How Luggage Label Db Turned “Douchebags” Into LVMH Investment

Reported by Vogue.

Some of the best brands start with a genuine complaint. For Truls Brataas and Jon Olsson — a Norwegian design student and a world-champion skier, respectively — the frustration was simple: traveling the world with skis and surfboards was a logistical nightmare, and the gear built to help was embarrassingly bad. "There had been no innovation," Brataas has said. Their fix? Build something that looked as sharp as it performed — equal parts Red Bull and Acne Studios, in their words. The first prototype was sketched out in a dorm room. The name? Crowdsourced from Olsson's online fanbase, who voted overwhelmingly for Douchebags. In 2012, the brand launched.

Early traction came from the action sports community that already orbited Olsson's platform, but the real breakout was the Hugger backpack — a design rooted in the mathematics of the golden ratio that crossed over from ski slopes to university campuses fast. Revenue grew 220% between 2016 and 2017. The name, meanwhile, was quietly retired in 2019. "It feels a bit like growing up," Brataas explained of the rebrand to the cleaner, more scalable Db. Smart call.

From Niche Gear to Luxury Player

The 2022 launch of the Ramverk suitcase line marked the pivot fully — away from extreme sports luggage, toward the broader creative class. Photographers, art directors, designers: Db now speaks directly to the people who live out of a carry-on and care deeply about what it looks like. CEO Richard Collier, who joined in 2024, frames it neatly: action sports were always about creativity, and the brand's DNA never really changed — just its audience. According to Vogue, LVMH Luxury Ventures took a 12% stake in Db in 2024 at a valuation just under $100 million, citing "truly distinctive design, high quality, and functionality." Norwegian billionaire Gustav Magnar Witzøe followed with roughly $5.4 million in 2025, and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland — a very famous Norwegian — came on board with a $1.1 million minority stake and a starring role in the brand's newest campaign.

The numbers are moving. Db reported approximately $44 million in revenue for fiscal 2024. Its US market — now its second largest — hit over $5 million in 2025, up 33% year-over-year. The backdrop isn't bad either: the global luggage industry was valued at more than $22 billion in 2025 and is forecast to surpass $23.5 billion by 2027, driven in part by a post-pandemic era in which a suitcase has become as much a style statement as a storage solution. Db's newest aluminum suitcase — a $1,000 proposition — is the clearest signal yet of where the brand intends to land in that market.

From a cold-water surf break in Hoddevik to an LVMH portfolio company with Haaland as its face: a brand that started by naming itself after an insult has figured out exactly who it wants to be.

Read the original at Vogue.