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Comment by michaelbuckbee | Hacker News Reader

They're a Direct To Consumer (DTC) Lifestyle brand.

If you sort of wave your hands and say "whatever" to that description what it means is "profit" compounded by "profit".

DTC cuts out all the middle retailers' profit points.

"Brand" lets them charge a premium for their product on an ongoing basis.

You can buy a very comparable piece of luggage off of AliExpress [1] for about half [2] of what Away is selling theirs for, which means that at volume Away is probably getting a 3x to 4x markup. The profit of branding.

If you're looking for something to compare Away to, look at Lululemon (revenues of $3.7 Billion in 2019). I'm sure they're nowhere near that currently, but the venture capital bet is that there's at least a 1/10 shot of them reaching that sort of level.

1 - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000472391335.html

2 - https://www.awaytravel.com/suitcases/bigger-carry-on/navy

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I feel like it's a bad form to infer a markup based on the price of a lower quality dupe.

Like would you compare a Canada Goose jacket with it's dupe at Hollister and say they're "comparable"?

https://www.canadagoose.com/ca/en/victoria-parka-3037L.html?...

https://www.hollisterco.com/shop/us/p/cozy-lined-thermore-pa...

There's always going to be knock-offs, but perhaps it would be better to compare Away to, say, Travel-pro? [https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-carry-on-luggage/]

It's not like Away is an artisanal product that's going to be used for decades. It's just half-decent luggage with a fresh look. It's OK as a product, but the aspirations of their leadership and investors is WAYYY oversized.

I'm sure they're quite nice jackets, but they're a flex. You're telling the world you can drop a grand on a jacket.

Nothing wrong with that, or enjoying a great jacket in the process. But it's clearly a signal of wealth.

Those jackets are 100% a flex, but they (and their competition like Arc'teryx, Moose Knuckles, etc.) aren't a flex in the typical middle-class way of overpaying for a middling product because it has a trendy design. They're a flex because you're telling the world that you're willing to drop $800-1200 on a coat so you can wear whatever you want underneath and don't have mess up your outfit with layers.

The point I was trying to make is that there's a significant value to the "brand" of Away that's independent from costs that went into making up the product.

Mentally adjust the cost that Away is paying per item up 20% if that makes sense to you, but the point is that this is a product with big margins that Away is pushing even higher as a result of their brand.

Like how an identical pair of sneakers can roll out of a factory but the one with a swoosh on the side is able to sell for 10x.

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