No more wrinkled suits on the road — this garment bag folds to laptop-case size

By Bruce Brown Updated May 10, 2017

Never travel in your suit again. The complete crowdfunding video - the PLIQO bag (S)

Business travel can be exciting and fun … the first trip. Subsequent trips rapidly lose their luster, particularly with air travel’s increasingly draconian carry-on luggage rules enforcement. In an effort to save money on baggage charges and avoid the delays and too-frequent suspense of checked luggage, we stuff our business clothing into the teeniest bags possible. When we finally reach our destination, however, our business suits and dresses are often rumpled and wrinkled — not a great look for meeting with clients.

British business writer Patrick Tatham founded Pliqo in 2015. Because of his own frustrations with business travel and its affect on his comfort and clothing, Tatham started the company specifically to develop travel goods for frequent flyers and commuters.

The company’s first product is the Pliqo Bag, which Tatham calls “the smartest garment bag in the world.” Pliqo launched a Kickstarter campaign promising bag deliveries to backers in October 2017.

According to Tatham, the fully open 49-inch by 42-inch garment bag folds to a 16 x 12 x 3-inch laptop bag-sized “personal item.” Tatham says the bag can be carried into cabins of most major airlines in addition to a conventional carry-on.

Even if you’re not traveling by plane, the company claims the folded Pliqo bag will fit into many motorcycle and bicycle panniers, backpacks, messenger bags, and even briefcases to protect business apparel or formal wear while you travel in more comfortable clothing.

The Pliqo Bag has an organizer pocket, lateral compression straps, and a detachable shoulder strap. The bag includes a folding garment hanger and a trouser hanger and weighs a little more than two pounds (37 ounces) without any clothing packed. The outer material is coated polyester trimmed with leather and nylon webbing. The zippers and fast-release buckles are made by YKK.

1 of 4

pliqo smart garment bag 5

pliqo smart garment bag 4

pliqo smart garment bag 3

pliqo smart garment bag 1

Touting his bag as having a footprint smaller than a weekend newspaper, Tatham sums up his reasons for starting Pliqo and designing the bag, “I want to be relaxed when I’m on the move, not worrying that I will appear in a crumpled suit at the start of my meetings. The Pliqo bag is the solution.”

Topics

Contributing Editor

Digital Trends Contributing Editor Bruce Brown is a member of the Smart Homes and Commerce teams. Bruce uses smart devices…

Outdoors

Goodbye, coolers. The EcoFlow Glacier doesn’t need ice — it makes it

The EcoFlow Glacier is a fridge shaped like a cooler with its own battery,

Every cooler operates on borrowed time. It leaves for your camping trip brimming over with crisp produce and ice-encrusted beer that looks straight out of a Super Bowl commercial, and returns with a soggy block of foil-wrapped cheddar cheese floating in a pool of mustard water. Mother Nature always wins.

Perhaps that’s why I was so enamored when I saw the EcoFlow Glacier at CES 2023. Less a cooler than a mobile battery-powered fridge on wheels, the sleek electric Glacier not only obviated the need for ice, it would make ice for me in 18 minutes. My home fridge can’t even do that, and I didn’t even know I wanted it to until just now. When EcoFlow offered to let me try the Glacier, I envisioned sipping a perspiring glass of whiskey in the tropics and accepted the occupational hazards of my job.

Outdoors

I was wrong. E-bikes are so practical, they’re a transit cheat code

An Aventon Level 2 ebike sits outside a grocery store.

Confession: Despite loving both bikes and gadgets, e-bikes never excited me. Compared to my bicycle, e-bikes seemed unfair. Compared to my motorcycle, they seemed slow. Compared to my car, they seemed impractical.

But with $1,500 federal e-bike rebates potentially on the horizon at part of E-Bike Act, I decided it was past time to reconsider. Not just because 30% off would make them way more accessible, but because the entire idea that e-bikes could be worthy of a rebate changed the way I looked at them: less as toys, more as transit. Had I written off an entire way of getting around because I was looking at it the wrong way?

Outdoors

Upway launches one of the best marketplaces for certified e-bikes, new or not

Man holding ebike from Upway in a field, lifestyle image.

This content was produced in partnership with Upway.
It wasn't too long ago that e-bikes were a rare sight, but all of that has changed, and rightfully so. Electric bikes are all over the road these days, and there are many brands either venturing into the technology, to launch their own versions of the sustainable transportation option or reiterating existing and traditional designs. From Aventon to Schwinn, or RadPower to Momentum, with so many opportunities, the prevailing question is, where do you go to find the best deals and the best information about these brands and their e-bike models? The answer is Upway, the number one certified electric bike provider and an official partner to many of the aforementioned brands.

What is Upway, exactly? It's a marketplace, specializing in e-bikes, featuring an inventory that's sourced from some of the best brands in the world. There are American brands -- like Specialized, Cannondale, and RadPower -- and European brands -- like Riese, Muller, and VanMoof. The best part is the discounts, offering up to 60% off retail, for a plethora of brands. Upway is on a mission to make sustainable mobility affordable for everyone. It's also one of the best places to go for a new or pre-owned e-bike, and here's why: