Matthew Syed has a great example of how easy it is for innovative ideas to be frustrated or delayed in his book Rebel Ideas. It’s the story of how the wheeled suitcase came into the world.
The wheeled suitcase is one of those ‘why did no-one think of this before?’ inventions but the truth is that the idea had been knocking around for many years before it finally came to market. David Dudley Bloom, an enthusiastic ideas man who became a Director of Product Development at the Atlantic Luggage Company in Pennsylvania first hit upon the idea in 1958. It seemed obvious – why not add wheels to heavy suitcases make them far easier to move around? With a world moving more and more towards mass travel this seemed like a huge opportunity.
Bloom did the logical thing and created a simple prototype of his idea (a suitcase with a handle positioned on a platform with castors) and took it to the Chairman of the company. He explained to the Chairman how this cheap-to-make invention could revolutionise travel, and enable them to dominate what would likely be a multi-million dollar new market. The Chairman took one look at it and dismissed it, scoffing at the ‘impracticality’ and ‘unwieldy’ nature of the idea.
It was not until 1970 that the idea resurfaced, this time in the mind of Bernard Sadow as he was struggling through an airport with two heavy suitcases. This time Sadow took the idea to the major department stores like Macy’s, A & S and Stern’s who sold huge quantities of luggage and stood to benefit a lot from the invention. But again the idea was knocked back. Buyers could not make the leap to see the appeal of the idea to customers. Syed quotes Sadow as saying: ‘At this time, there was this macho feeling. Men used to carry luggage for their wives.’
It took a visionary executive at Macy’s, Jerry Levy, to finally see the potential of a wheeled suitcase. Unlike the Macy’s buyer that Sadow had seen previously, Levy realised that the invention would have widespread demand and sure enough, customers accepted the idea immediately. Wheeled suitcases took off and became the dominant product type in the category.
The wheeled suitcase is a classic example of how easy it is to look at the new through the lens of the old. Existing cultural norms and expectations can prevent us from seeing the true appeal of new inventions to the people that will actually use them. Even when the benefits may seem completely obvious. And yet customers are often more than willing to adopt new behaviours or product norms when it gives them a much better way to fulfil a need, a task, or a problem.
Photo by American Green Travel on Unsplash
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