous detours, and lived adventures.
These aren’t defects. They’re memories. And they’re what make a Rimowa suitcase truly valuable. It's built for a lifetime of travel. And maybe, for more than one.
The Wabi-Sabi of Experience
Rimowa’s campaign “Never Still” doesn’t just sell luggage. It sells time, imperfection, and identity. Like the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the aged and the worn, the owners don’t bang out the dents. They celebrate them. And they may not even peel off the stickers. I know I don't. But there are times when I feel I have outlived a sticker or two, and have covered them over with a new sticker of new place, an new logo or maybe just leaving the airlines stickers, as sign of personal growth.
Rimowa understand something many brands miss: patina is prestige.
And increasingly, so is experience.
From Product to Proof of Life
In a consumer culture obsessed with minimalism and newness, Rimowa’s campaign to embrace wear and tear isn't radical. But it feels remarkably authentic to me. It suggests that value is cumulative, built over the years, not bought anew each season.
This philosophy has deep resonance with what we call The Epilogue Economy, a shift from aspirational marketing to experience-based meaning-making. It values longevity over novelty. Character over convention. And identity over idealism.
In that sense, Rimowa luggage becomes more than a container. It becomes a testament. A timeline. A talisman.
A Brand in Dialogue with Time
What Rimowa is doing isn’t just brand storytelling. It’s brand time-telling. It says: “Your experiences are not something to erase or outgrow, it’s something to cherish.”
In the Epilogue Economy, that insight has powerful applications. We are entering an age where consumers aren’t just looking for things that last. They’re looking for things that understand them. That reflects who they’ve become, not just who they were supposed to be.
And in a market where older consumers are often overlooked or ignored, Rimowa offers a different approach: acknowledging the journey, not just the destination.
But here's the thing - Rimowa’s latest campaigns feature Rose from BlackPink (aged 28), Lewis Hamilton (aged 40), and Jay Chou (aged 48). No offense to them; all incredible in their own right.
But what if the campaign had gone further? What if it had chosen faces in their 60s, 70s, even 80s? People with even more years, more stamps, more scars. The stories wouldn’t just be glamorous. They’d be profound.
Because if you’re going to celebrate the suitcase that’s been everywhere, maybe you should also celebrate the person who has, too. Not just in miles, but in years.
Rimowa has previously shown glimpses of deeper intergenerational storytelling. In 2019, its As Seen By exhibition in New York spotlighted the actual, well-worn suitcases of cultural icons, including Patti Smith, Martha Stewart, Takashi Murakami, and Annie Leibovitz. These were cases with true mileage. Not just famous names, but lives richly lived.
That exhibition felt closer to the spirit of the Epilogue Economy than any polished campaign of late. It was less about aspiration, more about accumulation. Less endorsement, more embodiment. And it proved that the most compelling luxury is often the one that’s already been on the road for decades.
Because if you’re going to celebrate the suitcase that’s been everywhere, maybe you should also celebrate the person who has, too.
Lessons for Brands Beyond Baggage
Don’t fear the signs of use. Design for them.
Create objects and experiences that gather meaning over time.
Treat customer stories not as testimonials, but as co-authored narratives.
Value the accumulated, not the optimized.
In short, embrace the dents.
Experience Isn’t a Demographic — It’s a Design Imperative
In the Epilogue Economy, products aren’t just products. They’re artifacts.
They hold memory. They transmit emotion. They serve as proof of a life lived, a phase survived, or a self remade. Some speak in the language of nostalgia: a scent, a silhouette, a sound that transports us. Others point forward as symbols of reinvention, of stepping into something new.
No matter the incident — a retirement, a relocation, a reunion, a rebirth — these moments are personal. And the best brands understand that their job is not to broadcast, but to recognize. Not to generalize, but to connect. In that way, every dent becomes a story. Every scratch a conversation. Every object, a vessel waiting to be filled.
That’s the quiet power of the Epilogue Economy. It doesn’t shout. It remembers. Because the next wave of brand loyalty may not come from those chasing the first stamp in their passport, but from those who’ve already filled three of them.
A Rimowa suitcase doesn’t try to hide where it’s been. Neither should we. In fact, the world might be better if we all carried our experiences a little more visibly.
Dents, stickers, stories, and all.
Let’s Talk.
If you’re thinking about how to connect with audiences through storytelling, whether by podcast, brand platform, or rethinking what your product means to someone in midlife, I’d love to help. The Epilogue Economy™ is more than a trend. It’s your next growth market.