Heather Sutton
Editor of Carry Pick
About
The spare bedroom at the south end of the house has become a home office and, over time, something else: a testing room with a pegboard on the wall holding wheel axles and zipper pulls from bags that failed, a rolling rack where current test bags wait between trips, and a cleared strip of laminate floor wide enough to roll a spinner end-to-end and see how the wheels actually track. That's where most of this site gets made.
Regional account manager, suburban Indianapolis. The job runs on Tuesday morning departures and Wednesday night returns to Midwest secondary cities: Columbus, Louisville, Kansas City, the kind of trip where you come back with the same shirt and slightly less faith in hotel room closet hooks. Eleven years on that schedule, which has produced strong opinions and several broken carry-ons.
Denny Abara, a neighbor who spent years in logistics consulting before going fully remote, helped haul a broken-wheeled spinner out of the garage one Sunday morning. What started as a quick favor turned into two hours on the driveway talking through what actually kills wheels: floor surfaces, axle tolerances, the difference between a wheel that dents and one that shatters. He thinks about bags the way engineers think about load tolerances. That conversation changed how I evaluated the next purchase, and every one after.
Carry Pick started because friends kept texting asking which bag to buy, and the answer was always longer than a text message. Not a travel blogger. Never worked in the luggage industry. What I know comes from eleven years of overhead bins and a home office built around gear that's mid-test. My husband owns exactly one carry-on and treats it like a family heirloom. The dog has, on two documented occasions, taken a serious interest in duffel handles left on the floor. Both have contributed data points in ways they probably didn't intend.
Posts by Heather Sutton
- Airline Carry-On Size Limits by Carrier: A Reference Chart
- Why I Only Buy Luggage with YKK Zippers for Frequent Business Travel
- Travelpro Platinum Elite Review for Frequent Flyers on Regional Routes
- Why I Switched to Level8 Hardside Luggage for Heavy Business Travel
- Best Garment Bags for Business Travel and Regional Flights
- The Best Briggs and Riley Carry On for Packing a Business Suit
- Why I Switched Back to Inline Skate Wheels for Regional Travel
- Briggs and Riley Luggage with Lifetime Warranty After Constant Use
- Why I Use Luggage Shipping Services for Hectic Multi City Trips
- How to Fix Luggage Wheels After Years of Heavy Business Travel
- Briggs and Riley vs Travelpro for Heavy Business Use
- How to Pack a Carry On for a Week of Business Travel
- Reliable Travelpro Carry On Luggage for Frequent Business Travelers
- Best Underseat Carry On Luggage for Small Regional Jets
- The Only Carry-Ons Still Rolling After a Year on the Regional Circuit
Disclosure
Some links on this site pay me a commission when you buy through them. Your price stays the same either way. The commission goes back into buying the next bag to test. If something falls apart before I'd want it to, the review says so, paid link or not.