The quick take:
- DJ John Summit set his broken Rimowa suitcase on fire on camera, and the video went viral.
- Rival brand Away answered with its own flaming suitcase, then hired him as “Chief Destruction Officer.”
- The lesson: a competitor’s angriest customer can be your best spokesperson, if you move fast and go past a one-off post.
In April, DJ and producer John Summit got off a 15-hour flight and found his suitcase broken open. Again. By his count, it was the sixth time one of his Rimowa bags had broken on tour.
Rimowa is the German luxury luggage brand owned by LVMH, the company behind Louis Vuitton, and its aluminum suitcases cost well over $1,000. Summit had named this one Samantha. He hit Samantha with a hammer, set her on fire in a parking lot, and posted the video with the caption “end of an era,” set to Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.”
It went viral. And a rival luggage company saw a job opening.
“Heard We Were Setting Aluminum Luggage on Fire”
Away, the direct-to-consumer luggage brand, moved fast. It filmed its own aluminum suitcase on fire, captioned it “Heard we were setting aluminum luggage on fire,” and showed the bag coming out unscratched. People online praised Away’s social team for the speed.
Most brands stop there. Joke lands, likes roll in, everyone moves on. Away didn’t. On Oct. 19, it announced an exclusive, ongoing partnership naming Summit its “Chief Destruction Officer,” Adweek reported.
Why Not Just Pay Him for a Post?
Because a single post would have been forgotten in a week. “We agreed that our partnership shouldn’t be a one-off, performative post with short-lived impact,” said Quynh Dang, Away’s VP of brand, in an interview with People, Brands & Things.
Instead, Away put Summit to work doing what made him famous in the first place: breaking luggage. Over the spring he tested Away’s aluminum bags with drop tests, fire, and a car drifting into a suitcase, all shared on social media. The campaign, shot in one night in Miami, launches Away’s biggest update to its aluminum line since 2020, with a shell the company says has been tested for more than 900 hours. A co-branded Away bag is sold through Summit’s merch shop on his U.S. tour.
Look at what Away actually bought. Not an endorsement from a happy customer, but proof from the angriest customer in the category, the one person on the internet most famous for luggage failing. If his bag survives, that says more than any ad. The coverage didn’t include deal terms, sales numbers or a response from Rimowa.
Before Your Next Meeting
You don’t need a celebrity for this. Somebody is complaining about your competitor online right now. What would you do?
- A customer publicly trashes your competitor. Do you jump in, or stay out of it? Away answered with its own video. Would your team be allowed to post that fast, or would it sit in an approval queue for a week?
- The joke worked. What’s the second step? Away turned a one-day moment into a product launch and a partnership. What would you need ready to make a viral moment last longer than the weekend?
- Who’s the toughest critic in your industry? Could you hand them your product and let them try to break it? Summit’s tests put Away’s bags through fire and a drifting car on camera. Would your product survive that kind of test in public?
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