Some sacred unions are remembered by history. Hermès and its horses. Louis Vuitton and its monogram canvas. And now, RIMOWA and… Pikachu. The Cologne-born house, acquired by LVMH in 2017, has just unveiled a capsule collection celebrating 30 years of Pokémon — available exclusively in Japan, naturally, because nothing says “exclusivity” quite like confining the embarrassment to a single market.
“Vivid Orange and Magenta cases, reworked with playful details guided by Pokémon characters.” — Official press release, unedited.
Money has no smell, Vespasian said of his tax on public urinals. LVMH, which shelters under one roof RIMOWA, Dior, Bulgari and Moët, has long elevated this principle to a corporate philosophy. We sell dreams? We also sell stickers bearing the likeness of Jigglypuff. No contradiction there only capitalist consistency.
RIMOWA is hardly the first house to cast its line in these waters. Supreme and Louis Vuitton proved in 2017 that people would queue for twelve hours to carry a handbag stamped with a red box. Balenciaga has since collaborated with Crocs, then with Adidas, then with chaos in general. Gucci signed with The North Face mountain on one side, piazza on the other. And Tiffany & Co. dared the Supreme Blue with Nike. Against this backdrop, RIMOWA almost looks like a shy latecomer.
The mechanics are well-oiled, almost endearing in their predictability: deliberately scarce quantities, as the press release proudly notes not because production costs are high, but because scarcity itself commands a premium. You are no longer selling a product. You are selling the anxiety of not having managed to get one.
Make no mistake: the custom wheel sets in Charizard colours will retail for no less than €85 a piece.10 The Mewtwo luggage tags will not get you through security any faster. And the reworked Original Cabin in Silver will still contain only what you deserve to take with you. But it will signal, in the boarding queue, a doubly precious belonging: to geek culture and to the world of those who can afford to wear it.
That is the true genius of the operation. Not the genre-mixing anyone can do that with tape and a questionable aesthetic instinct but selling the transgression at craftsman prices. Making you believe that carrying Pikachu on your suitcase is irony. When it is, quite simply, commerce.
Money has no smell. But the €500 price tag on a collector’s suitcase smells very strongly of an order book being filled.
FM