How Heys Luggage Became a Global Travel Icon with Emran Sheikh, CEO, Heys

A family basement isn't where you’d expect a global luggage brand to begin, but that’s exactly where the Heys story took flight. In this episode, we sit down with CEO Emran Sheikh to unpack four decades of innovation, bold design choices, and a proudly Canadian identity that now spans 75 countries. From candy-coloured hard shells that broke up a sea of black bags to Bluetooth-enabled smart locks powered by simple AA batteries, Heys has grown by solving real traveler problems rather than chasing trends that can’t survive airport rules.

Emran reflects on the pivotal decisions that kept the brand ahead of the curve: steering clear of lithium batteries long before restrictions hit, investing in a diverse design catalog instead of a single signature look, and building a flat, agile team that can translate customer feedback into product improvements within a single production cycle. He also shares how the pandemic reshaped demand—pushing travelers toward carry-ons and personal items—and how Heys responded with airline-specific sizing, smarter online filtering tools, and a renewed emphasis on durability as overhead bins grew crowded.

Celebrating Heys 40th anniversary, the company is relaunching the iconic X-Case in shimmering polycarbonate, introducing structural innovations that reduce weight without sacrificing strength, and continuing to refine its Smart Access front-opening system, a clever fix for the clamshell struggle in tight hotel rooms. Not every experiment wins (turns out transparent cases require packing cubes), but a culture that welcomes ideas from across the company keeps Heys pushing forward.

If you’re passionate about travel gear that blends fashion, function, and genuine foresight, this conversation is full of insights you’ll want to pack for your next trip.

Learn more at Heys.com. 

Heys Luggage is the famous Canadian travel brand that grew from a small family business just outside Toronto 40 years ago, into an innovative global leader in travel gear that’s now available all over the world. Heys offers one-of-a-kind adults and kids luggage, travel bags and accessories, a proud Canadian brand that defines quality, fresh fashion, fun designs, great customer service, and how to truly think outside the box, or should we say… the luggage. Whether you’re searching for something to take you to the ends of the earth (or just to the end of the block), Heys has you covered. For those who crave a cool, on trend travel item that will stand the test of time, while turning heads and helping you travel stress-free and in style… choose Heys. 

The #1 B2B Travel Podcast Globally. Over 100 Episodes. Listeners in 125 countries. New Episodes Every Weds. 

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Transcript

Setting The Stage And Giveaway

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Doing this for almost 40 years now is is our anniversary. It's you have to have a mindset of change. And I think you always have to be adaptable to changing your business model, changing how you operate your business, and go with the flow with different time.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Travel Trends Podcast. This is your host, Dan Christian, and today we have a special spotlight episode that I'm really keen to share with you. And the timing couldn't be more perfect because as we wrap up season six, we have just launched our three-part aviation series, which has been kindly sponsored by our friends over at Hayes Luggage. And they have also sponsored our season-ending luggage giveaway, which is a huge thank you from us, from them, to all of our listeners for being so supportive of the Travel Trends podcast and specifically season six. And as we now prepare for the next season, it really felt like the perfect time to spotlight a brand that genuinely lives at the intersection of innovation design and meeting travelers' needs where they are today. I have been a huge fan of Hayes for many years, as well as many of our team members who've traveled with Hayes Gear. And one of the things I can't wait is that I know there's going to be three of our listeners that are going to win Hayes luggage, and I will see you rocking your Hayes luggage at the airport somewhere in the world, just like me. But ultimately, what drew me to Hayes is that this story goes far beyond the amazing product that they offer. This is an incredible family story, a Canadian success story that started as a small family-run business in Mississauga, Ontario, the exact same suburb that I grew up in. And today we're going to be speaking to the CEO, Mran Shake, who I didn't know growing up, but we share a similar journey. My parents and his parents were both immigrants, and we grew up in the same neighborhood. And I have been so fascinated by this brand for many years. So I finally have the opportunity to meet Mran, learn more about his company and the history and his family. But for many of our listeners, this is a globally recognized travel brand that you will find in airports, stores, and people's homes all around the world. So that's why I was so keen to bring in Emran today, who is the person at the heart of that journey. And so Emran, for context, has been running this business for the last several years. He took over the helm from his parents. And as we talk about, his mom was really the core to the brand. His wife actually designed the logo. So it's a really fascinating family story that goes all the way back to 1986. And this company has always been known for doing things differently. They pioneered the lightest hard shell luggage in the world. They've done some of the most exciting collaborations with companies like Disney to the Canadian Olympic team. And they've always blended this fashion, function, and forward-thinking design that has really stood out in the marketplace. And it is an incredibly crowded and very competitive space. And they have gone from success to success over the years. So in this conversation, we talk about how they have built a global brand from a family business. We talk about how the innovation at the core of Hayes really drives this long-term

Mississauga Roots And Family Beginnings

SPEAKER_00 3:20

success, especially in travel retail. We even talk about the reality of coming back for the pandemic and how challenging that time has been. And we also get into this whole idea of what travelers actually want from their luggage, which has changed post-pandemic and also what the airlines will allow you to carry on planes has changed. So we talk about the future of travel gear, where this industry is headed next. So this is full of highlights. And I just wanted to highlight too that we do post clips and highlights from these conversations on our social channel. So you can find those on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at Travel Trends Podcast. And if you want to learn more about Haze and check out their full product range, then make sure you check out Haze.com. That's H-E-Y-S.com. So you can start planning for your next trip, packing with your Hayes luggage. But today you're going to learn one of the most incredible success stories in travel, an amazing family and entrepreneurial story. So you're in the right place. Let's get into it. Here now is my conversation with Mran Shaikh, the CEO of Hayes Luggage International. Emran, welcome to Travel Trends. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for our partnership. I'm so looking forward to our conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Thank you, Dan. I'm a pleasure to be here at TravelTends. Excited to have this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah, likewise. I really appreciate Hayes sponsoring our aviation series. It was actually a really great way to recognize both this the first time that we've done aviation and also to have some fantastic giveaways for all of our listeners. You guys were part of our AI Summit and now season six and our aviation series. So we thought it'd be a great partnership. But one of the reasons that we are very keen to have Hayes on the podcast is because we all as a team have a great respect for the company. We're based in Canada. Obviously, you're our great Canadian company and success story. And um and so I think it would be terrific for our audience to get to know more about the company and then your background. So would you mind just let's just start off and give our audience a bit of an overview of Hayes and the company and the brand, what it is you guys do.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Sure. I mean, it's a great Canadian store story that you like you mentioned. Uh Hayes was founded in 1986, right here in Mississauga, and it was a very humble beginning. You know, we started from the basement of our home. I still remember we used to have little racks in our basement. We would stuff them with bags and little mini cases and wallets, and we had those sort of basic racking systems set up in our in our basement in 1986. I was in high school at the time. Uh my mom used to work at Zellers, my dad used to work for the OPP Go figure, and uh we just sort of had this sort of business snack. My mom had this sort of creative hobby to make flower arrangements, so she would make these on at night, and she would create so many of these that we thought, hey, why don't we sell these one day? And we sold those along with wallets and bags and eventually luggage, and that did really well, and we expanded into more retail kiosks. Our very first retail kiosk was right here in Central Parkway Plaza. And yeah, and then we went into Hamilton and Burlington because we couldn't get into like the top grade malls, because you know, these are retail kiosks, and these are pretty simple. But it was really fascinating that we would drive to like Hamilton and drive to Burlington and Kitchener and Waterloo and set up these kiosks, and eventually the business would develop enough where we hired people and eventually they would set up these retail kiosks. And so that was the first foray into retail for us, and then luggage really took off, and we sort of started focusing more on luggage, started importing and designing our own sort of unique brand of luggage. And this is in the 1990s we're talking about here. So we're talking about soft side luggage, we're talking about you know the old school horizontal, forget the wheels, this is pretty old school stuff. And actually, we even did Korean patchwork leather luggage, and that was unique, making actually patchwork leather luggage, which doesn't even exist today. And that's what really started it. Uh, but I would say the real sort of takeoff moment that we had

The X-Case Breakthrough And Global Lift-Off

SPEAKER_01 7:25

was I still remember this when I was driving around Mississauga, I used to see billboards, and I would see another brand that starts with an S, you can figure it out, and uh they would have it on their billboards and it would say like $49.99 at Bentley's or something like that. And I thought, you know, how are we gonna compete as sort of an unknown brand with a massive, you know, multinational like that, which has low price points? So we developed a really cool carry-on, which was called the X case, and it came in like 12 different colors, and it was candy colored, it was so cool, so different. This is back when there was a sea of nothing but black luggage, and it was all soft side, and so we took a huge risk, invested in this hard shell carry-on when hard side was maybe one percent of the market share, and no one had anything like colors like hot pink, fuchsia, and we invested in a big marketing campaign. Remember, this is before social media, there was no such thing back then, and we would invest in an outdoor billboard marketing campaign, and it just did amazing. I think the timing was perfect because the fashion forward females were buying luggage at that time, and this was a a great alternative to the you know boring luggage that was out in the marketplace, and then it just took off. Then the film festival, Toronto National Film Festival saw it. We co-branded with them a special line, all the celebs got it, and when the celebs got it, then everything just sort of took us off from there. And you know, 20 years after that, that was about 2003 or so, we did that, and now we're in 75 countries uh with Hayes being distributed, and we have five global offices, one in Canada, of course, our head office, the US. We're in Germany, Korea, Australia, and China. We just opened as well. Uh, but we're proudly Canadian at our core, and we always bring uh you know our Canadian Olympic luggage that we design to all our trade shows, and so you know, very humble beginnings to now uh the global brand.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Well, and I just want to share with our audience too, because there's a really meaningful blog post um about your mom and when she passed away, and uh that she's the mother of Hayes, and it really is an extraordinary family story and a true Canadian success story, both and I connect to it for a number of reasons. I was an immigrant to this country as well, even though I I came from England. Your family uh came from Pakistan, and um we both grew up in Mississauga, so I grew up in Mississauga as well. Your mom worked at Zellers, my mom worked at Sears, that was her first job uh at Square One, when Square One was was a square. Um and to bring in our our global audience too, if you're looking at a map of Toronto and trying to understand it is our second largest audience for our podcast, and a lot of people know exactly what we're referring to. But one of the things for all of our American listeners, which is nearly half of our audience, when you actually look at the what we call the GTA, the greater Toronto area, um, it is about the third largest urban population in North America. Um so it is, it's why we have all the major sports teams. I know you guys work with the Blue Jays. And so when you're trying to wrap your head around Toronto and the journey that both of us have been on, because I think we're relative contemporaries in terms of age, um, we've seen this city grow so dramatically from the 70s, 80s to what it is today in 2026. And there is these companies like yours that have, you know, have were a Canadian success story that have become a global success story. And so, um, and the last thing on that topic that for people, when you mention Mississauga, Mississauga was the largest suburb outside of Toronto, and we both grew up there. That's right. And and people couldn't believe how many people lived in Mississauga. It's like, and it's it's a m a massive suburb. So when you add it into the GTA, it is um the largest, and it's where the airport's located, of course. Um so thank you for that context. Everybody knows someone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yeah, and everybody knows someone in Toronto, right? Like when we travel and we do trade shows everywhere in Cannes, and you know, in Germany, we go to Singapore, we go to China, and everybody has a relative in Toronto or in Canada. And I think it sort of brings home the whole Canadian brand, they sort of resonate with it as well because they have some contact with someone in that. And then we always tell them, you know, just ask about Hayes, and then they get very acquainted with the brand. And it's a great story, and it's also, I think, the fact that you know we're still family run. I think that's still important to me and to the brand. You know, this is we're in it for the long game, we're not here to do a quick turn and you know exit out of the business. This is something that you know we've built from scratch and I hope stays within the family for a very long time.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Well, you've continued to evolve, stay relevant. So you're definitely one of the innovators and one of the originals. And so the part that's been amazing for me, and one of the reasons I was so keen to speak to you, because uh Emran and I, despite growing up in a similar name, we haven't met before. This is actually the first time we're having a chance to meet together, know each other. I've heard so many incredible things about you and the company. And so when I was preparing for our conversation, there's there's so many things I want to cover. But one of the ones that stood out to me, you know, you think about other great

Competing In A Social-First Market

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Canadian brands like Canada Goose, as an example, which now is doing a massive amount of business out of uh China in particular. And obviously, you guys are just opening there. So more people globally that are listening to this are gonna be intrigued to learn more about Hayes. But one of the things you've been able to do successfully is remain relevant. And so you were already highlighting some of the things that you were doing in terms of the um the manufacturing process, the innovative styles, the colors, and then also um, you know, these I the hard shell cases from the soft shell. And so I want to take us a bit more on that journey because you mentioned a number of those developments, and this is where you have you know been able to meet the customer where they are. And I know people are familiar with brands like away, of course, that all of a sudden have had kind of kind of been these breakout success stories, and then they've been humbled because all of a sudden they were a B2C company and they raised money, and then you know they had challenges with their company culture and turnover, and so you hear about these businesses, they open up in so you see these companies that come, but you have been this like um steady, you know, in uh exceptionally performing family-owned business that is very much in the complete competitive set with all of those brands. And so take take us a little bit about how that works, especially with you taking over the business and and where you guys are today. So walk us through that in a bit more detail because I I'm really keen to how that connects ultimately to aviation and not only changing consumer um style preferences, but also changing airline requirements too, in terms of the baggage they can carry.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, and you know, it's been a challenge. You know, doing this for almost 40 years now is is our anniversary. It's you have to have a mindset of change. And I think you always have to be adaptable to changing your business model, changing how you operate your business and go with the flow with different times. I'll give you an example. When we started, you were a brand if you were at you know the department stores, Hudson Bay, Sears, if you were in there, you were locked into a brand, you were featured on the flyers, and you were instantly a brand. In today's market, these brands you mentioned away and other brands, they aren't even in department stores. They are purely social plays. So the business has completely changed along that side. And so when we started our business, you know, our goal was to become a brand well-known, and we got into the department stores, and then it was about market share at that point, you know, gaining more sort of space you have in those retail stores, partnering with good retail brands, doing special collaborations within Canada and expanding your Canadian business so that you can then eventually fund an expansion into the US, which we went into later on, and then globally eventually. But slow and steady sort of wins the race, I feel. And I feel there were so many other brands. I don't know if you remember Raven.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yes, of course I do, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Yeah. Raven was a brand that started in Canada as well. They were one of the first to do power banks built into luggage back when that was a trend, which I never understood. I never understood why you would take a portable power bank, it still bothers me, and put it into a fixed device because you've just taken a portable power bank and you put it into a fixed luggage and now it becomes not portable anymore. But anyways, uh Raiden developed this thing, it was a big trend, and a lot of other brands, I think even a Wade did it back then. But then the airlines changed the rules. Lithium was a big no-no, and you couldn't do it. And they became from hero to zero, and they basically went, I think, bankrupt in 2018. And so you have to be adaptable, but at the same time, I think you have to be aware of who your customer is, and if you rush to the top and do, you know, pure marketing and with no innovation behind it, because if you look at these other brands that are popular today, they're popular because they've spent a lot of money on social media to become popular, but I don't think there's a lot of innovation going on there. And what we did was we innovated new product categories like the X-case, like the smart luggage that no one ever had. Like, you know, the X Scale, which is a portable digital handle lug scale. We did eco-friendly luggage before that was even a category.

Smart Luggage Without Lithium

SPEAKER_01 16:50

And we we sort of innovated to become relevant rather than just paying and sort of advertising to become relevant. And so, you know, who knows what'll happen in the next five to ten years, but it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But we've always believed in sort of uh a cautious approach to being aggressive. Uh strategic risk taking, I would say, is is important to me. And you take things from there. And that's how I think we've stayed relevant and stayed humble, I think, as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Well, you've certainly introduced a number of firsts. You mentioned the hard shell cases, the smart luggage. I want to actually just ask you about that for a moment because many people may not even be aware of what that is and how it works to use an app for customers to be able to use functions on their phone to even know proximity. Part I'd love to also uh ask you as part of that is that when you and the team are making decisions to make sure that you remain contemporary, relevant, but also very innovative with introduced to to meet the customers' needs. Or, you know, obviously there's always the uh Steve Jobs, you know, or going back to Henry Ford, right? If you ask people what they wanted, they would say they'd want a better, a faster horse. Um Steve Jobs was very was very much the the auteur as opposed to so unlike a Google that was all about just what a user's want. So ultimately, you're the CEO and you can, you know, as a family-owned business, can make these decisions about the future of the company. So when you're looking about innovation and trying to uh stay ahead of the market, and but most importantly, provide the customer something that they can't get elsewhere, that they go into a um a retail store and they are asking for Haze because you have the smart luggage. So tell us about the smart luggage and tell us about how you drive innovation to introduce these features.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Sure. So I'll start with the smart luggage. So the smart luggage is the first of its kind. It's the only luggage in the world in which you can control via your phone. And we have an app, a Haze app, in which you simply lift your luggage, and on the app, it displays the weight of your luggage. You simply open the app and press lock, and your luggage locks remotely. It uses Bluetooth technology to connect to your luggage, and it you can lock your luggage remotely, weigh your luggage remotely, and you can also have a proximity sensor and you can set it to a small distance, medium distance, or a long distance, and it'll tell you if you've left your luggage somewhere else and it'll give you an alert. And it's the only luggage of it when we designed it, it was very important to me not to use lithium, and this was before the lithium ban. And because I always felt that lithium was eventually going to get banned and it was gonna be an issue. So while Raiden and away and all these other brands use lithium because of the power bank, ours never had a power bank, and that was a personal pet peeve of mine because I just never understood it, and so we just put these features instead on our luggage. And sure enough, lithium got banned, and it was a huge issue. All the airlines um banned lithium, and these brands had an issue with it. But ours, because it's powered by double A batteries, had no issues at all. And to this day, it it was it's still one of our uh unique products that we carry, and all the trade shows, it's always on demonstration, and it's really cool and different. It was launched at Macy's in the US at the time, and it was a great Way to distinguish yourself as a brand from other brands, traditional sort of multinationals that are out there that just basically sell on their name, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:11

For sure. And then that's where sort of that innovation and technology that you've built in. But one other thing on the same lines is this the style. And you've got to balance those two with you know driving innovation. So it's one thing to have a cool app that does all of those things, but clearly people are motivated by aesthetics. And so they want to have a bag that matches their outfit or their traveler style. And that's one of the things, I guess, and feel free to touch on this as it relates to innovation with technology. But when we were highlighting Hayes at our AI summit and giving a couple of our travelers who won prizes the opportunity to select the luggage,

Design Range And Fast Decisions

SPEAKER_00 20:45

and um the thing that they were really impressed with is like how broad the collection is, everything from like earth zone to pastels, astro, you've got puffer bags. Like it's not to me, as uh someone who knows the Hayes brand. I see Hayes luggage, but there's a whole wide variety of different styles. It's not as if there's just like the away bag, just to call them out, is like there's a very when I see someone, that's an away bag. I know right away. It's a very, you know, it's it's just one set style. You're not you're not pigeonholed into that. So how have you guys approached the design element at the same time as you're trying to add in technology to the uh to luggage?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yeah. And that's a very good point. And you're seeing other brands sort of follow the away model of just creating one style like monos and just simply doing that same panel over and over again and just doing different variations of the colors. While we've always focused on the wide product assortment, we have fashion forward styles where you want to be the first to market for the latest leopard trend or zebra. We were the first company in the world that actually did fashion print luggage back in 2005, I believe. And that's also what sort of catapulted us to the top of the industry in terms of innovation and fashion. But not only fashion, you have a business traveler, you have a family traveler, we developed Disney luggage for kids. Disney actually saw those billboards and said, Hey, why don't we do a collaboration with you? And that's how we got the Disney license in Canada. And that's how we've sort of spread into a wide assortment of Disney products in terms of backpacks as well that we develop. But I think that's one of our key advantages. But what's primarily important about that is that we run a flat organization. Compare us to, let's say, you know, another big player like Samsonite, where they have you know multi-levels of management. To get an idea across from a consumer or from a design team to mid-management, then to upper tier management, and then eventually to get the green light to do it would take many months to happen. But for us, it happens within a matter of a day or two days. Like I'll give you an example. Yesterday we got an email from one of our customers about some design change. It was a really nice email. It was a customer just saying, hey, why don't you put a grab handle on this design on the bottom? It's a nice idea. And we actually have grab handles on other designs, but not that particular model. That email was forwarded to me. I got it, had a quick meeting with the design team, and boom, it's done. And within the next production run, that'll that'll change. And I think having that quick efficiency is a big advantage for a company like us, especially if you're in the fashion business. And the fact that we can do that at global scale is one of our key advantages. Because usually companies like that, it's usually localized. But if we can do that and do it globally, you can do some pretty cool stuff.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

For sure. And clearly there's been, you know, as the travel industry has grown over the last you know 20 or 30 years, so you've got uh a larger addressable market of travelers that need luggage. So obviously that is a growing market. But one of the big issues we all had, and it was the start of this podcast, was the pandemic. And it's one of the things I wanted to ask you because I want to get your take on some of the trends you're seeing in 2026

Pandemic Shock And Pivot To Carry-Ons

SPEAKER_00 24:00

and and beyond in terms of um style design, functionality, those type of things. But tell us a little bit about how you navigated that challenging time, because obviously that's you know, you're not limited to luggage, but it's a core part of your business. Um how did you guys navigate that pandemic time? And uh how d how did you guys come roaring back? Because clearly that's exactly what's uh what happened.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Those were scary times, gotta be honest. Uh that was pretty uh that was unreal at that time. I still remember like holy cow, everything just shut down and it was scary because travel was was everything to us, and you know, our main business is luggage and still is luggage, and so when that kind of you know complete shutdown happens, you know, it's not a pleasant day. So we started thinking of other ways to get into sort of business, and so we started producing you know sanitizing products. We produce wipes and travel wipes and things like that. And we just wanted to keep the office open, we wanted to keep the staff running, and so we thought of different products that we could still sell, and they sold, but I mean it's not luggage, so it was very challenging at the time. I think after the pandemic was over, and what you saw then was the rise of the carry-on. Everybody was traveling with a carry-on only because it all the airlines weren't ramped up properly and luggage was getting lost. Even for me, when I remember when I uh had a trip with a family, went to Hawaii and they lost our luggage, it's it's a horrible experience to go through, right? And so people were fearful, and so the rise of the carry-on, everybody took carry-ons, and so now you've got a plane full of carry-ons, and not everybody and there's not enough space. And so what do airlines do? They crack down on that dreaded carry-on cage, and then everybody's panicking over half an inch if your if your website description is like even one centimeter higher than it should be, they won't buy it. But it'll fit inside the cage, but you can't explain that to a customer, so you know you have to sort of re-jig your carry-on to make sure then different airlines have different size regulations, which is a big pepe for me. I don't understand why we just can't have one standard carry-on regulation, yeah, which they just did in Europe, by the way. And so that's what they should do in Canada and the US as well, because you have different airlines with different regulations. Like this carry-on's fine for you know Air Canada, but it's not okay for WestJet. So on our website, we developed a tool where you select the airline and then it lists out all the carry-ons that are approved for that airline. So that was a nice thing that we did. But yeah, COVID was crazy. I mean, those were some tough days, and uh we got through them. And then when after that, you know, uh revenge travel came and we were sold out of everything because no one saw that coming to that level. And uh it was it was great after, but it was very painful. I mean, we I remember when we were doing COVID, things were so slow that I was doing deliveries myself. We have our own uh Hayes vehicles, and I was actually delivering to customers, going door to door, and just basically doing deliveries for customers who were still buying luggage. No one knew that, it was just sort of surprises for like undercover boss. It was kind of cool because it was nice to see the experience from the the customers, and it was really nice.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

It was so funny because I actually, when I did one delivery, I saw an old high school friend. It was so hilarious. I delivered to him and I said, Oh, that's you, Chris. What are you doing? It was just it was so funny. So it's good.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

Well, that's why I was keen to ask you this because although it's it was a challenging time for all of us in the travel industry, there was a very clear before and after. And it's the after, and I'll give you uh two quick examples that might be interesting for our audience too. When I worked with uh Tony Wheeler at Lonely Planet, and one of the big challenges that they went through was 9-11. And at the time, the way their business model worked is that uh all the publishers could send their books back. And so their business was on the brink. Um, but ultimately and and it but it taught them a lot of things about how they needed to restructure, retool, and build their business back that ultimately led to a very successful scaling of that company and sale. And when I was recently speaking to Bruce Poontip, who I'm sure you know as well, being another Canadian success story based in Toronto who runs G Adventures. I worked with Bruce for a number of years, and I just saw him recently uh in London, and we were talking about the pandemic, it came up in our conversation,

Standards, Sizing Tools, And Recovery

SPEAKER_00 28:10

and he said it was the best thing that ever happened to his business. Um, even though he said at the time he was crying himself to sleep, he said. But ultimately it made the business leaner and the way they've built their business back. So that's that's really what I wanted to ask you, Emream, which is like post-pandemic, uh, and you started to highlight this, and this is the part that I find endlessly fascinating because we've never had an event in human history like this. I mean, yes, people point back to you know the Spanish flu, and it's like, but we really even our kids um, you know, not being in school, like we're still gonna 10 or 20 years be able to look back and see the implications of what happened during that time. So revenge travel was obviously one of the things that happened after, but traveler behavior changed. And I'm really keen to know like what that meant for you and your business. So you highlighted obviously the carry-on, which then they cracked down even more on. It had to be a smaller carry-on. And I still see all these poor people that don't have status that are, you know, they've got a care they've got a carry-on, but they're in zone five and they've been forced to check their bank and the panic look on their face and their bags being taken away from them. They did they did all the things right, but there's no space left in the cabin. Um, so take us a little bit through like the um some of the, I guess, the what you saw off and the demand from customers and and where the business is in 2026 in terms of the the product portfolio.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Yeah, I mean, it it brings in one of my favorite sayings um from Nietzsche, you know, what does not break you makes you stronger. And I think COVID was a perfect example of that. It made you lean, you made sure that you know your books were in order, that everything was well thought through, you took appropriate risks that weren't gonna sort of bankrupt the company. But at the same time, you listened to customers and like the carry-on, we developed a lot more carry-on, so we introduced a lot more carry-ons into our assortment. We introduced carry-ons for different sizes, we introduced personal bags that you know were still allowed, and personal bag sizes again vary from airline to airline. So we have a personal tote bag for Air Canada, a personal tote bag for WestJet. And so you learn from those experiences on how to become more adaptable. And again, going to our flat organization, we could adapt very quickly. We developed you know PPE very quickly, we started you know distributing that to our stores, we started getting into more carry-ons very quickly, and I think it just teaches you that efficiency and being lean makes you more adaptable for the future. And because I think we already are that, we survived it pretty well and and had a nice sort of runoff afterwards when we had into revenge travel, and then we sort of expanded globally as well. But I think it was a it was a good exercise to sort of weed out the good adaptable companies from the ones that really weren't. And you know, it's unfortunate about Raiden and and things like that, but that's basically life in a lesson, right? You gotta constantly change. The only constant life is change, and you have to be adapting.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

For sure. And obviously, you mentioned about you know some of the trends we've seen about you know um compact luggage. Certainly durability was a big factor when in and that's key to your long-term success, because there's been a lot of smaller businesses that create something and they just don't last. Um that's it's incredibly important, especially for uh travelers like myself, um lifetime warranties, and if you have something that rips or like so but the one thing I wanted to ask you about is uh sustainability because uh you got this younger generation that's

Sustainability As A Differentiator

SPEAKER_00 31:40

very concerned, uh, understandably. Um and you see some of these companies that come along that are using recycled products, and like that's certainly kind of like it's uh where does sustainability fit into uh Hayes model? And uh guys, how are you guys looking at that from a customer point of view and and building it into your um into your production process?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah, I mean, we were into sustainability long before it was a trend. Our first eco-luggage was called the eco-case. We launched it at Hudson Bay when they were still around in 2006. That's how long we've been in sustainability. And again, it's a point for our brand to be a separator from the rest of the brands. Back then, no one did eco-friendly luggage, and so we used it as a tool to separate ourselves from the rest of the crowd. And we launched it at the Bay in 2006, and I believe we launched the Eco Orbis version of it at Sears the year after, and it was made from recycled fridge parts, and it was a really cool material. It was durable, but maybe not as durable as pure polycarbonate, but it was for the customers who really cared about sustainability, and we found over the years it's obviously grown, and there's been a drive towards more sustainability, especially with the younger demographic we have out there. But back then it was more of an innovation separator from us and other brands, and we used it as a tool to sort of show how we're different than other traditional brands. And sustainable still is very important to us. We have our ecotext fabric, which is our packing cubes made from recycled fishing nets, and so we use discarded fishing nets that are in the oceans today and grind them down and make packing cubes out of them. So we've always been into sustainability, because anybody can create a bag out of polyester, right? But there's a much better story when you have you know an eco-friendly theme behind it, and it's just as strong as polyester and nylon nowadays, because innovations in ego-friendly materials are have been you know exponential in the last 10 years. Back when we started uh the eco case that we had, I mean, if you did a drop test maybe at 50 pounds, it probably wouldn't survive, but it was for a you know a segmented demographic that was very keen on uh eco-friendly products. And also right now we just launched the Renew, which is another uh eco-friendly luggage. We launched it with a retailer in Germany, and Germany has a big focus on sustainability, and so they wanted to have a key sustainable item, and so they chose our renew and launched it across Germany retail locations, and that's done well. So, yeah, it's always been part of our mindset.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Well, and I raise that because when you look today in the marketplace, you know, obviously Patagonia is a brand, it's not luggage, of course, it's clothing and gear. Um, but you look at this whole doing good for the planet and how much that resonates with customers, and you look at brands like Cotto Paxi as another good example of you know that's whole gear for good. And uh so I wanted to ask you about that because it's always interesting to me, there's companies that have been onto it early, and then there's companies that are you know establishing themselves around that. And I know that's been part of your brand ethos. And so um, so what but the other thing I wanted to touch on too, given the trends that you're seeing um from your vantage point, because you know, you're celebrating your 40th year here in 2026, and you are you know continue to lead and innovate in this space. And so we've touched on a few things that I know that are happening in this space, but I'd love to hear some of the things that you're paying attention to. And even like because I'm sure you have to be thinking three years out, you've got to be thinking about production cycles and like you know, so there's probably things you're working on now that you can't share with us because of competitive reasons, and yeah, yeah. So yeah, you don't have to this doesn't have to be a big reveal, but um tell us at least some of the things that you are um you're some of the big consumer global travel trends that you're paying attention to in 2026 and how that relates to to lug and what you guys do.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Yeah, well, this year is our 40th anniversary, and so we're relaunching the X case, but in a new sort of material. And just like we launched our candy-colored carry-ons back when there were no candy-colored carry-ons back then, this year we're launching it in a very special glittery-based

What’s Next: Materials, Openings, Canadiana

SPEAKER_01 36:00

polycarbonate material. So it actually glitters in the sunlight. And you know, you've got to see it in real life to actually give it justice. But basically, if you take it out in the sunlight, it literally blows up and it looks like uh you know a 10,000 flashlights flash. It's a stunning piece of luggage. It took us uh, you know, a couple years to develop. We've always sort of timed it for this anniversary, and it's launching in a limited edition. We're only producing 1986 per color. Why? Because 1986 is when we spounded a Haze. And so that'll be a very special edition that we're gonna do. That's something I can tell you about. Um, I can tell you about another innovation that we're doing, which is uh a framed list luggage, which actually has a frame that's sort of built into the zipper, so in which it reduces the weight of the luggage, but it's so strong that you could literally stand on an empty luggage and there won't be any give at all. So that's another sort of cool innovation. It's again about innovations in durability, innovations in opening systems. We have our patented smart access opening system, which is the first luggage which we patented in 2012, which opens from the front. Because one of the biggest knocks against hard side luggage was you know, they don't like the clamshell opening because you have half and half, doesn't sit on that hotel sort of stand very well. So we created a luggage that basically is like a top-lit opening. Um, and so you'll see continual innovations on that. Of course, materials you're gonna see, lots of innovations. We're keen on special materials that sort of are more fashion-forward. We for example, we have the astro collection, which is sort of like holographic, and it sort of when you shine a light on it, it sort of reflects like very unique patterns of a rainbow. And that's been a huge social trend. In fact, one of our TikTok videos has something like 8 million views on it because it's just so cool and different. And that's the key. You've got to constantly be separating yourself from everyone else. Not every idea wins. I mean, I can tell you a whole bunch of ideas that haven't won. One in particular uh stands out is like our X-ray, which was a luggage that we developed which is completely transparent. And you're like, hey, why don't we do transparent luggage? Um, and it's actually super good quality because to be transparent, the polycarbonate has to be pure virgin polycarbonate. So it's super strong, but you have to use it with packing cubes. And you have to use it, and some customers don't use packing cubes, I don't know why, but they don't. And they just never understood the concept. So that was something that we've done that didn't take off, let's say.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

But you don't really want your uh underwear and dirty socks just hanging out for everyone to see, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Yeah, that's why you put them in packing cubes and you have it all nicely organized. Um, but like you've got to try different things, and it a lot of ideas fail, but that's what you know our 40th year will be about. A lot of innovations you'll see from us. Uh, these I mentioned, there's other ones that I really can't mention, and also there's a big project that we're working on, um, which is Pro Canadiana. If you can read between the lines, um maybe we'll get that developed the next year or two. But you know, the focus is on really Canadian design and Canadian-inspired products, and really focusing on Canada. Because we just did uh uh the CIIS show in Shanghai, and we focused, we were at the Canadian Pavilion, we had the Canadian Council and the ambassador come by. So it was really nice, and it was good to see the support from Canada at these international trade shows because we're predominantly a Canadian brand, and we want to focus on that, and that's really our ethos for our brand. So you're gonna see a lot of Canadiana, you're gonna see a lot of innovation, and hopefully within a couple of years, you'll see some really interesting products that come down the pipeline.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

That's really exciting. I think one of the expressions you are probably familiar with that we hear from time to time is the world need more Canada. And I couldn't agree with that statement more. Um and so you know, this the one of the things that's great about being Canadian, and obviously I appreciate all of our global listeners uh uh just sharing this with all of you, is because one of the things we we definitely have a global perspective and obviously yes we're known to be polite and easygoing and like there's lots of yeah but one of the things that I you know there's always that talk about um other nationalities putting Canadian flags on their backpacks right to try you know but that but but that that to me highlights when a Canadian brand goes international there is just a um a certain level of I don't know say respect admiration or just like an appreciation for what um Canadian culture represents and um and it is going back to your founding story your family the opportunities that you uh have all had myself included um to live here work here and then and then to share that with the world and so um so that's really so uh in terms of where you guys are headed obviously you've shared and you shared you shared as much as you can by the sounds of it. So the the the other thing I would just like to highlight for all of our listeners too because so many of our travel trends listeners not only are they travel industry but they are you know they're working their way up in their careers. So I often refer to many of our we have a lot of decision makers for sure we have a lot of executives that listen to our podcast but we also have a lot of people that are working their way up in the travel industry. And I

Culture, Flat Teams, And Iteration

SPEAKER_00 41:10

always uh Emran whenever I'm uh preparing for these and I'm always thinking about my um 20 year younger self riding my bike into uh to work at Lonely Planet listening to podcasts and figuring out how they would apply to my career I thought it would actually be worth kind of sharing a few of your leadership style and and and a little bit more about the company culture that I think would be interesting for people to understand because you know we often actually even find that um when we have people in the podcast they get all of a sudden a rush of new talent interested in working with them because they're like wow that sounds like a really cool company. So so tell us a little bit more about the culture at Hayes. And I guess what I'm specifically asking is you know um you've talked about how you adapt to change and such a fast moving industry and how innovative but tell us a little bit about the culture um obviously creativity is a big part of it and then I want to ask you kind of what uh has been one of your proudest moments of a CEO of this business so far.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Yeah culture I would say you know we're always innovative at our core uh innovation and sharing of ideas has been always a key focus for us. For example when we do design meetings we don't just involve the designers we'll call in the customer service staff we'll call in sales reps we'll call in you know even some of the accounting team just to get different ideas from different people and I think it's important to listen to everyone because everyone has their own unique taste. And it's it's the products or the designs that everyone likes which are very rare that you know is going to be a winner because then it goes across all demographics goes across everyone. So innovation constantly changing designs constantly we encourage people to participate with their own ideas of what they think is interesting. Because you know when you're designing your products you're always trying to solve pain points. You're always trying to solve what's an issue that exists that you can solve. The X scale solve the issue of what is my luggage weigh the X case solve the weight issue. So we always like to ask our staff and for their own ideas and their own trends personally that they like and you know some of them just like everything else are winners and some of them don't do very well but at the same time I think it's it brings a good sense of culture to the company where everyone feels involved and everyone has a sort of stake in the business as well. You know I'm pretty close to our team. I uh we started as a family business a lot of our staff here have been with us here 10, 15 20 years. We had a a staff member that just retired after almost 30 years been with us. So we're very family centric and we like to stay that way. For example I still do staff reviews every year myself personally with every one of our staff and I like to have that connection with everyone because I feel you know when you're there for them and you're listening to them they feel more connected with you as well. And we just have that sort of family atmosphere here. So it's a cool environment it's nice it's cozy it's it's innovation driven yes we're disciplined yes you know we work hard but at the same time we have that sort of cozy family culture as well because we've been here all so long and I think everybody knows each other for so long time. You you get to understand what the business is all about and how we run in a very quick short amount of time.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Yeah well and given that you've taken over the business and I know obviously there's a lot riding on your shoulders probably both uh professionally personally you know taking over a family business and making sure that you expand it globally and um and you honor the legacy of course of your mom and the and and what has been built. So um I would love to hear what has been at least to date one of your uh most special moments running this company and probably obviously there's much more to come but has there been a a particular moment so far where you're just like okay this is like I've got this that's a good question because it made me think um uh I would

Pride Moments: Olympics And Succession

SPEAKER_00 45:15

say there's two things on the business side of it I would say probably our proudest moment my proudest moment would have been seeing the Olympic team carry our luggage and backpacks at Sochi and at Rio.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

To me that was like wow because you know knowing our humble beginnings starting in you know in the basement of a home and now seeing it on a global scale with the Olympic athletes carrying it beautiful pictures with the cycling team with their backpacks and them coming you know being greeted at Pearson when they all come back with the gold medals and carrying Hayes luggage and with the Olympic brand design that we created for them it was through the partnership with HBC but it was still our design it was still our luggage and that was a really proud moment sort of like a yeah that was great. On the personal side I would say having my 19 year old daughter join Hayes because succession for me is is a big deal obviously and having her join and take an interest not just join but take an interest in the company take an interest in business and she clearly has a knack for it. And I've got three daughters and hopefully they'll all be part of this but seeing her join uh was a really special and proud moment for me personally because you know in our succession and you know our family and just hopefully you know she carries it on to the next forty years as well and with her sisters and do a good job and do more podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Yeah exactly no that's absolutely lovely M Raman I hope yeah we'll we'll plan to include her next when we uh but that's she'd be a bit nervous right now but yeah she'd be good. Well it's it's been terrific meeting you I've certainly been looking forward to this I obviously I thank you for the the partnership but also um you know congratulations on 40 years and you know the culture that you've built in the company and it's uh great to meet such a um an honorary Canadian that is like a real great success story and like so yeah thanks for making the time for me and I uh I look forward to keeping in touch and wish you every success in the years ahead.

SPEAKER_01 47:12

Thank you very much Dan and great success to you as well this is a great podcast and I wish you all the success in the world as well and be happy to later on and we can talk about other trends and other cool innovations as well. But thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 47:25

Thanks so much for joining us on this special spotlight episode of Travel Trends. I hope you enjoyed my conversation today with the CEO of Hayes Luggage International Mran Shaik. I was thoroughly inspired and now I totally understand how this company has gone from strength to strength and I really hope to see his daughters carry the business forward as they come into the business. He's still got many years running this company but I just love the fact as you heard in our conversation today how keen he is to make sure he maintains this family legacy and brings his kids into the business. I found that so incredibly inspiring. And so thank you again to Emran Shake and the whole team at Hayes for being involved with our Travel Trends podcast, for sponsoring season six of our show and also doing this fantastic giveaway to all of our listeners. And for those of you who are just coming to understand Hayes or have all of a sudden realized wait a second that's the company I've been seeing and you want to learn more, definitely check out Hayes.com, H E Y S dot com and check out the amazing selection of luggage they have. It is really extraordinary when you look at the number of collections. There's literally something for everyone so thank you again to the team. Thank you again to our listeners for being a part of this if you enjoy these spotlight episodes you can check out traveltrends.com slash spotlights for more and of course make sure you're subscribed on the streaming platform of your choice to be notified when new episodes go live whether they be our regular season or our spotlight episodes you'll find them all on your preferred streaming platforms and of course we post clips and highlights on our social channels and lastly we do send out a monthly newsletter

Closing Thanks And Where To Learn More

SPEAKER_00 49:00

so you can register for that at traveltrendspodcast.com thanks again for joining us and until next time safe travels