LifestyleReinventing Travel: In Conversation with July
Next Article
26 February 2025
Luggage should be better. That was the simple idea that sparked July. Frustrated by overpriced, uninspired suitcases, Richard Li and his co-founder Athan Didaskalou set out to disrupt the industry. Since then, July has redefined travel with sleek, durable, and thoughtfully designed luggage.
We spoke with Richard about July’s journey and redefining the future of travel while staying true to its Melbourne roots.
What inspired you both to enter the luggage industry, and how did your backgrounds influence the initial vision for July?
When starting July, my co-founder Athan and I had already founded a handful of previous businesses between us; we’re entrepreneurs through and through. At the time, we were both travelling a lot for work and getting frustrated at the dodgy cases we were using and the massive disconnect between price and quality. You'd see these legacy brands charging $800 or $900 for basically the same aluminium shell that's been around forever. Meanwhile, the direct-to-consumer revolution was happening in every other category, from skincare to sunglasses, and we just thought - why hasn't anyone disrupted luggage yet?
July is known for its innovative and personalised luggage designs. Can you share insights into your product development process?
When we first started, we read through thousands of customer reviews of existing luggage brands - proper deep-dive research that revealed countless frustrations travellers were experiencing. That intensive research phase really shaped our entire approach to design.
One of our most valuable assets has been our retail storefront at our headquarters in Melbourne, where our design team is also based. It's more than just a shop - it's essentially a live testing ground where we can observe how people interact with our products and gather immediate feedback. This direct customer engagement has helped us identify subtle design improvements that wouldn't be apparent through online sales alone. We're constantly learning, iterating, and improving our range.
How do collaborations with athletes and events like the Australian Open align with your values and drive growth?
Our partnership with the Australian Open really represents a perfect alignment of values and heritage. Tennis is part of our city's DNA - Melbourne is one of only four cities in the world to host a Grand Slam, and that sporting excellence and style is deeply woven into our cultural fabric. The collaboration was a natural fit because tennis, particularly the AO, embodies that unique intersection of high performance and sophisticated style that we strive for in our products.
The partnership has been particularly powerful for us on social media. The content we created for the limited-edition tennis range has generated some of our highest engagement rates in the last year; it’s been really successful. For many customers, their first experience with July isn't walking past our store or seeing our ads - it's discovering us through social content.
How do you balance maintaining July’s Australian identity while expanding into international markets and appealing to a diverse audience?
The Australian thing is interesting because while we're proud of our Melbourne roots, we've always thought of ourselves as a global brand. We focus on universal travel pain points - everyone wants a suitcase that's lightweight, durable, and thoughtfully designed, whether they're in Sydney, Singapore, or San Francisco.
With a rapidly growing global presence, what is your long-term vision for July, and how do you see the brand evolving in the next five to ten years?
Looking ahead, we're really focused on building July into the world's most loved travel brand. Not just luggage - we're thinking about the entire travel journey. We've already expanded into travel accessories, but there's so much more to come. The vision is to be a fashion brand that makes travel fundamentally better through clever design and technology. Five years from now, I see us having a complete ecosystem of travel products, all working seamlessly together. But we'll never lose that obsession with quality and innovation that got us started - that's just part of our DNA now.
LEARN MORE https://july.com/au/
