Two weeks after Bluesmart called it quits, another smart luggage maker is pulling the plug. New York-based travel startup Raden posted a note (spotted by The Verge) on its site announcing that the company is “no longer in operation.”
Unlike Bluesmart, which sold its remaining assets to luggage conglomerate Travelpro, this appears to be the end of Raden as both a company and brand for the time being. As a result, the company is also ending support returns, exchanges and repairs.
The company notes that it’s the latest startup to fall victim to last year’s smart luggage ban, which found the US’s largest domestic carriers joining forces to limit the use of battery-powered suitcases. Companies warned that the new rules, which went into effect in January, would have a profound impact on their survival, and it’s only taken a few months for that to come to fruition.
“The changes in policies concerning batteries in luggage in December by all major airlines severely impacted the usefulness of our products, their value to our customers, our business performance and ultimately the ability to continue operating,” the company writes on the site.
It notes that “all existing shipments have been processed for delivery,” and while the Raden app will still pair with its luggage, batteries must be removed from the products in order to take them on a flight. That, effectively, renders the whole smart functionality bit useless.