the year prior. And the brand shows no signs of slowing down. In July, Béis announced that Adeela Hussain Johnson, a founding member of the brand, would become its first CEO. Johnson was previously the brand’s president and before that, she was senior category director of the home and lifestyle division at Beach House Group, an LA-based venture firm, and director of brand development at Target. Her ability to spot a noteworthy brand in the making is undeniable, and her appointment comes as Béis looks to enter a new era of growth. “As an organization, both internally and externally facing, we’re very intentional about the right roles to help our team be successful as a brand, given where we are in our growth trajectory,” Johnson told Inside Retail in her first major interview since stepping into the CEO role. “Different roles are required at different stages in an organization.” Right now, Béis is in “scaling mode,” Johnson shared. If the last six years have been about solidifying the business’ foundation – no easy feat given the Covid-19 pandemic and supply-chain disruptions – the team is now focused on figuring out how to scale the brand moving forward. “I wouldn’t say we’re turning anything on its head,” Johnson said, “but what do those growth strategies look like when you’re moving a much bigger ship?” As she pointed out, “What gets you to the $200 million mark is not the same thing that’s going to getyou to the $500 million mark.” Boundless opportunities for growth Johnson remembers one of the first moments she knew that Béis would be a success. “I joke all the time that when we were in year one, my mom came to visit me and by some weird coincidence, she picked up the wrong Béis luggage,” the CEO recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, there are two people on your plane that have the same Béis luggage.’ It just blew my mind that that was even physically possible. Now, when I stand at a carousel, I’m like, ‘Holy crap’, there are four, five, six Béis bags on it.’ That’s a pretty cool feeling.” To continue driving brand awareness and sales, Johnson revealed that Béis is exploring personalization and customization options, as well as omnichannel expansion both in the US and overseas. To date, Béis has partnered with American retailers including Nordstrom, Revolve, Bloomingdale’s and Anthropologie, and international players like Canadian lifestyle retailer Indigo and British luxury department store Selfridges. Starting in September, select airport partners across eight airports in the US and Canada will carry Béis products. Outside of the US, Johnson noted, DTC is not necessarily the first channel where consumers shop. “The UK and Europe is a great example of where consumers’ shopping behavior still leans towards brick and-mortar first,” she said. “I think we’ll probably focus on those markets even more in terms of developing a meaningful brick-and-mortar presence.” For now, Johnson said, Béis will continue to work with retail partners, rather than opening its own stores, and invest in pop-up experiences, which have proven to be highly effective for the brand. Its first pop-up shop, in 2022, dubbed Béis Motel, was held at the iconic The Grove shopping center in Los Angeles, and helped drive a 30 percent increase in traffic to the company’s e-commerce site. “It’s interesting because the pendulum swings and if we know anything about consumer behavior, we know it typically swings forward and backward over a cycle,” Johnson said. “Over the last few years, DTC was really hot but now we see that people do want to interact with the brands that they know and love, and that interaction might look very different than it used to.” By leaning into this shift with in-person events like pop-ups, Johnson said, Béis has been able to create a loyal community, which would not have been possible through any other channel. “It is truly unique and allows us to do something that’s very difficult to do in a digital space to bring our brand to life,” she said. “I think it’s definitely one of our superpowers.” Standing out in the booming luggage market Despite its rapid growth, Béis is hardly the only DTC luggage brand competing for consumer attention today. Following the launch of Away in 2015, the category has exploded, with the likes of Béis, Monos in Canada, and July in Australia all launching in 2018, not to mention Dagne Dover’s recent launch of a luggage collection in July. Statista expects the worldwide luggage and bag market to be worth $187.6 billion this year, and to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.93 percent from this year to 2028. But Johnson said Béis is unique in the way it positions itself on the market. Whereas brands like Rimowa rely on exclusivity and prestige as a major point of distinction, Béis sets itself apart through its innovative design, in-depth understanding of customer needs and unique approach to content curation. “One of our primary distinguishing factors as a brand is that we really define the space in a new way,” she said. “We are not a travel brand in the traditional sense of the word, we’re an on-the-go brand. To me, that distinction is very important because it drives our product portfolio, our innovation strategy, and ourmarketing and creative strategies. Because we’re not just talking about one occasion in people’s lives where they get on a plane or a train, or they’re going a long distance.” Instead, Béis wants to capitalize on the fact that “you have to have something to put all your stuff in at every point in your life,” Johnson explained. She noted it was a strategic decision not to drop with a roll-on suitcase at launch. Moving forward, she said, the company plans to expand its product offering to accommodate a wider range of consumerinterests. “The biggest goal of our brand is to become a household name and get in as many hands as possible,” she said. In addition to travel products, like carry-on and check-in baggage, the brand carries everyday items like kids’ lunch boxes and backpacks, sporty cross-body bags, and The Weekender, a spacious tote bag with interior organization that is one of the brand’s best-selling SKUs. The brand has been delving into more specific-use items like aesthetically designed water bottle slings. “The way we’re really entering the market is leveraging in how we start with the gifting occasion. Then once we get into the hands of consumers, we know we can drive repeat purchases,” Johnson explained. She disclosed that Béis experiences a 30 percent repeat customer rate. Not your average celebrity brand Another factor that sets Béis apart is its founder, Shay Mitchell, a Canadian actress who rose to fame on the television series Pretty Little Liars, and has 36 million followers on Instagram alone. Johnson was introduced to Mitchell through Beach House Group, and it was the actress’ passion for the company that inspired her to join the Béis team. “She’s an incredibly passionate and very committed human being and her vision made complete sense to me,” Johnson said. “We immediately hit it off in terms of personality and to me culture and people’s fit are very important. I make a lot of my career decisions based on, ‘Do I want to work with these people?’ She’s definitely one of those people that you want to hitch your wagon to.” While there’s no shortage of successful celebrity-founded brands in the market – Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Hailey Bieber’s Rhode Beauty and Kim Kardashian’s Skims, just to name a few – star power doesn’t necessarily guarantee retail success in the long run. Johnson explained that it was always their goal to build a brand that could stand on its own, apart from Mitchell’s direct influence. “It was very, very intentional from the beginning,” she said. “And to give a lot of credit to Shay here, it takes humility to say, ‘I’m going to build a brand, but then I don’t want it to be so associated with me’.” While they could have easily reached millions of people right off the bat by promoting Béis to Mitchell’s social media followers, they knew that audience would eventually get tapped out. Instead, they had many discussions about the percentage and type of content Mitchell would be featured in, and how to present Mitchell as “a creative leader and business mind” within the company, rather than as an influencer and spokesperson. “That is the natural way we always intended it to go,” Johnson explained. “But in order to have that be successful, you have to take that stage and the megaphone you have at the beginning and leverage itto build your own community, and that’s really where I think we thrive.” This story first appeared in the September 2024 issue of Inside Retail US magazine.