Editing Suitcase (section)

===1970s to 2000s: Wheeled suitcases===
Early patents for a wheeled trunk and a wheeled suitcase came in 1887 and 1945, respectively, and a design for a "portable porter", a wheeled device that could be attached to a suitcase, was advertised in British newspapers in the 1940s. However, none of these designs originally caught on.<ref name="smithsonian" /> During her second world tour in 1928, American artist [[Anita Willets-Burnham]] made the first recorded wheeled suitcase, which had two baby carriage wheels attached to it and a [[Telescoping (mechanics)|telescoping]] wooden handle.<ref name="ms">{{cite web |last1=Diehl |first1=Amy |title=How Gender Bias Inhibits Progress and What Leaders Can Do About It |url=https://msmagazine.com/2021/08/18/gender-bias-covid-vaccine-katalin-kariko/ |website=[[Ms. (magazine)|Ms.]] |access-date=28 November 2022 |date=18 August 2021}}</ref> Until the 1970s, wheeled luggage was seen by the travel industry as a niche invention solely for women.<ref name="guardianwheel" />

[[File:Rolling luggage patent 1.png|thumb|left|175px|An illustration from Bernard D. Sadow's 1972 patent for rolling luggage]]

In 1970, Bernard D. Sadow, the then-vice president of Massachusetts luggage company U.S. Luggage, was carrying two heavy 27-inch suitcases at an airport in Puerto Rico on his way back from a family vacation in Aruba when he noticed a worker rolling a heavy machine on a wheeled platform. After remarking to his wife that people needed wheels for their luggage, Sadow returned to his factory in [[Fall River, Massachusetts]] and attached [[caster]]s to a suitcase with a strap that allowed him to tow it behind him.<ref name="abcbday" /> Sadow spent months attempting to sell his wheeled suitcase to various New York City department stores, but was met with resistance.<ref name="sharkey" /> Most department stores, according to him, refused to sell his invention due to a "macho feeling" that men would consider rolling their luggage "wimpy"<ref name="foxhistory" /> and that women who travelled would have their husbands around to carry their suitcases for them.<ref name="guardianwheel">{{Cite web|last=Marçal|first=Katrine|date=24 June 2021|title=Mystery of the wheelie suitcase: how gender stereotypes held back the history of invention|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/24/mystery-of-wheelie-suitcase-how-gender-stereotypes-held-back-history-of-invention|access-date=23 July 2021|website=[[The Guardian]]|language=en}}</ref>

After being turned away by Jack Schwartz, a [[Macy's]] buyer, a vice president from the company, Jerry Levy, called Sadow back in for a meeting. He instructed Schwartz to buy Sadow's suitcases, and Macy's began selling them in stores in October 1970, advertising them as "The Luggage That Glides" and showcasing them with mannequins; they rose in popularity soon thereafter.<ref name="abcbday">{{cite web |last1=Mayerowitz |first1=Scott |title=The Suitcase With Wheels Turns 40 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/suitcase-wheels-turns-40-radical-idea-now-travel/story?id=11779469 |website=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |access-date=28 November 2022 |language=en |date=1 October 2010}}</ref><ref name=sharkey/> That same year, Sadow applied for a patent for "rolling luggage", which had rollers on its bottom wall and a flexible transport strap attached near the top, and was granted it as patent number 3,653,474 in 1972.<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=3653474 |status=patent |title=Rolling luggage |gdate=4 April 1972 |fdate= |inventor=Bernard D Sadow |assign1=United States Luggage Corp}}</ref> It stated that, due to airplanes replacing trains as the primary mode of long-distance travel, "Baggage-handling has become perhaps the biggest single difficulty encountered by an air passenger."<ref name=sharkey/> Macy's competitors came together to break the patent about two years after it was granted to Sadow, allowing them to sell their own wheeled luggage, although Sadow's model was often wobbly and difficult to maneuver.<ref name="cnn">{{cite web |last1=Hunter |first1=Marnie |title=Happy anniversary, wheeled luggage! |url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/10/04/wheeled.luggage.anniversary/index.html |website=[[CNN]] |access-date=28 November 2022 |language=en |date=4 October 2010}}</ref> Sadow later died in 2011.<ref name="natgeoinventions">{{cite web |last1=Youn |first1=Soo |title=7 brilliant inventions that changed travel |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/7-brilliant-inventions-that-changed-travel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228071033/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/7-brilliant-inventions-that-changed-travel |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 28, 2021 |website=[[National Geographic]] |access-date=29 November 2022 |language=en |date=24 October 2018}}</ref>

====1980s to 2000s: Rollaboards and other innovations====
The Rollaboard or roll-aboard (also referred to as a rollerboard, an [[eggcorn]] of the term)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bologna |first1=Caroline |title='Rollerboard' Or 'Rollaboard': What's The Correct Term For A Suitcase? |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rollaboard-rollerboard-suitcase_l_621feda3e4b0a7b54cd8d74c |website=[[HuffPost]] |access-date=27 November 2022 |language=en |date=27 April 2022}}</ref> is an upright wheeled suitcase with two wheels on the bottom and a telescoping handle invented by Robert Plath, a [[Northwest Airlines]] [[Boeing 747|747]] pilot, in 1987.<ref name=sharkey>{{cite news |last1=Sharkey |first1=Joe |title=Reinventing the Suitcase by Adding the Wheel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/business/05road.html?referringSource=articleShare |access-date=11 April 2021 |work=[[New York Times]] |date=October 4, 2010}}</ref> He had the idea while at a hotel during a layover in Scandinavia as he watched passengers struggle to get their bags, which were attached by bungee cords, out of [[Baggage cart|luggage trolley]]s. He designed the prototype for the Rollaboard in his garage, screwing a hard-shell bag to a luggage trolley, and started to get ideas from other crew members while carrying it around.<ref name="orlsent" /><ref name="abcwheelie">{{cite web |last1=Clark |first1=Jayne |title=Rollaboard luggage celebrates a wheelie big birthday |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/rollaboard-luggage-celebrates-wheelie-big-birthday/story?id=17024603 |website=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |access-date=12 December 2022 |language=en |date=16 August 2022}}</ref> It marked a shift from Sadow's model, which rolled flat on four wheels.<ref name="cntraveler" /> At first, Plath only sold the Rollaboard to fellow pilots and flight attendants, manufacturing and selling 100 of the bags to various crew members in December 1989.<ref name="orlsent" />

In 1991, Plath left Northwest Airlines to start the luggage company Travelpro in [[Deerfield Beach, Florida]], which initially only sold the product to other flight crews.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Richardson |first1=Brenda |title=Rolling Luggage Takes a Load Off Travelers |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-07-18-9407180056-story.html |website=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=12 December 2022 |date=18 July 1994}}</ref> He hired a team of sales representatives in 1992, and in the mid-1990s, Travelpro started selling Rollaboards commercially in retail stores, making it a competitor of Samsonite, then the largest American luggage manufacturer.<ref name="orlsent">{{cite web |last1=Altaner |first1=David |title=Success in the Bag for Pilot-Entrepreneur |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1993-10-31-9310290555-story.html |website=[[Sun-Sentinel]] |access-date=28 November 2022 |date=31 October 1993}}</ref> Plath sold Travelpro in 1999.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Banerjee |first1=Sorboni |title=Behind the scenes at Travelpro luggage lab |url=https://www.fox13news.com/news/behind-the-scenes-at-travelpro-luggage-lab |website=[[WTVT|FOX 13]] |access-date=27 November 2022 |date=22 November 2016}}</ref> The Rollaboard was widely imitated by other luggage companies starting around 1993,<ref name="abcwheelie" /> causing Sadow's design to quickly be almost entirely replaced.<ref name="sharkey" /><ref name="cntraveler">{{cite web |last1=Arikoglu |first1=Lale |title=30 Years Ago, One Suitcase Changed Everything |url=https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-the-rollaboard-suitcase-changed-travel-forever |website=[[Condé Nast Traveler]] |access-date=27 November 2022 |date=22 September 2017}}</ref> Designer Don Ku from [[Flushing, Queens]] invented and patented a suitcase with an extendable handle in 1993.<ref>{{cite news |title=Luggage through the ages |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/luggage-through-the-ages/2011/06/15/AGISduaH_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=27 November 2022 |date=15 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Elliott |first1=Annabel Fenwick |title=From the Crusades to robotic cases, the surprisingly interesting 1,000-year history of luggage |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/arts-and-culture/history-of-suitcase-luggage/ |website=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |access-date=27 November 2022 |date=28 September 2018}}</ref> In 2004, Samsonite started selling the first "spinner-style" suitcase, which had four wheels and could be moved and spun in any direction. Durability testing for suitcases also became more rigorous around this time as they became lighter.<ref name="foxhistory" />