A comprehensive study was conducted in 2002-2003 for the Luggage and Travel Industries to determine the geographic distribution of college students in the U.S. and their general travel habits. The study focused on the means of travel used, the distances traveled and the frequency of travel from college to home.

Here are some of the most interesting findings:

• The average freshman class contains 18% of each school's entire student body (including graduate students).
  
  
• 40% of students attending college have social security numbers from outside the state.
  
  
• 3.7% of students attending college in the U.S. come from outside the United States.
  
  
• 85% of non state-resident students come from within 400 miles of their college's main campus.
  
  
• Those students living within 250 miles of their college's main campus are 10 times more likely to drive to and from home on holidays and breaks than to fly.
  
  
• Those students living more than 500 miles from campus are 4 times more likely to fly to and from home on holidays and breaks than to drive.
  
  
• The National average for days off from college during the school year is 12 days, including holidays and breaks. This does not include weekend trips.
  
  
• Colleges less than 75 miles from a major city will have the greatest number of their graduates (alumni) residing in this city.
  
  
• Colleges with a main campus located in a major metropolitan area will have 75% more students who commute daily from home to school and back.
  
  
• The average distance traveled between home and school by all college students in the U.S. is 215 miles.

Naturally, our interest in student travel statistics centers around their luggage and travel gear. We have no statistics at this time to indicate what percentage of students who travel do so with our Victorinox® Brand Swiss Army Luggage. We do know that the ratio of students who are receiving and utilizing our college logo luggage is increasing every day.

The fact that you are on this website, reading statistics about college travel says that you are 4 times more likely to purchase our collegiate logo luggage than someone who has not visited this website. So, we thank you for visiting!

This Week's Word:

Paraskavedekatriaphobia (noun)

Pronunciation:
[pê-ræs-kê-vey-
dê-kæ-tri-ê-'fo-bi-yê]



Definition: The Fear of Friday the Thirteenth, a form of triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number thirteen.

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I'm sharing this word and the meaning behind it with all of my web log readers for two reasons:

• I just became educated as to the reasons why Friday the 13th is considered unlucky.*
  
  
• I have a plan to make it thirteen percent luckier for all of our college luggage customers to help compensate for the bad luck! There doesn't seem to be an irrational fear of a sale. Not that I can find.

For the full 24 hours of Friday, July 13, 2007 our entire online catalog of collegiate travel gear will be programmed to give an incredibly lucky

13% Discount

on all purchases made at CollegiateLuggage.com (not valid with other offers).

On this July Friday the 13th, just claim your 13% off discount by inputing the Discount Coupon Code "Lucky13" when prompted while purchasing.

That's right -- you'll get lucky with 13% Off our regular purchase prices (exclusive of freight and tax) for any and all items on our collegiate luggage website on Friday the 13th.

But this luck only holds if you order during the 24-hours window of Friday the 13th and input the Discount Coupon Code "Lucky13".

Once our computer's clock strikes midnight on Saturday the 14th, the offer's luck runs out and it's back to the full retail prices.

So, knowing that we are the only company offering college luggage with your school's logo, and seeing how our Victorinox® Swiss Army Brand is the only collegiate luggage line available anywhere, you've gotta ask yourself:

"Do I feel lucky?"

Don't let this 24-hour "Lucky 13" window of opportunity close without taking advantage of our generosity.

Imagine the horror if you miss it!


* For a complete and exhaustively-researched history of Friday the Thirteenth, visit:
Facts about Friday the 13th

We see that a humble beginning selling rock & roll tour t-shirts can lead to bigger and better things.

We also see that event merchandising works because the fans are responding to the logo designs and excitement of the event. Thirdly, we have learned that there are companies out there looking out for the best interests of the colleges, making sure that they share in the profits generated by sales of merchandise bearing their names and likewise looking out for your interests by making sure that these items are licensed and that the factories and distributors are selling you a quality product.


Now Back to the 'Intersecting Lines of Destiny'

Over time, the rock & roll tour merchandise game evolved from a moderately fun way to keep the fans happy and generate extra cash for the bands, to more of a corporate business. Several large companies began to consolidate (I don't want to say "monopolize" since it has such nasty connotation) the business and gathered most of the BIG acts by offering large guarantees on the front end. The smaller firms couldn't compete and sought "other" markets for their printed wares. As part of this latter group, I began selling t-shirts and eventually all those other items I mentioned to other customers (radio stations, record companies, ad agencies, business-to-business companies, etc.).

And I beheld all the tchachkes that surrounded me and realized that, verily, I had become a full-fledged Promotional Product Sales Dog.

Over time I could not help but notice that more and still more people were declaring themselves promotional products salespeople. Of course any growing industry should expect a commensurate growth in salespeople, but the sheer number of men, women and undecideds who were starting to sell the same stuff as I did was growing exponentially (that's a fancy-schmancy word for "out of control".) There was (and is) no formal training of any kind required to declare oneself a promo sales rep. If you have a pulse and a factory catalog, congratulations -- you're in.

The realization hit me that I had to find a way to differentiate my company and the products we offered from this burgeoning group of new salespeople... but how to do it? Remember, everyone was selling the same stuff. As luck would have it, I got a chance to revisit the past by partnering with a company that specialized in event merchandising. Our specialty was the college bowl games, where we would set up our merchandise displays and sell t-shirts, caps and an assortment of other collegiate game day souvenirs to the fans. It was rock & roll tour merchandising all over again, but this time with the merchandise done in the schools' colors.


Hot Market

The name given to the merchandise sales at these events is "Hot Market". It is named thus because during the day or the weekend of the event you can (and do) sell the souvenirs for a whole lot. Shirts and caps were routinely sold for $20 to $25 each.

But the day after the event, you couldn't give the merchandise away. So, things went quickly from red hot demand one day to "where'd everybody go?" the next.

Over a period of 2 years our warehouse began to seriously fill up with leftover merchandise (the unsold stuff) from each of the events. There was nothing wrong with any of the stuff -- it was just dated product with no place to go.

And then, I had an idea. One that would begin my travels to here, Collegiate Luggage and college-branded Victorinox® Swiss Army Luggage.