periences travelling between the brand’s design teams – spread across Australia, the US, and Europe. “I was doing a big sourcing trip overseas, and when I got to the airport and looked at the luggage that I was carrying, I realised I didn’t have anything that felt really special or individualised,” Sabré told Inside Retail. “I realised that I wanted to be able to travel exclusively using [Maison de Sabré products], and made a personal commitment to make that happen.” The range has been in the works for almost two years, Sabré said, and signals a fairly large departure from what the brand has done up until now. It has also been a long and difficult journey to complete. Solving problems Maison de Sabré is known for its monthly product launches. However, according to Sabré, as the brand has evolved, its product creation process has slowed: not for lack of ideas, but to ensure quality. Meanwhile, one of the main driving focuses for Maison De Sabré is to solve customers’ real problems. “The number one thing that we tend to do is to really try and understand what the actual problems are , and how we can resolve them,” he said. “With all of our lines, there is nothing we do that is trend based, or part of a fad. We’re always trying to solve real problems.” This design process extends to the new travel range, and has been informed by hundreds of hours of research. This includes how people use their luggage, and what would be most useful in an airport environment: such as easy access pockets for tech, and sturdy construction. While other travel luggage brands have started to revitalise its product lines, he believes that Maison de Sabré is ahead of the pack. “There hasn’t been a lot of advancement [in the category],” he said. “We’re seeing some brands start to change their silhouettes to incorporate a laptop pocket or something [but I think] we’re ahead in what we’re designing and incorporating from a features perspective,” he said. “We’re ahead in what we’re designing and incorporating from a features perspective’.” As part of this transition, Maison de Sabré has also adapted its messaging in order to help customers understand the change in direction. “Most customers still saw us as a tech-focused brand that just made iPhone cases,” he said. “But we really ramped up our messaging, increased the transparency around our production and materials pipeline, and started talking more directly about these things. “And that’s all really helped us to change the way the brand is perceived: now we’re being talked about as an accessible luxury brand, which is our whole goal.” The brand has also tapped into the same supply lines that other international luxury houses are using, so the quality of products would be comparable. But the difference was that customers didn’t know. “We asked ourselves internally, why aren’t we sharing this information? Our staff know what goes into making the product, and how hard we work to get the designs right, but we never shared any of that,” Sabré said. “What we found was that there wasn’t a rational reason, and so we started sharing more about our production process.” The change brought the customers into the process, and helped to redefine what Maison de Sabré was. And while travel is the next big step, Sabré has loftier goals on the horizon.