Peak Design’s Roller Pro Carry-On Is Custom Designed From the Wheels Up for Traveling Creatives

Mar 04, 2025

Jeremy Gray

Left: A person stands on a city street holding a green suitcase, blurred pedestrians passing by. Right: A brown suitcase open on the floor, with items neatly packed inside. The scene conveys travel or commuting in a busy urban environment.

Peak Design announced what it calls “its most anticipated product release yet”: the Roller Pro Carry-On. The new carry-on luggage aims to embody “the future of luggage design” by combining soft-sided style and hard-sided durability, clever features, and an entirely custom design.

This last characteristic is especially noteworthy, as most carry-on roller bags, even those that may look different from the outside, are built using identical off-the-shelf parts companies pick out of catalogs. Peak Design spent the past five-plus years custom-designing every component, from the wheels to the handle, to build what it bills as the most innovative and best roller on the market.

At the heart of the Roller Pro is its patented SlimDrive, a low-profile carbon fiber handle built for maximum strength in the smallest possible space. Standard roller handles built using off-the-shelf components feature telescoping aluminum tubes, which take up quite a bit of space and create prominent ridges inside typical roller bags. The Roller Pro’s handles are made from single-stage flat carbon tubes, similar in spirit to the legs in Peak Design’s Travel Tripod, which is celebrated for, among other things, how compactly it packs up. The Roller Pro’s handle is significantly stiffer than the telescoping aluminum competition, occupying just one-third of the space, which means much more room to store luggage without increasing the bag’s footprint.

A person wearing a brown jacket and brown boots prepares to move a burgundy rolling suitcase in an airport lounge. The suitcase is upright, and the person is holding the handle, ready to pull it. Two leather chairs are in the background.

Close-up of a sleek, black carbon fiber suitcase handle with an ergonomic grip and a small green button in the center. The design is modern and streamlined.

The Peak Design Roller Pro also features custom-engineered 60mm wheels, larger than typical wheels, to ensure a super-easy, smooth-wheeled experience across various surfaces. Like its other products, the Roller Pro comes with Peak Design’s lifetime warranty. However, it is worth noting that the wheels are easily user-replaceable, as they are technically a consumable part.

A black suitcase is shown with its top open, revealing a sleek interior. The suitcase has four wheels and a handle on the side, designed for easy mobility and stylish travel.

A sleek, modern green suitcase with a hard shell design is on four spinner wheels. It has an extended telescopic handle and side handle. The suitcase features black corner protections and subtle grooves on the surface.

Roller Pro’s unique hybrid construction comprises a lightweight polycarbonate shell covered with Peak Design’s VersaShell fabric. The company hopes this delivers a more stylish take on rugged luggage. The Roller Pro has a front pocket with protected storage for passports, chargers, headphones, and a laptop or tablet.

Things stay interesting with the carry-on’s main storage compartment. While most carry-ons zip open and travelers have a large flap to contend with, the Roller Pro uses a “Drawbridge” opening system to keep the footprint compact. Unlike a clamshell roller, the Roller Pro’s front flips up and stays suspended at a 90-degree angle, providing users easy access to the interior without taking up any more space on a desk, table, or their lap.

Open suitcase on a rug next to a bed, revealing neatly packed clothing and a brown bag inside. The suitcase's lid has mesh pockets with various items. A wooden nightstand with a drawer is beside the bed.

A person with long hair stands in a studio, focusing on equipment inside an open black case atop a cart. Motion-blurred figures bustle around. The studio has lights, cameras, and a table with food, creating a busy atmosphere.

As for capacity, the Roller Pro, which is 21.8 by 14 by nine inches (55.3 by 35.6 by 22.9 centimeters) and weighs 8.8 pounds (just under four kilograms) when empty, is expandable from 34 to 39 liters. It features an interior organization panel to hold smaller items or store dirty clothes, a hidden AirTag pocket, and a proprietary Cord Hook Internal Retention System.

It also supports a brand-new Peak Design X-Large Camera Cube, which fills the entire Roller Pro interior with no wasted space and sits flush with the bag’s zipper. This new XL Camera Cube fits up to a 400mm prime lens and enables the bag to “become a mobile creative workstation for photographers on location or in the studio.” While the Roller Pro is built to be the ideal carry-on companion for all travelers, it is equally at home as a dedicated roller for photographers.

Open black camera bag filled with photography gear, including multiple lenses, a camera body, and various accessories. The bag has compartments and an unzipped lid with mesh pockets.

Open camera bag showing organized compartments with cameras, lenses, camera flashes, cables, and other photography equipment neatly arranged.

The Roller Pro features external 360-degree grab handles and Cord Hook Gear Loops, which can be used to externally carry jackets, umbrellas, or even a tripod. Although not officially marketed as such, these can also be used to support many of Peak Design’s various straps, giving users another way to carry the Roller Pro.

The Roller Pro’s fabric shell is 100% recycled, Bluesign-approved, and the entire product is PFAS-free and Climate Label Certified.

“Inside almost every roller bag on the market, you’ll find a floppy fabric liner, and under that liner you’ll find two big honkin’ tubes,” says Peak Design Founder & CEO Peter Dering.

A plastic clamshell with big, fat tubes: that’s the easy way to make a roller. We chose the hard way. When we told our factory we wanted to redesign things from the ground up, they told us we were crazy. But we pushed them and found a better way. The result is a product that is wildly more effective and delightful. Roller Pro has real innovation in it, and I suspect many of its features will become future industry standards.”

PetaPixel‘s Thoughts

PetaPixel‘s Chris Niccolls has had the Peak Design Roller Pro for a bit and took it to Norway for Panasonic’s S1R II press event and to Japan for PetaPixel‘s coverage of Sigma’s recent launch event and the CP+ show.

“The first thing I noticed about the Peak Design Roller Pro Carry-On case was just how light it was. I found it very easy to lift into overhead compartments due to the low weight and I think a large part of the credit goes to the carbon fiber main handle. This handle is also incredibly rigid so there is none of that noisy, floppy play in the handle that you usually get with aluminum,” Niccolls explains.

A person standing outside with a camera in hand, looking off to the side. They are dressed in a dark jacket and jeans and have a rolling suitcase beside them. Large, ornate stone columns are visible in the background.

“I very much appreciated the handles on all faces of the roller case so that I could easily load and unload it from any orientation. The roller wheels are spaced out to the extreme corners of the case, which noticeably improved the stability of the Peak Design and prevented it from flopping over while running through airport terminals,” he adds.

“The front pouch has a generous and well-protected laptop sleeve, but I particularly like that there is also a shallow organizer right above the laptop space, which is ideal for quick access to passports or smartphones. There is an expander zipper which runs the circumference of the case and can provide a little extra volume if needed,” Niccolls says.

“For my travels to Norway and Japan, I left the divisible camera module at home and instead loaded up the Peak Design like a classic luggage roller. The spacious interior has a lip at the bottom so that your items don’t automatically tumble out when you open the main compartment. This is further assisted by the two adjustable drawstrings control how far forward the main door flap opens up.

An open suitcase showing a neatly packed orange sweater on top, secured with white straps. Below are three packed items in yellow, maroon, and black bags. The suitcase is organized and ready for travel.

“The main compartment had plenty of space for my clothing and accessories and there is a network of tension straps to keep everything in place during travel. The main door flap is solid feeling, and I like the two-pin hinges that hold it in place so there is no tension on the zippers. Inside the door flap are some built-in pouches for cable storage and an additional space for a laptop or iPad as well,” Niccolls continues.

Close-up of a person placing a laptop into the front pocket of a black suitcase. The person is wearing a black smartwatch and a ring on their left hand. The suitcase is upright with visible zippers and a textured surface.

“Everything about the case feels safe, solid, and prestigious. The Roller Pro Carry-On is certainly expensive, but I haven’t personally ever used a better system. Its ease of use and compartmental storage made a notable positive contribution to the enjoyment of my intercontinental travels.”

A black carry-on suitcase with smooth, rounded edges and four wheels is shown with a folded tripod attached to its side. The suitcase has a sleek, minimalist design and is photographed against a plain white background.

Pricing and Availability

The Peak Design Roller Pro and XL Camera Cube will be available for preorder on Kickstarter, providing customers with an exclusive chance to purchase the new products at a discounted price. Each is available in three colorways: Black, Eclipse, and Sage, and it is expected to ship to backers in June, with retail release to follow by August. The XL Camera Cube’s MSRP will be $139.95, while the Roller Pro will sell at retail for $599.95. Backers can save significantly on each, depending on their backer tier. Complete backing details are available on Kickstarter.

Disclaimer: Make sure you do your own research into any crowdfunding project you’re considering backing. While we aim to only share legitimate and trustworthy campaigns, there’s always a real chance that you can lose your money when backing any crowdfunded project. PetaPixel does not participate in any crowdfunding affiliate programs.

To hold projects accountable, all crowdfunding campaigns on which PetaPixel reports are financially backed with the lowest tier option in order to give the publication visibility into all backer-only communications. If a campaign owner acts in a manner inconsistent with its promises, PetaPixel will share that information publicly.

Image credits: Peak Design