How Coach got its cool back
Luxury retailer Coach has made a comeback after a strategic rebrand, successful celebrity partnerships and revamped designs.
And it's drawing in younger shoppers. More than two-thirds of Coach's nearly 900,000 new customers in North America were Gen Zers and millennials in the last quarter, the brand said.
Coach President and CEO Todd Kahn said he and creative director Stuart Vevers focused on what they called the "timeless Gen Z client, " which "became the muse" for the company.
"When we started focusing very dramatically on them, so many other things started to happen in a good way," he said.
Parent company Tapestry reported in its latest earnings that Coach revenue grew 15% compared with the same quarter a year prior and saw a 77.1% gross margin.
"In this sector, it's really rare to take a kind of mediocre mall brand that has been tarnished and then elevate it to be a credible luxury contender," said Aneesha Sherman, Bernstein's managing director of U.S. apparel and specialty retail.
Handbags like the Brooklyn, Tabby and Rogue have become hits for Coach. The Brooklyn was named the hottest fashion product of the fourth quarter of last year by global shopping platform Lyst. Demand for Coach products on Lyst was up 332% year-over-year, the company said.
Coach also leaned into customization, as shoppers can buy broaches and bag charms for their purses and also create their own. According to Pinterest, searches for "bag charm" and "bag charm ideas" in the U.S. have grown 200% and more than 10,000%, respectively, between May 2024 and May 2025. Coach's cherry charm, which retails for $95 on its website, has been a huge hit, the company said.
Coach has also opened immersive concept stores called Coach Play and is getting into hospitality with Coach Coffee shops.
"I often joke we're an overnight success story five years in the making," said Khan, who became president and CEO of Coach in an interim role in 2020 before taking on the permanent job.
Between January 2020 and January 2025, Coach's market cap expanded by about 140%, according to Bernstein.
"They're kind of ticking all of those boxes in terms of the quality and the value for money," said Fflur Roberts, Euromonitor International's head of global luxury goods. "It comes at a very good time for them, especially when other, or some consumers, are questioning the actual value, like monetary value of the goods that they're buying."
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