Samsonite Buys Béis for $178.5 Million to Win Over Gen Z Women

Travel goods maker Samsonite Group announced on August 13, 2026, that it had acquired an 85% stake in Béis, the brand founded by actress Shay Mitchell, for $178.5 million. Mitchell will retain a 15% stake and is expected to continue working with the brand. Founded eight years ago, Béis first built its following on social media with a distinctive, unpolished style — as Mitchell put it in a 2018 Adweek interview, "It's more genuine. Social media is so oversaturated." Over the years, though, the brand's Instagram presence has grown noticeably slicker, drifting toward a more polished, professional marketing look.

The deal lands at a tough moment for Samsonite, whose own sales fell 2.5% last year. For a company built around legacy names like Tumi and American Tourister, folding in a young, social-native brand like Béis offers a route into the Gen Z audience — young women in particular — and a chance to reignite sales growth. One of Béis's signature products, the $268 Carry-On Roller, captures the brand's modern, social-media-friendly design philosophy. Mitchell could not be reached for comment on the day the deal was announced.