Samsonite is buying 85% of Shay Mitchell's BEIS for $178.5 million

Samsonite has agreed to acquire 85% of BEIS, the travel brand founded by Shay Mitchell, for $178.5 million, a deal that values the company at roughly $210 million.

Founded in 2018, BEIS grew from a digitally native luggage startup into a travel business with about $210 million in 2025 net sales. Mitchell retains a 15% stake, rolling roughly half her existing equity, and stays on as Founder and Head of Creative and Design; CEO Adeela Hussain Johnson and her management team continue to lead the company. Beach House Group, the incubator that held a majority of BEIS, sells its entire stake, and the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Why it matters

Celebrity brands get launched constantly; very few get bought. A strategic acquirer paying real money for a majority stake is the difference between a licensing play with a famous face and a business with revenue, repeat customers and margins an operator can underwrite.

The deal also says something about where the growth in travel goods lives. Samsonite owns the category’s legacy equity: Samsonite itself, Tumi, American Tourister. What it acquired here is a brand that reached nine figures of revenue primarily online, with a customer that skews younger and found the brand through its founder rather than through a luggage aisle.

What to watch

Distribution. BEIS built its business direct-to-consumer with limited wholesale; Samsonite brings global retail relationships and scale. The obvious move is to put BEIS in front of that machine. The risk, as with every founder-brand acquisition, is whether the brand survives becoming available everywhere, and whether the founder’s involvement stays real now that she holds 15% instead of the pen.

Originally reported on Instagram: see the post