Louis Vuitton Horizon Soft Duffle 55 - beautiful but pricey rolling duffle w/ an amazing pull handle

The Louis Vuitton Horizon Soft Duffle (2R) 55 is a 37 liter carry-on sized rolling duffle bag belonging to the distinctive Marc Newson-designed Horizon line of luggage... that costs $3000 USD.
00:00 - Introduction
01:34 - Overview
04:40 - Price & why I bought it
05:08 - Design solutions
07:56 - Who it's for/not for
09:50 - External Design
13:46 - Top handle
15:39 - Duffle handle
19:04 - Pull handle
23:32 - Wheels
24:49 - External pocket
25:33 - Zippers
26:36 - Main compartment
27:47 - Lock
29:20 - Luggage tag
30:50 - In closing
31:33 - Also consider
Its main claim to fame is probably its uniquely designed pull handle which prominently moves the "canes" of the pull handle to the outside edges of the bag which eliminates the long central "bump" that normally interrupts the internal main capacity of other pull-type luggages. Additionally, it features a relatively unusual combination of fashionable good looks with a superbly easy to pack duffle style opening, multiple carry options and unusually for a duffle, dual wheels for easy rolling.
On the other hand, its main claim to infamy is probably its eye-watering price tag of $2,950 USD +tax which makes this bag hard to recommend for anyone who enjoys making wise fiscal decisions and/or has an aversion to purchasing bags that are potentially worth more than their contents. Additionally, while the pull handle is one of the most amazing that I've ever laid hands on, the duffle style carry handles of this bag suffer from some frustrating usability issues in practice which is disappointing at this price point.
Nonetheless, I thought this bag was a fun and unusual combination of features and structures not normally seen in a single bag and the amazing feeling and innovative external-cane design of the pull handle makes for a very interesting collection piece that represents a quite different design solution to a fairly common type of bag (airport-use carry on luggage).
Louis Vuitton Horizon Soft Duffle 55 (US version)
us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/pr...
Louis Vuitton Horizon Soft Duffle 2R55 (JP version, reviewed in this video)
jp.louisvuitton.com/jpn-jp/pr...
Note: This product was purchased with our own money and all opinions expressed are our own.

[@user-px9no8uy7o]

This was really interesting to me. As the carry world grew, many reviewers are buying the same things and the reviews were sometimes boring to me. But this video was very informative and it gave new perspectives in my carry. I would be happy to see videos like this in the future!

[@Igsr0909]

Best review I have found for this Horizon soft duffle! Thank you!! 🙌🏼 Very thorough and nice to see aspects that I didn’t think of.

[@TheMountainborn]

Hi Giselle! Thank you so much for the kind words - I'm so glad you found this review useful!!

[@kevinhsu8184]

Just FYI. You can take your LV luggage tag and have it stamp for free in any LV store. You can stamp your initials or some stores have stamps that's specially made for that store such as SF store at Union Square has a Golden Gate Bridge stamp or NYC 5th Avenue store has a big apple stamp.

[@TheMountainborn]

Thanks for the tip Kevin!!

[@futurebliss]

Love the surpise! I find the same things interesting and fascinating as you, but likely wouldn’t have discovered this specific one w/o you - thanks! 🙏😃

[@TheMountainborn]

My pleasure Kim! I'm glad you found this review interesting - yeah, this is a bit of an unusual bag and combination of features so I was glad to have the opportunity to share about it with the carry world :)

[@willjavtor]

Dude the intro PERFECT 😂 I WAS LOOKING FOR REVIEW

[@TheMountainborn]

😂 hahahah well, welcome to my channel my friend! I hope this was of some use to you! :)

[@lalakers209]

Thank you sir! Great review..just ordered mine

[@julie8477]

very thorough review ! thanks would love to see you do one on the pegasus

[@DanielNasserian]

Bought it after this review. Thanks for showing it!

[@TheMountainborn]

Hi @DanielNasserian ! Glad I could help! How has it been for you so far? Have you had a chance to take it on a trip yet?

[@DanielNasserian]

@@TheMountainborn I have. It’s a perfect weekend bag. I love how the bottom is rigid compared to the Keep All. It feels a bit smaller due to the undercarriage but the trade offs are worth it.

[@sennahojw]

Could you please review some pieces from satchel and page or le daveed in the future? 🙏

[@epretto]

Well well well! Can't wait for the next reefer content! I guess if we come around some UL Japanese gear it would be in the "high" spectrum :)

[@TheMountainborn]

hahaha this one was a bit of an outlier. I promise to return to my normal programming of moderately priced carry from the next video 😂. (Also, I don't really own anything else this crazy, save maybe my Rimowa cabin luggage but that is still way, way way cheaper than this thing)

[@epretto]

@@TheMountainborn it was a fun review. Not normal is nice too!!!

[@kodessa]

Maybe the 2r refers to the rollers on the bag. There's a Horizon Soft with 4 rollers referred to as 4r on the LV website.

[@TheMountainborn]

OHHHHH!!!!! This might be it my friend!!!!! Thank you!!!

[@lorisawicki2691]

Thank you for your review! Just wondering if you felt that there would be a tipping issue when the bag is full. I am looking to purchase the LV Soft Duffle 65 for road trips only. I am afraid once full that it would or could tip over only being on 2 wheels. Thanks for your input.

[@TheMountainborn]

Hi Lori! Great question - there is *some* reinforcement at the "bottom" of the bag that helps keep it from toppling over when it is stood vertically. However - and this is a big however - it's a pretty weak reinforcement so what happens is if the bag is fully packed, packed out in a way that puts heavier things towards the "front" of the bag (meaning the side with the zippered opening, opposite the metal handles) and/or puts heavier items towards the "top" (when stood vertically) of the bag, the bag *will* topple over because it overwhelms the reinforcement. Other wheeled duffles combat this problem with more rigid reinforcement usually in the form of a stiff piece of metal or wire that forms a right triangle running from the front bottom of the bag (when stood vertically - i.e. the bottom part farthest from the wheels) to the back plane of the bag (where the metal canes are). This produces a structurally stiff structure that make it highly unlikely the bag will collapse under load when stood vertically. The North Face Rolling Thunder series of bags are an example of bags that feature this kind of reinforcement. The downside of this of course is that it looks kinda ugly on the inside and does also rob some precious internal space. The LV Horizon eschews such a reinforcement mechanism for a weaker form that is more visually clean and also doesn't intrude on the internal space of the bag. The cost of course, is the bag can topple over under certain load outs. This is a trade off that I think is coherent with their positioning as a luxury bag wherein they favor form over function when necessary. The best way I've found to deal with this is to either load the bag in such a manner that heavier items are at the bottom/back of the bag (closes to the wheels) and as "low down/towards the bottom" as possible when the bag is stood vertically. If you do this, the bag may still "lean" forward when stood vertically (depending on total weight and load out) but it generally won't fully topple over like it will if loaded other ways. Other things are just to carry relatively lightweight items in it - i.e. if you're just carrying clothes and cosmetics and things like that it's not likely the bag will topple over - it does have *some* reinforcement after all. The third option is to not really stand the bag up fully, and just treat the wheeled function as something that is useful for moving the bag place to place but when setting it down, you lay it down on the back (the side with the metal extending handle canes) like a "regular" duffle bag. The downside of this of course is you might damage the exposed metal of the canes, but at the end of the day, I guess that's the trade off one makes with a duffel bag :) Anyway, I hope this helps!

[@lorisawicki2691]

@@TheMountainborn I did end up getting and using it over this past weekend for a road trip and it worked out great! It definitely gave me the extra space that I needed and I didn't have any tipping issues at all. It was fuller when I returned with some extras inside and still no tipping which I was very happy about. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

[@johnnynguyen3521]

This came out of left field hah! Didn't expect this!

[@TheMountainborn]

hahahaha just mixing it up a bit before we get back into our regularly scheduled programming 😂

[@wlee1801]

I enjoy your review style and that’s why I’m a subscriber. I even like Marc Newson because he has roots in industrial design. I can also overlook the 3k price tag because LV didn’t survive two world wars and become a luxury powerhouse without funding from the Uber rich. If the next carryology collab could resale canvas and cow hide bag at this price point; who am I to judge. But man, this thing is almost entirely coated in pvc which is not only ridiculously bad for the environment but also a carcinogen; it’s also particularly toxic to children! If I bought it at this price point I’d probably hand it down to my kids as a heritage piece...as to remind my grandchildren how little I give a darn about them. Marc and Mountain may never read this but they should know that a bunch of carry brands have moved away from the poison making the wholesale cost of this material even cheaper. Thus folks who buy this aren’t just financially imprudent, they just downright suckers!

[@TheMountainborn]

Hi W.Lee! Well first of all, while I can't speak to Marc Newson, I can assure you that Mountain definitely does read all the comments on his reviews. I actually really enjoyed your comment and this is the kind of commentary that I really find rewarding (albeit possibly a smidgen overly dramatic towards your future grand children but hey, who am I to judge 😂) because you're hitting on an important point that I, and most other reviewers don't usually touch on in our reviews, or if we do, only in the most superficial ways ("Certified B-Corp eco-friendly process!" or as I hinted at in this one "it's made of a coated canvas which feels more plasticky than I was expecting for this price point" (or whatever I said, whilst still leaving the main issues of the material unaddressed)) One of the reasons why I haven't talked about the environmental/ecological impact of the materials in the bags I review is that very honestly, I just don't know enough about this area to discuss it with authority and I feel I wouldn't be doing my viewers justice if I attempted to talk authoritatively about something far outside my domain expertise. More importantly, while the use experience or physical hardware or design of a bag is something that is objectively apparent (well experience is obviously partially subjective but my conclusions in this respect are backed by empirical usage), the production process of materials (and whether those are truly done in an ecologically friendly way or not, etc.) are not things that I have any actual transparency into (and is part of the same reason why I don't discuss where bags are made or with what type of labour conditions) into the process for any given company. If talking about something I'm not qualified to talk about is one type of risk, an even worse risk is parroting something a company writes on their website without actually being able to verify if it's true or not. This is why I take claims like "certified B-Corp eco friendly" or "made with fair trade materials/fair pay labour" with a grain of salt. I want to believe it, but I can't independently verify that, so I don't want viewers to mistakenly be mislead into thinking it must be true because Mountain said it, if I haven't actually verified that. However, that doesn't mean that in my personal non-KZbin life I don't have opinions or interest in this subject. The points you raised about PVC toxicity (especially in the production of the material, but also the material itself under the right conditions - such as burning) are very valid and important - it's actually really surprising to me how prevalent coated canvas still is in the world of high end luxury goods when so many more major consumer-level brands have already phased it out of their repertoire. (it's also interesting that more than a few reviewers of luxury bags I've seen mistakenly seem to think the canvas is leather). I think there's a certain amount of compromise that I and most other people make in our everyday lives by virtue of the station, environment, society and culture in which we exist - I am deeply worried about global warming yet I still own and drive a car and fly in airplanes. I am philosophically opposed to exploitative labour practises yet I don't strictly confirm the labour conditions in which all of the products I own are produced. I would never purposefully be cruel to an animal, yet I eat food produced by our modern food supply which is certain to contain produces from factory farms. I'm opposed to radical wealth inequality yet I willingly continue to participate in a society predicated upon an inherently unequal system as opposed to going to live in a commune. The list of cognitive dissonances goes on and on and I think the best I and others can do is to try to chart a course that generally heads in the right direction for the future whilst still keeping one foot in the anchoring paradigm of the current reality in which we exist. When I think about bags and carry, I definitely pay more attention to the provenance and production of the materials that go into that bag more than I used to say, 2 or 3 years ago (even if I don't talk about them in the reviews for the reasons mentioned above). But I think there is still a long way to go to grow my knowledge, position and the weight I place on these factors in my valuation paradigm when making a purchase decision - the fact that when I bought this bag the toxicity of PVC never really factored into my pro/con list, but the sort of plasticky feeling of the coated canvas did is testament to maybe how much more headroom there is to evolve the thinking and weighting of considerations in this dimensions. Anyway, I really appreciate your comment about a very important point. Great food for thought about an aspect of material and manufacture that doesn't get enough top of mind consideration from most of us in the carry world, myself included.

[@wlee1801]

@@TheMountainborn Hi Mountain, Respect and thanks for taking the time to read and reply in such a thorough manner! Since a lot of comments would be about price/branding vs practicality/design; for an item of this margin, I wanted to also apply the expanded metrics. Brands reviewed here like Arc, MR, Ortlieb,Pata, EG, have evolved these features into their supply chain so even though we can’t all be experts, the carry community knows it can be done. It’s great that you mentioned labor as well, modern LV has contributed to better conditions almost globally because their footprint is so large. I tend to cut the smaller upstarts some slack because it’s such a big leap to go from MYOG to not being OOS all the time. Back to the horizon, haven’t seen the duffle in store, but the framed suitcases are very maneuverable. Newson needs to design something to replace those old-school Rimowa hooks, because almost none of the luggage pass-throughs can strap around those ultra wide handle bars.

[@frezzingaces]

daaam boi flex on em

[@TheMountainborn]

... Let's just say that Mountain doesn't make wise financial decisions sometimes when it comes to bags 😂

[@Datblonddood]

The Mountainborn is clearly moving up in the world. Pretty soon he won't have time for all of us.

[@TheMountainborn]

Ha ha hardly my friend! This bag was definitely an exception to my general interests :) Don't worry, I've got a review of the Aer City Bag and Evergoods MPH 3.5 etc. coming up next so fret not, this isn't turning into any kind of lux bag review site 😂

[@Paa375]

Could we see more less expensive bags. I realize you pay for what you get but $300 for a bag in the middle of the worst health and economical crises ever it’s hard to toss $300 into the fire these days

[@TheMountainborn]

For sure. I do want to highlight that the Aer City Bag (next upcoming review) retails for about $149 and the EG MHP 3.5 (next after that) retails for $119. The Aer City Sling v2 I just reviewed before this video retails for $89. So I feel like I do try to review a decent number of reasonably priced bags as well. Of course I do have reviews of $300 and $600 bags too - I try to cover a wide range of bags and carry solutions for all price ranges - my thinking is, the more expensive a bag, the costlier it is for us if we make a bad purchase decision. And a lot of bag reviewers just kind of gloss over bags features superficially which can be fine if the price is low and we are just looking for a bit of confirmation before pulling the trigger, but I try to go more in depth based on practical usage especially for expensive bags so people can be well informed before they decide to buy (or not buy). But definitely want to maintain a broad level of coverage at all levels. So question for you - any bags in particular you're interested in you'd like to see me review?

[@Paa375]

@@TheMountainborn look forward the AER city pack review have a great day

[@Misterion25]

Holy cow, that's pricey

[@TheMountainborn]

LOL understatement of the year 😂. While I didn't mention it in the video, one of the reasons why I bought this is that I am fairly certain I will sell it on at some point in the future, so I think of the difference between the cost to purchase and the money from selling it as more a "rental fee" for the long term use and experience of this bag.

[@todaysgrailtomorrowsbeater]

great for dentists who want to spoil their girlfriends

[@TheMountainborn]

hahahaha Or for slightly frumpy apron-wearing online bag reviewers who can't resist an unusual rolling luggage extending handle design? 😂