You know when you're out on the streets getting the party started with your boombox, and then the cops show up, and you think "Man, I wish this boombox was made from a vintage suitcase so the cops would think I was a traveling salesman from the 1950s instead of Radio Raheem"?
That's not exactly the reason two Atlanta web designers started Curious Provisions, the company through which they craft and sell fully functional boomboxes built into 1930s-'50s suitcases they find in antique stores, Etsy, eBay, and wherever else it is that people find old luggage. Instead, these handsome oddities came about because the guys were making their own furniture for their office, and one thing led to another, and pretty soon they had a suitcase housing a Sony tuner wired straight up to the stereo.
To make it portable, they spent months figuring out how to brace the electronics and keep the container from rattling, outfitting the interiors with acoustic foam, and wrapping wood cases in leather or fabric to achieve the sound quality you'd expect from a 40-watt amp not built into a case that once flew Pan Am from Columbus to Sacramento. Then they added jacks for iPods and laptops (some models also have Bluetooth), and rechargeable batteries that last up to eight hours.
Every suitcase is unique. Sometimes you get a Samsonite, sometimes you get a J.C. Higgins, from a sturdy Sears sporting goods line named for John Higgins, a corporate bookkeeper who apparently had no known sports credentials, and no middle name (Sears thought the "C" sounded marketable). After 54 years, Sears replaced the Higgins line with the Ted Williams line, but if you want immortality, getting your suitcase turned into a boombox beats having your cryogenically frozen head used for batting practice any day.
(Need a fox target? Remember to always use J.C. Higgins Ammunition.)