Ask anyone who has shopped for a soft-sided pet carrier and you will hear the same complaint: the options are either cutesy and covered in rhinestones, or cheap and destined to fray at the seams. For a long time there was very little in between, a bag that looked like it belonged on a well-dressed adult and could also survive being hauled through an airport a dozen times.
That gap is exactly what Jamie Knowles set out to close when he founded Roverlund.
The problem a frequent flyer kept running into
Knowles did not come from the pet industry. His background was in art and fashion, with a résumé that ran through names like Sotheby’s and Vogue, and he was the kind of person who was somewhere new every other weekend. His travel partner was Baci, an English Cocker Spaniel whose name means “kisses” in Italian, a mostly white dog dotted with little black marks that occasionally get him mistaken for a Dalmatian.
Baci sits near the upper end of the weight limit for in-cabin air travel, and traveling with him constantly exposed the flaw in the market. In about a year, by his account, he replaced four or five carriers, none of them chewed to bits by Baci; they just came apart at the seams on their own. There was nothing that was both genuinely design-forward and genuinely durable, made for someone who cared how a bag looked and needed it to actually last.
So he built one. Roverlund launched in late 2019 with a small holiday collection that, by his account, nearly sold out, and the brand grew from there.
The detail that makes it work: the strap
The headline feature is one most people would never think to ask for. Roverlund’s shoulder strap unclips and becomes a heavy-duty leash, a two-jobs-in-one trick the brand was first to bring to market. Get to your destination, unclip the strap from the bag, clip it to the collar, and you are ready to walk with nothing extra to pack.
The rest of the design reads like it was made by someone who actually travels with a dog. The carriers fold into a three-in-one system, part carrier, part everyday travel bag, part mobile pet bed, with a removable bed inside, extra pockets, and outdoor-grade hardware. The material brief was equally deliberate: rugged enough to pair with hiking gear, polished enough to pair with something nicer, and built to outlast the disposable carriers Knowles kept replacing.
Where the brand is now
Roverlund never stayed a one-product company. Its current lineup centers on the airline-compliant Out-of-Office carrier, now including a Pro Edition and a “Re-Loved” line of refurbished carriers for buyers who want the design at a lower price and a smaller footprint, alongside backpacks, totes, and wheeled options. The airline-friendly carrier is available on Amazon as well as through the brand’s own site, sized for pets up to around 20 to 25 pounds depending on the model.
The best travel advice buried in a brand story
For all the talk of hardware and materials, the most useful thing to take from Roverlund’s origin has nothing to do with what you buy. It is the founder’s own advice for flying with a dog: give yourself as much runway as possible to get your dog comfortable with the carrier before the trip. A dog that reads its carrier as a safe, cozy den, rather than a trap that appears only on stressful days, travels dramatically better. Buy the nice bag if you want to. But the acclimation is the part that actually makes the flight easier, and that part is free.
