Coach

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.