MALLE X LUFTGEKÜHLT: THE LIMITED EDITION MOTORING COLLECTION

Malle X Luftgekühlt: The Limited Edition Motoring Collection

Robert Nightingale – September 2017

Through a chance encounter with our friends at Deus in LA, we were introduced to Howie and the Luftgekühlt gang. We have been keen followers of Luftgekühlt (which means air-cooled in German) for several years and lusted over their yearly collective of all things air-cooled. After some fast espresso fuelled conversations about all things mechanical, racing, automotive, custom, motorcycle and Porsche… Howie asked us our opinion

on luggage for cars and more specifically vintage Porsches…This is my kind of question! We’ve been designing luggage for motorcycle for several years and they have very specific needs, but what does the air-cooled Porsche driver need, what tools and kit are they carrying and how could we develop something uniquely Luftgekühlt? The challenge had been set!

The obvious starting point is to focus on the drivers tools, but we went in a different direction – the heart of the Luftgekühlt experience is the air-cooled engine, this unique design is the thread that connects their entire community – this was our inspiration. Howie and Patrick helped us locate some of the original manufacturing drawings for the air-cooled engine and we set about creating a unique hand drawn print inspired by the engine itself.

After many iterations we selected the engine that worked the best and set about hand screen printing over 200 meters of organic cotton in our London studio (colour matched to one of their favourite Porsches) with the air-cooled engine print. The idea being that when you open the bag – like opening the hood of the car – the engine is revealed.

With Luftgekühlt we created a 4 piece limited edition collection:

The ’Drivers Bag’ which is designed to hold a race suit and helmet, or to be used as a weekender. The large drivers bag is flexible in size/capacity, made with our signature black oiled cotton, it’s fully waterproof, with full grain leather and the custom blue ‘Luft print’ on the interior.

Los Angeles is the original home of Luftgekühlt, with gorgeous drives up and down the Californian coastline or up into the hills and beyond to the desert – so we wanted to create a piece that would enhance the experience once you had arrived at your destination. The 6 foot square ‘Travel Blanket’ is designed for the mountains or the beach, with a waterproof layer on one side and a soft cotton interior with the ‘Lufte Print’ and a cotton shoulder strap.

The Tool Roll was a new take on our larger tool roll that we first designed for the race cars at Bicester Heritage, so we had already done the research on the layout and exterior design, so we then tailored the design with the Luftgekühlt team for the specific Porsche tools.

The last piece in the collection is the ‘Drivers Pouch’ designed to hold your map, documents and the smaller accessories that tend to get all mixed up in the glove box, not any more!

All pieces are now available globally from Luftgekühlt and we can’t wait for Luftgekühlt #5 in 2018!

www.luftgekuhlt.com