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Coach New York, commonly known as Coach, is an American
fashion house
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place. "A fashion designer create ...
specializing in leather handbags, luggage, and accessories, as well as
ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothing ...
. Coach licenses its name and branding to
Luxottica
Luxottica Group S.p.A. is an Italian eyewear conglomerate and the world's largest company in the eyewear industry. It is based in Milan, Italy.
Luxottica is a vertically integrated company, which has been described as a monopoly—it designs, ma ...
for eyewear and Paris-based Interparfums for fragrances.
Stuart Vevers
Stuart Vevers (born 17 November 1973) is a British fashion designer. He graduated from the University of Westminster in 1996. His first job was at Calvin Klein, followed by Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, where he worked with Ma ...
has been the executive creative director since 2013.
It is the main subsidiary of
Tapestry, Inc., formerly known as Coach, Inc.
History
1941–1985
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Coach was founded in 1941 as a family-run workshop in a loft on
34th Street in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
with six leather-workers who made wallets and billfolds by hand.
In 1946,
Miles Cahn (1921–2017) and his wife Lillian (1923–2013) joined the company.
Miles and Lillian Cahn were owners of a leather handbag manufacturing business and were knowledgeable about leatherworks and business.
By 1950, Cahn had taken over the company. During the early years, Cahn noticed the distinctive properties and qualities of the leather used to make baseball gloves. With wear and use, the leather in a glove became softer and suppler. Attempting to mimic this process, Cahn made a way of processing the leather to make it stronger, softer, and more flexible. Since the leather absorbed dye very well, this process also created a richer, deeper color in the leather.
Soon after Cahn developed this new process, Lillian Cahn suggested to Miles that the company supplement the factory's men's accessories business by adding women's leather handbags.
The "sturdy cowhide bags were an immediate hit."
Miles and Lillian Cahn bought the company through a
leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...
in 1961.
In 1961, Cahn hired
Bonnie Cashin
Bonnie Cashin (September 28, 1908 – February 3, 2000) was an American fashion designer. Considered a pioneer in the design of American sportswear, she created innovative, uncomplicated clothing that catered to the modern, independent woman beginn ...
, a sportswear pioneer, to design handbags for Coach.
Cashin "revolutionized the product's design," working as a creative head for Coach from 1962 through 1974.
Cashin instituted the inclusion of side pockets, coin purses, and brighter colors (as opposed to the usual hues of browns and tans) in the products.
Cashin designed matching shoes, pens, key fobs, and eyewear,
and added hardware to both her clothes and accessories–particularly the silver toggle that became the Coach hallmark–declaring that she had been inspired by a memory of quickly fastening the top on her convertible sports car.
Richard Rose joined Coach in 1965, and he is responsible for making Coach a household name after putting the product in department stores across the United States and abroad.
In 1979,
Lewis Frankfort joined the company as vice-president of business development. During this time, Coach was making $6 million in sales, and products were being distributed through the domestic wholesale channel, primarily in the
northeastern United States.
Mr. Rose, then executive VP of sales, mentored Frankfort, before retiring from his position in the company in 1995.
In 1981 the company opened its first directly operated retail location on
Madison Avenue in
Midtown Manhattan.
1985: Sale to Sara Lee
In 1985, the Cahns decided to sell Coach Leatherware after determining they wanted to "devote more time to their growing goat farm and cheese production business called Coach Farm in Gallatinville, New York, which they began in 1983".
Coach was then sold to
Sara Lee Corporation
The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrec ...
for a reported $30 million.
Lew Frankfort succeeded Cahn as president.
Sara Lee structured Coach under its
Hanes Group branch of subsidiaries of brands.
In early 1986, the company opened new boutiques in
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
stores in New York City and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. Additional Coach stores were under construction, and similar boutiques were to be opened in other major department stores later that year. By November 1986, the company was operating 12 stores, along with nearly 50 boutiques within larger department stores.
Sara Lee Corporation divested itself of Coach first, by selling 19.5% of their shares of Coach at the Coach
IPO
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in October 2000, followed in April 2001, with the distribution of their remaining shares to Sara Lee's stockholders through an exchange offer.
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''Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
''
1996: Reed Krakoff leads design
In 1996,
Lew Frankfort was named chairman and
CEO of Coach. The following year, under Frankfort's leadership, Coach hired
Reed Krakoff
Reed Krakoff (born August 25, 1964) is an American fashion designer and former executive creative director of American luxury design house Coach.
Biography
Krakoff was raised in Weston, Connecticut, the son of a corporate executive. He graduate ...
, whose creative and commercials instincts aimed to make Coach products functional, lightweight, and stylish.
Krakoff's design transformed Coach from the relatively small company that it was in 1985 into the worldwide-known brand that it is today.
On June 1, 2000, the company changed its name to Coach, Inc.
2013–present
In February 2013, Coach named Victor Luis president and
chief commercial officer and announced that he would become a chief executive officer in January 2014, with Lew Frankfort continuing as executive chairman. In 2013, Coach generated $5 billion in sales and operated approximately 1,000 directly operated locations globally, including North America, Japan, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, and Europe.
In 2014, the company announced
Stuart Vevers
Stuart Vevers (born 17 November 1973) is a British fashion designer. He graduated from the University of Westminster in 1996. His first job was at Calvin Klein, followed by Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, where he worked with Ma ...
as the new executive
creative director
A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...
, replacing
Reed Krakoff
Reed Krakoff (born August 25, 1964) is an American fashion designer and former executive creative director of American luxury design house Coach.
Biography
Krakoff was raised in Weston, Connecticut, the son of a corporate executive. He graduate ...
. During 2014, Coach also announced that Lew Frankfort would retire as executive chairman at the expiration of his term in November 2014.
In January 2015, Coach agreed to buy shoemaker
Stuart Weitzman for up to $574 million in cash. In the same year, Coach also launched Coach 1941, "a new, higher-priced line centered on ready-to-wear." Coach marked its 75th anniversary in 2016 with the announcement of its partnership with
Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...
.
In July 2017, Coach purchased
Kate Spade
Katherine Noel Valentine Brosnahan Spade (born Katherine Noel Brosnahan; December 24, 1962 – June 5, 2018) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur as well as a fashion Icon. She was the founder and co-owner of the designer brand ...
for $2.4 billion.
Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. had previously expressed interest in buying Kate Spade. On October 10, 2017, Victor Luis (CEO) announced that on October 31, Coach Inc would be renamed and rebranded as Tapestry Inc. The company's ticker symbol on the
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its liste ...
changed from COH to TPR effective October 31, 2017. As of 2019, Coach dropped the use of fur from its collection.
In September 2019, Coach named Jide J. Zeitlin, Chairman of the Board, as new CEO of Tapestry, Inc., replacing former Chief Executive Officer Victor Luis.
Zeitlin resigned his position in July 2020, following allegations of personal misconduct.
In 2019 it was announced that a float depicting Coach's house mascot Rexy the Dinosaur would be featured in the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States with ...
, making the brand the first luxury fashion label to have a float in the parade.
In November 2019,
Jennifer Lopez became the new global face of the company. As of 2019, Coach has 986 stores worldwide.
In 2020, Coach again rebranded. Like many brands during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, Coach began focusing on its digital platform.
In 2021, the house celebrated its 80th anniversary.
Corporate affairs
Leadership
Lewis Frankfort has been involved with Coach for more than 30 years. He was named chairman and CEO in 1995, and in 2014 became executive chairman. During 2000, he oversaw Coach's transition to a publicly-traded company listed on the NYSE and in 2011, became the first American issuer to list on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
Victor Luis was named chief executive officer of Coach, Inc. in January 2014.
Before his appointment and beginning in February 2013, he held the role of president and chief commercial officer of Coach, Inc., also serving on Coach's board of directors.
Luis has been a member of Coach's senior leadership team since joining the company in 2006, holding several international management roles and leading Coach's expansion in Asia.
Most recently, he served as president of the International Group and was responsible for Coach's operations outside of North America. Prior, he was president of Coach Retail International, where he oversaw the company's directly operated businesses in China (Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland), Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan, and president and CEO of Coach China and Coach Japan. Luis originally joined Coach as president and CEO of Coach Japan, Inc.
Before joining Coach, from 2002 to 2006, Luis was president and chief executive officer for Baccarat, Inc., leading North American operation of the French luxury brand. Earlier in his career, Luis held marketing and sales positions within the Moët-Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Group.
Stuart Vevers
Stuart Vevers (born 17 November 1973) is a British fashion designer. He graduated from the University of Westminster in 1996. His first job was at Calvin Klein, followed by Bottega Veneta, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, where he worked with Ma ...
joined Coach in the fall of 2013 as executive creative director. Vevers joined Coach from Loewe, where he held the role of creative director since 2008. Before Loewe, he served as creative director of Mulberry from 2005 to 2008. He began his career at
Calvin Klein and has contributed to creative roles with
Bottega Veneta,
Givenchy
Givenchy (, ) is a French luxury fashion and perfume house. It hosts the brand of haute couture and ready-to-wear clothing, accessories, perfumes and cosmetics of Parfums Givenchy. The house of Givenchy was founded in 1952 by designer Hubert de ...
, and
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...
. In 2006, Vevers won the British Fashion Council's Accessory Designer of the Year award.
Jide J. Zeitlin, Chairman of the Board, was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tapestry in September 2019. Prior to his resignation in 2020, Zeitlin was responsible for the execution of the company's strategic agenda and financial performance. Mr. Zeitlin was elected to Tapestry's Board of Directors in June 2006 and had served as the board chairman since November 2014.
In July 2020, Todd Kahn was appointed CEO and Brand President.
Operations
As of 2013, there were approximately 1,000 Coach stores in North America. Coach has also built a strong presence in the U.S. through Coach boutiques located within select department stores and specialty retailer locations.
Coinciding with its 75th anniversary in 2016, Coach opened Coach House, a 20,000-square-foot
Midtown Manhattan retail space.
Today, Coach's corporate headquarters remain in Midtown Manhattan on
34th Street, in the location of their former factory lofts. In August 2016, the company finalized the sale and leaseback of its office condo portion of
10 Hudson Yards
10 Hudson Yards, also known as the South Tower, is an office building that was completed in 2016 in Manhattan's West Side. Located near Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea and the Penn Station area, the building is a part of the Hudson Yards urban renewal ...
– its headquarters. Coach received $707 million before transaction costs.
In 1999, Coach launched its
online store
Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...
at www.coach.com.
"Company Profile"
. Coach Official Site. Accessed 12 February 2012.
The Coach Foundation
The Coach Foundation was established in 2008 to support organizations that "empower" and educate women and children around the world.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Clothing brands of the United States
Leather manufacturers
Bags (fashion)
Fashion accessory companies
Manufacturing companies based in New York City
American companies established in 1941
Clothing companies established in 1941
1941 establishments in New York City
Shops in New York City
2000s fashion
2010s fashion
2020s fashion
Eyewear brands of the United States