Women's Day: How Eume founder Naina Parekh reimagined Indian travel gear in her 40s, says 'Success isn’t about scale'

Founders Naina Parekh and Pranay Parekh, a mother-son duo, reflect on building EUME, sharing insights on design, entrepreneurship, and growing a luggage brand.

Naina and Pranay Parekh discuss building EUME luggage for modern Indian travellers. (Eume)

By Neha Ravi Khandelwal

Neha Khandelwal
Content Lead, HT Travel | Travel & Lifestyle Journalist
With over 10 years of content writing experience, Neha Khandelwal is a lifestyle journalist and the Content Lead at HT Travel. She specialises in destinations, hotels, aviation, luggage, travel gear, and practical guides that help readers plan smarter and travel better. Her work combines first-hand experience, expert insights, and extensive research to create stories that are informative, useful, and easy to follow.

Career Journey & Experience
Neha began her writing career as a freelance journalist in 2010 before entering mainstream media with The Times of India in 2022. She later joined Hindustan Times, where she has written extensively across travel, lifestyle, home, and consumer trends. Her professional background extends beyond journalism. Before moving into digital media full-time, she spent nearly a decade in interior design, managing residential projects from concept to execution. She also trained in visual merchandising with Shoppers Stop and Pantaloons and worked with women-led startups across design and operations. These experiences continue to shape her storytelling, especially in how she evaluates hotels, design-led stays, hospitality spaces, and travel experiences.

A naturally curious learner, Neha has completed beginner certifications in pottery, scuba diving, baking, creative writing, and other creative pursuits. She has read more than 2,000 books, trained in Bharatanatyam for 8 years, and ghostwritten a book on Ladakh tourism.

Subject Expertise
Travel is at the heart of Neha's work. She covers destinations, hotels, airlines, luggage, packing strategies, travel accessories, and emerging travel trends through a mix of reporting, product testing, and conversations with industry experts. A frequent traveller herself, she approaches every trip with a journalist's curiosity and a planner's mindset, focusing on experiences that readers can realistically recreate. From choosing the right cabin bag to decoding hotel openings and destination trends, her writing prioritises practical advice over promotional claims. Her background in interior design also gives her a distinct perspective on architecture, hospitality design, boutique hotels, luxury stays, and thoughtfully designed spaces.

Education & Professional Background
Neha holds a Master's degree in Interior Design. Her early experience in interior design, visual merchandising, and design operations gives her a unique understanding of aesthetics, functionality, and user experience, adding depth to her coverage of hotels, resorts, and travel spaces.

Editorial Philosophy
"As an avid, research-driven traveller, my goal is simple. To answer the questions you actually have before booking a trip. I cut through the promotional noise with honest reporting and expert insights. Making travel planning seamless, smart, and reliable so you always know where to go next."

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Naina Parekh’s story reflects the quiet ambition of many urban Indian women today. On the surface, it looked like she already had it all. She married young into a well-placed business family, had a son who was doing well, and spent years contributing part-time to the family business. From the outside, it seemed like a comfortable life. Yet she always had a lingering thought about building something of her own.

For Naina, early marriage meant she never pursued higher studies abroad the way she once imagined. Later, as her son grew older and more independent, she began to fill that gap on her own terms. She studied luxury brand management in Milan (a city that remains her greatest international inspiration), took courses in strategy and negotiations in London, and is now pursuing the Owner President Management programme at Harvard.

“Working was never really the agenda earlier,” Parekh said during our conversation. “But at the age of 43 or 44, I started thinking I want to develop something. I want to build something that feels like a very cool business.”

The spark came from a simple moment at home. Watching her son walk in carrying a heavy backpack, she had a thought that would eventually lead to EUME, an innovative luggage brand. “I said at the dining table, what if this backpack had a massager?” she recalled.

Her son and co-founder, Pranay Parekh, quickly took the idea seriously. “The first thing we did was check if a patent existed,” he said. “Then we filed for one. That is how it all began.”

Today, they hold two approved patents. Utility and design, for that very first innovation.

However, the journey wasn't a straight line to success. Just a year after launching their hero product, Covid-19 hit, effectively halting the travel industry. It was a moment of reckoning that led to a "hard pivot" in 2022. They realised they couldn't stay a one-product company; they had to expand horizontally. They shifted from being a niche backpack seller to a full-fledged luggage brand, launching a range of products to meet a post-pandemic India that was suddenly travelling like never before.

For Pranay Parekh, the rise of EUME is deeply personal. Watching his mother build a company from a simple idea left a lasting impression on him. What began as casual conversations at home slowly turned into something far more serious, with Pranay often acting as the first sounding board for new ideas.

“Seeing my mum take a small observation about travel and grow it into a brand recognised across India has been incredible,” he says. The experience shaped the way he thinks about business and decision-making. “It taught me the value of clarity, patience and fearless execution.”

Over time, those early discussions turned into a partnership, with mother and son eventually launching and growing the brand together as a team. That team has since grown to include Pranay's wife, who now manages retail, creating a new generation of women leaders within the family business.

What started it all: The Eume Massage backpack

1. EUME Barret - 29L Premium Laptop Bag for Men, Camouflage Grey | Massager Laptop Backpack Bag with Built in Patent Massager Technology | 15.6 Inch Laptop Compartment | Business, Travel and Office Bag

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When asked how being a woman founder has influenced her path and if it ever made things harder, Naina Parekh told HT Shop Now that the challenge often appears in subtle ways. In many cases, she said, the real struggle was not building the business but convincing people that the venture is serious.

“Women founders are questioned more. There is still an assumption that a woman starting something might treat it like a hobby,” she said candidly. Even today, she is often asked, "How many hours do you actually go to the office?" as if her role were symbolic rather than central. For Naina, the response has always been persistence. “When you stand firm in your ideas and show a clear vision, perceptions slowly change. In the end, what matters is the work you put in, not your gender.”

Naina recently turned 50, while Pranay is still in his late 20s. Together, the mother-son duo brings two very different perspectives to EUME. The contrast is not just generational but also shaped by gender, experience and the way each of them reads the modern traveller. They aren't just chasing trends; they are studying them. Pranay notes that their latest collections use specific Pantone shades of the year for 2025 and 2026, like "Mocha Mousse" and "Vanilla White/Cloud Dancer", to resonate with the "coffee-loving cult" of modern India.

2. Eume Cabin Pro Luggage Trolley for Travel 57cm, Cabin Bag | Trolley Bag Small for Luggage | with Laptop Sleeve | 100% Polycarbonate (Pc) 8 Silentrun Hinomoto Wheels, Mocha White

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When asked what the future holds for the brand, Naina Parekh says the goal has always been to build something that lasts. “We never wanted to create fast-moving products just to chase trends. The idea is to build a legacy brand that focuses on design, functionality and quality.”

Pranay echoes the ambition from a younger founder’s lens. “We want Indian travellers to have access to world-class products. Our focus is to keep building premium luggage that people are proud to carry anywhere in the world.” For the duo, the next phase of EUME is not just about expanding the catalogue. It is about shaping how Indian travellers are now thinking about luggage as a lifestyle choice rather than just a packing tool.

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The use of luggage has gone beyond just needing a suitcase to pack clothes. It is about purpose, style and comfort. And watching founders ideate and invest in creating products to cater to different needs is exactly the kind of movement we need. Multiple brands, including Mokobara, Nasher Miles, Eume, and Uppercase, are investing in creating luggage for international users for the Indian market.

Disclaimer: At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has an affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. We shall not be liable for any claim under applicable laws, including but not limited to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, concerning the products. The products listed in this article are in no particular order of priority.