Vistaprint Personalised Luggage Review – Are the Holdalls Any Good?
I love personalised things, especially when they’re actually useful rather than something that gets opened, admired for five minutes and then shoved in a cupboard!
So, when I had the opportunity to work with Vistaprint and try some of their personalised products, personalised luggage seemed like a great choice. We travel quite a lot, whether that’s holidays, road trips or weekends away, so holdalls are something that will genuinely get used.
Of course, I couldn’t just choose a boring name or initials for ours. Stuart and Ben are both big football fans, so we decided to have large holdalls embroidered with the Mansfield Town FC badge.
They were very impressed. I think I earned a few brownie points with this collaboration!
Ordering personalised luggage from Vistaprint
I’d never ordered personalised luggage from Vistaprint before, so I wasn’t entirely sure how easy it would be to get the design right.
It was actually really straightforward.
I uploaded an image of the Mansfield Town FC badge, positioned it where I wanted it and chose embroidery rather than a printed design. The whole process only took a few minutes.
Our order arrived about a week later, which I thought was pretty reasonable for something that had been personalised specifically for us.
What did we order?
We chose two Vancouver XL duffle bags and had both embroidered with the football badge.
We also ordered personalised luggage packing cubes and two caps.
The whole order, including delivery, came to just under £110 at the time, which I thought was really good considering how much we received and that everything was personalised.
Obviously, prices can change, so I’d check the current Vistaprint prices rather than relying on what I paid.
The bags are MUCH bigger than I expected!
This was probably my biggest surprise.
I’d read the measurements before ordering and remember thinking that the Vancouver XL Duffle bag sounded absolutely huge. I actually questioned whether I’d chosen bags that were going to be ridiculously big.
Then they arrived. They are huge!
In this case, though, that’s a good thing. I’d say each one holds roughly the same amount as a medium suitcase, so these aren’t little overnight bags that you’ll struggle to squeeze a couple of outfits into.
They’re considerably bigger than a typical carry-on case and would be great for longer trips, road trips or anywhere you don’t particularly want the bulk of a hard suitcase.
If you’re considering buying one, definitely check the measurements first rather than assuming “duffle bag” means a small weekend bag.
What is the quality like?
I was really impressed with the quality when they arrived.
The material feels strong, the bags feel well made and the embroidery looked good. Sometimes personalised products can feel as though most of the money has gone on the customisation rather than the actual product underneath, but that wasn’t my impression with these.
They feel like proper bags that happen to have been personalised rather than novelty personalised products.
That’s quite an important distinction for me because, lovely as the Mansfield Town badge looks, I still want luggage that can cope with actually being used!
Is personalised luggage a good idea?
Before trying these, I’d probably have thought of personalised luggage primarily as a gift. Now I can see a few practical reasons for having it too.
The most obvious is that your luggage is much easier to recognise.
Anyone who has stood at baggage reclaim staring at what feels like 300 identical black suitcases will understand that one. A distinctive design, initials or logo makes it considerably easier to work out which bag belongs to you.
For us, the football badge makes the bags instantly recognisable.
I would, however, think carefully about putting your full name prominently across luggage. Something distinctive doesn’t necessarily need to reveal lots of personal information.
Personalised luggage as a gift
I think this could make a brilliant gift for the right person, especially because you can make the design genuinely personal to them.
A football badge worked perfectly for Stuart and Ben, but you could use initials, a business logo or another design that means something to the person you’re buying for.
It would be especially nice for someone who travels regularly, a student heading off to university, someone going on a honeymoon or perhaps as part of a bigger birthday or Christmas present.
I always prefer personalised gifts that have a purpose, and luggage definitely falls into that category.
What about the personalised packing cubes?
Packing cubes are one of those things I didn’t really appreciate until I started travelling more.
If you’re forever rummaging through a suitcase looking for one particular top that has somehow migrated to the very bottom, you’ll probably understand why I like them!
Having personalised packing cubes isn’t exactly essential, obviously, but they made a nice addition to the bags and would make a lovely little gift on their own too.
They’re also handy if several people are sharing luggage because you can make it obvious which things belong to whom.
Would I recommend Vistaprint personalised luggage?
Based on the bags we received, yes.
I was impressed by the quality, the embroidery looked great and ordering them was much easier than I’d expected. I also think we got a lot for our money with two enormous holdalls, packing cubes and two personalised caps for just under £110 at the time.
My main advice would simply be to check the measurements carefully.
The Vancouver XL really does deserve the XL in its name!
For us, that’s perfect because we wanted big bags and they’ll be particularly useful when we’re travelling by car. If you want something for a night away or something that meets a particular airline’s cabin baggage allowance, you’ll obviously want to look at the smaller options and check the current airline measurements carefully.
Most importantly, Stuart and Ben genuinely like them, and because they’re personalised with something they actually care about, I know they’ll get used.
And I’ll have absolutely no difficulty spotting them!
I worked with Vistaprint for this article and received products to review. As always, all opinions and experiences are my own.
