This is the Floyd Check-In, it’s the suitcase-on-skateboard-wheels that started it all, with a hefty dose of 1970s California styling and a slew of colors to choose from so you can spot your luggage on the carousel from a hundred yards out.
Floyd cases are famous for their use of brightly colored skateboard wheels that are interchangeable – with new sets in a wide variety of colors available from the official website.
Floyd cases are famous for their use of brightly colored skateboard wheels that are interchangeable – with new sets in a wide variety of colors available from the official website.
History Speedrun: Floyd Suitcases
Floyd is a relatively young company, it was founded in Munich, Germany in 2019 by longtime friends Bernd Georgi and Horst Kern. The two had known each other since their youth in Bavaria, where they shared a mutual love of skateboarding.
After careers in the luggage and accessories business, including supplying cases for major automotive brands, they decided to apply their skills and build a company of their own. Their goal from the outset was straightforward – to create distinctive hard-shell suitcases that stood well apart from the monotony of black and otherwise dull polycarbonate rollers dominating airports worldwide.
The key idea was to transplant the smooth-rolling polyurethane wheels of 1970s skateboards onto modern luggage. This wasn’t just aesthetic – skate wheels offered better ride quality, shock absorption, and the chance for customization through bright interchangeable colors.
The founders looked back to the Venice Beach skate scene of the 1970s and 1980s for inspiration, pairing it with a design philosophy based on toughness, functionality, and a unique style that would be recognizable even from the opposite side of an airport runway.
Floyd’s first product line combined Makrolon polycarbonate shells with four oversized skateboard-style wheels, each fitted with twin ball bearings.
The Floyd Check-In is available in 11 colors, ranging from more restrained options like Tarmac Grey and Bounty White to wilder choices like Hot Orange, Magic Purple, and Galaxy Night. The most distinctive feature of any Floyd suitcase is the wheels.
The cases were produced in bright colors with bright orange interiors, deliberately designed to be easy to identify on the luggage conveyer belt after your flight when you have bleary eyes and you’re scanning all those drab Sampsonites.
Customers could also mix and match wheel colors – this simple idea turned out to be a huge selling point.
By the mid-2020s Floyd had carved out a key niche in the premium luggage market, appealing to travelers who loved the visual flair but also liked the toughness of the cases and their oversized wheels, each with their dual sealed bearings.
The Floyd Check-In
The Floyd Check-In is a full-size checked suitcase priced at made by Floyd GmbH, a German luggage company whose design language draws heavily on 1970s California culture.
It’s a hard-shell case built around an aluminum frame, with the outer shell made entirely from Makrolon polycarbonate. It measures in at 27.6 × 17.7 × 9.8 inches, it weighs 12.8 lbs, and offers 16.1 gallons of internal capacity.
The Floyd Check-In is available in 11 colors, ranging from more restrained options like Tarmac Grey and Bounty White to wilder choices like Hot Orange, Magic Purple, and Galaxy Night. The most distinctive feature of any Floyd suitcase is the wheels.
Rather than conventional luggage wheels, the Check-In rolls on eight 360° spinner wheels made from 85-durometer polyurethane, skateboard wheels, fitted with high-end ABEC-7 bearings. Floyd says they’re ultra-quiet and smooth-rolling, and they’re designed to be swapped out by the owner if they ever want to mix up the design.
Inside, the case is lined in recycled polysatin in a signature orange, split into two sealed compartments. Compression straps use Fidlock magnetic buckles, and there are integrated mesh pockets and a laptop compartment. A drawstring shoe bag and a protective duster cover for storage are included, security comes via an integrated three-digit TSA-approved combination lock, and the case has dual sliding latches and a retractable telescopic handle.
Inside, the case is lined in recycled polysatin in a signature orange, split into two sealed compartments. Compression straps use Fidlock magnetic buckles, and there are integrated mesh pockets and a laptop compartment.
Floyd backs the Check-In (and all their other cases) with a lifetime warranty covering functional defects under normal use, though cosmetic wear and damage caused by airlines or third parties are excluded for obvious reasons.
The Floyd Check-In is now available to buy direct from the company’s official online store here.
Images courtesy of Floyd.
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
