I have recently been turned on to compression sacks for packing clothes. They're tough plastic zip-lock bags with one-way valves that allow you to squeeze out excess air, fitting a whole vacation's worth of apparel into a few small, easy to pack parcels.
The Pumpack concept, by Yejee Lee, Jongchan Mun, Seobin Oh and Woneui Hong, builds these bags into a rolling suitcase. When opened up flat, the suitcase has a vacuum bag at the bottom. Fill this, zip shut, and lift the case upright. The case's handle works as a pump to remove air, sucking the soft clothes down into a thin layer.
Then open up the case and finish packing with all the shoes and gadgets that will now fit into the extra space. It's clever, and hopefully the squishing that occurs will free up enough space to accommodate the pumping mechanism itself.
I'll stick with the compression sacks. They require no pump and can be used in any bag. They're also a great way to separate wet and dry, or clean and dirty clothes, and you can easily pull everything out of a bag, find that elusive gadget charger and repack in seconds.
Vacuum Packed Suitcase [Yanko]
