Coach
Coach
Founders: Miles and Lillian Cahn
Established: 1941
Headquarters: New York, United States
Website: coach.com
Coach opened in 1941 in a Manhattan loft on 34th Street, founded as Gail Leather Products by a small group of investors and operated by six artisans who hand-cut wallets and billfolds for men. Miles Cahn joined the company in 1946 and bought it outright with his wife Lillian in a 1961 leveraged buyout, renaming it Coach.
The company became known for a cowhide leather that Cahn developed after studying baseball gloves, a material the press came to associate with classic American style, a label that stuck to the brand for the next six decades.
Menswear came to Coach late. The brand spent its first seven decades as a leather goods house, making wallets, billfolds, briefcases, and bags for men alongside the women’s handbags that became its signature under designer Bonnie Cashin, who led creative from 1962 to 1974 and introduced the turnlock hardware and side pockets that defined the house look.
Reed Krakoff took over in 1996 and modernized the brand around signature monogrammed canvas. Stuart Vevers, appointed executive creative director in 2013, created the first full men’s ready-to-wear collection, covering varsity jackets, shearling coats, western shirting, and tailored leather pieces.
That Americana-driven direction placed Coach menswear alongside Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Michael Kors as one of the defining American accessible luxury labels. Vevers won the CFDA Accessory Designer of the Year award in 2017 and the CFDA Innovation Award in 2023.
The Cahns sold Coach to Sara Lee Corporation in 1985 for approximately $30 million, and the company went public in 2000 under then-CEO Lew Frankfort. The group acquired Stuart Weitzman in 2015 and Kate Spade in 2017, and the parent holding company was renamed Tapestry Inc. the same year.
Todd Kahn now serves as Coach president and CEO, and the brand has positioned itself around what it calls expressive luxury, with Gen Z shoppers driving demand for the Tabby, Brooklyn, and Rogue bag families. Today Coach dresses the young accessible luxury customer through handbags, small leather goods, ready-to-wear, and outerwear, sitting as the largest of Tapestry’s three brands and one of the few American heritage houses to have converted itself into a global Gen Z favorite.
From the Archive
April 19, 2026
Omar Apollo Brings a Bleached Edge to Coach Spring 2026 Eyewear
Omar Apollo leads Coach's spring 2026 eyewear campaign in C Hardware pilot sunglasses and optical frames drawn from the brand's bag codes.
September 16, 2025
Coach Spring 2026 Delivers Big Pants, Bigger Attitude
Coach brought its spring 2026 menswear show to Pier 36, setting the clothes against the steel-and-glass horizon of New York.
June 30, 2025
Coach Winter 2025 Explores the Power of Dressing Up
Coach’s winter 2025 collection arrives as a fable rendered in fabric, a collision of childhood imagination and American wardrobe codes.
February 12, 2025
Coach Fall 2025 Embraces Proportion Play
Coach took over the Park Avenue Armory for fall 2025, where Stuart Vevers reimagined American heritage through a modern, raw-edged
September 13, 2024
Coach Spring 2025 Reworks Classics with a New York Grit
Coach recently unveiled its spring-summer 2025 collection in a runway show staged on New York City’s High Line, a fitting
September 7, 2024
Charles Melton & Jayson Tatum Star in Coach Fall 2024 Ad
Coach unveils its fall 2024 campaign, “Unlock Your Courage.” New global ambassador Charles Melton joins Coach Family member Jayson Tatum
February 15, 2024
Coach Fall 2024: Redefining New York’s Dynamic Energy
At the famed James B. Duke House, Coach revealed its fall 2024 collection, encapsulating Creative Director Stuart Vevers’ vision to
September 11, 2023
Coach Spring 2024: A New York State of Mind
Stuart Vevers marks a decade at the helm of Coach, a tenure that has seen the brand evolve while staying
November 4, 2022
Chan-young Yoon Feels the Wonder in Coach Holiday Campaign
With its brand-new advertising campaign called “Feel the Wonder,” Coach gets into the mood of the festive season. The fashion house beautifully
