It was earlier this summer when I started noticing street corners and crosswalks in my Brooklyn Heights neighborhood suddenly taken over by the Hulken. Often you’d hear the small rumble of its wheels before spotting it, often with a shiny reflective exterior in cheery colors like bright pink or sky blue. The Hulken comes in three sizes, sits atop five wheels that rotate 360 degrees, folds down flat, and is outfitted with two sets of handles (one shorter, the other longer), so people of any height can grab one and drag it along. It is a clever, distinctly useful item, made for chaotic life in New York where people often carry large hauls for short-to-medium distances. It easily replaces the backpack, Ikea tote, and rolling cart of yore. If an Hermès bag signals an affinity with a certain economic class, one that lives in a rarefied version of New York with chauffeured cars, brownstones, and a cadre of helpers, the Hulken, in contrast, is the bag of the people, of common city dwellers running around in the streets, running their errands, living their lives. Consider it the Birkin of the proletariat.
It ranges in price from $100-$125, and has spawned dupes at Walmart and Shein. “I was quite skeptical in the beginning,” Waitman told me. “I was like, ‘OK, let’s see how this bag really performs in the streets of New York.’ I just remember thinking, like, Let’s see if it’s worth my $110 because, for the average person, even for a New Yorker, you want to be chic, but you also don’t want to pay a premium price for something.” She was so inspired she posted a TikTok about it, saying that it was “worth every penny, unfortunately.”
Hulken was conceived in 2018 by the husband-and-wife team Alex Schinasi and Yoni Sheleg. Sheleg, a musician, had to transport his bulky equipment to and from gigs through a New York terrain rife with obstacles, up and down subway stairs, and so he adapted a startlingly straightforward design from his grandfather—just a capacious zip-top rectangle atop a solid bottom outfitted with wheels—and crafted it from industrial-grade materials, ensuring they’re both durable and lightweight. Now the company is based in Switzerland and made in nearby Hungary.
While pragmatic to its core, Hulken is, crucially, not devoid of aesthetic finesse. Its Signature Rolling Tote Bag comes in a variety of colors and is crafted from a reflective polypropylene that gives it a bit of razzle-dazzle sheen. The company has gently flirted with fashion more earnestly of late, as in 2024 when they collaborated with the streetwear brand Supreme, and more recently when they tapped the accessories brand Susan Alexandra to make charming New York-centric beaded charms (like a cup of coffee, bagel, and the word “schlep”).
