LAT_56 is a global design success story, based in Dundee and creating premium quality travel luggage with rigorous attention to design details big and small.
The company was started with a £5,000 loan from the Prince’s Trust in 2007 after Kevin Fox finished studying product design at the University of Strathclyde and in California, where he “witnessed the ‘can do’ attitude and was inspired by other entrepreneurs”.
At the end of university Kevin “had around 40 or 50 different ideas for products, some of which were very off-the-wall and a handful perhaps had commercial potential”. Then a friend encouraged him to design a bag that would let him pack away his suit, without creasing it, for cycling to work.
From there began a long journey designing a patented packing system which folds a suit jacket and trousers, the striking, moulded Red-Eye bag that fits in overhead compartments on planes, a launch of the brand at Selfridges in Oxford Street, London, the expansion of the luggage collection and a partnership with Emirates Airline.
“I had a natural talent in art and design from a young age,” Kevin says, but what was critical was his hard work and family support. “I was encouraged from a very young age to nurture those talents, my parents would take me to inspirational creative locations and cultures. Without that push, I wouldn’t have developed those skills.”
In business his focus was firmly on building a design-led brand, and on creating luggage of the very highest quality. Suitcases and bags “receive very extensive wear” so the design process – which includes testing by airline pilots, observing how they use their luggage – is continually looking for improvements.
“I know from personal and financial experience that skipping parts of the design process can be costly and time-consuming at a later date,” Kevin admits. He also prefers to focus on making each suitcase or bag better than any competitor, avoiding “making hundreds of variations” that dilute the design focus and quality.
“Each product iteration goes through constant upgrades, much like the automotive or tech industry,” he adds.
Kevin relocated his business to Dundee in 2013, basing the company’s headquarters in the District 10 building which is made from recycled shipping containers. He now has offices and warehouse space in California, London and Hong Kong, allowing orders to be quickly shipped around the world.
Most excitingly, he has just signed “a massive new partnership” which he can’t reveal any details on yet, but which means he will soon be “aggressively adding to the number of employees here in this city”.
“Hopefully young people visit the V&A Museum of Design Dundee and are inspired to push their own creative abilities,” he adds. “I’ve never seen anything like it, anywhere in the world. I don’t think people realise how special it is yet.”
For his commitment to the very highest quality of design, and for showing how design-led companies can create new jobs and new business opportunities, we are delighted to make Kevin a V&A Dundee Design Champion.
To find out more, please visit the LAT_56 website.
The V&A Dundee Design Champions are inspirational designers creating high-quality work and helping to enhance people’s lives, or champions of the power of design to improve the world.
We will announce 50 Design Champions in the run-up to the museum opening on Saturday 15 September 2018.
V&A Dundee’s Design Champions project is working with Dezeen as its media partner.
Dezeen is the world’s most popular and influential architecture and design magazine, with an audience of 2.5 million unique visitors each month.
