Private company

Tumi Inc.

Logo: Tumi, Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American suitcase and bag manufacturer

Tumi Holdings, Inc., is a manufacturer of high-end suitcases and bags for travel based in Edison, New Jersey. It was a unit of Doughty Hanson & Co. from 2004 until after its 2012 initial public offering, which preceded its acquisition by Samsonite in 2016. The brands has over 120 flaghsip stores and 200 shops around the world.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1975Founded1
Mexico City International Airport Tumi 2021
Photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Tumi Holdings, Inc., is a manufacturer of high-end suitcases and bags for travel based in Edison, New Jersey. It was a unit of Doughty Hanson & Co. from 2004 until after its 2012 initial public offering, which preceded its acquisition by Samsonite in 2016.2

Corporate structure

Tumi Inc. is part of a group headed by Samsonite. 5 entities, 3 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Tumi was founded in 1975 by Charlie Clifford after a corporate job in marketing and a stint with the Peace Corps. He named it so after a Peruvian tumi ceremonial knife.

In 2016 Samsonite announced that they had finalized a deal to purchase Tumi for 1.8 billon dollars.

From Wikipedia’s article on Tumi Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

  • baggage
  • handbag

Listed on Wikidata.1

Products

Tumi's products are known for their black-on-black ballistic nylon.

Tumi also supplies accessories such as belts, pens, and electronic equipment. The company teamed with designer Anish Kapoor in 2006 to produce the PowerPack Backpack that incorporated solar technology for charging phones and PDAs. The company also had a licensing agreement with the Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati to launch a collection of eight co-branded pieces in 2006, sold through both of the brands' retail outlets.

Tumi puts a metal plate with a unique 20-digit registration number in each of its bags. Customers can register for the Tumi Tracer program to have their contact information entered into a central database so they can be reunited with their bag if it is found.

Tumi offers a five-year conditional warranty across all its products. It had a conditional lifetime warranty policy.

Read the full text

Tumi's products are considered high-end and expensive.

Operations

In 2004, London-based private equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co acquired Tumi for US$276 million. This was a secondary market purchase from Oaktree Capital, which had acquired a majority stake in 2002.

Jerome Griffith became the CEO of Tumi, Inc. in 2009.

On April 19, 2012, Tumi made an initial public offering of 18,779,865 shares, as Tumi Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: TUMI). In December 2013, Joseph R. Gromek was named Chairman of Board of Directors.

On March 4, 2016, Samsonite announced it would acquire Tumi in an all-cash transaction worth $1.8 billion.

In July 2025, Tumi opened its first flagship store in China.

From Wikipedia’s article on Tumi Inc., shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1975Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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