The history of Coach
Coach was founded in 1941, in a loft in New York.[5] as
a partnership called the Gail
Manufacturing Company. Gail Manufacturing Company began as a family-owned
business, with six leatherworkers who made small leather goods, such as wallets
and handbags. In 1946, Miles
Cahn and his wife Lillian 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 business and was running it mainly himself. The
workers continued to manufacture small leather goods, like wallets, for small
profits into the 1970s. In 1977 theCoach brand
of wallets and other small leather goods was introduced. In 1961, Gail
Leather Products, Inc. was
formed.[6] In
the 1960s, Cahn did further research on leather and discovered a very complex
method for processing leather to make it strong, soft, and durable. At the
suggestion of his wife, a number of women's handbags were designed to be more
affordable.[5] In
the early 1960s, handbags were added to the Coach lineup. Coach women's handbags
were made out of sturdy cowhide, which was of much better quality than the thin
leather pasted over cardboard material that was used to make other handbags at
the time. This catapulted Coach to a prominent standing among high quality
leather products.[5]
Through the 1960s, Gail Leather Products also produced other brands, such as Red
Lion and Westminster.
During the early 1960s, Cahn hired Bonnie
Cashin to work for Coach.[7] Cashin
was already a well-known fashion designer prior to joining Coach; however, this
deal proved to be one of her most well-known business alliances. Cashin worked
for Coach from 1962 until 1974, and revolutionized their product design.[7] Known
as an innovator, she instituted the inclusion of side pockets, coin purses, and
brighter colors (as opposed to the usual hues of browns and tans) onto the bags.[5] Cashin
also designed matching shoes, pens, key fobs and eyewear, and added hardware to
her clothes and accessories alike, 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. Due to the success that Cashin
brought Coach, they ran their first ad in the New Yorker in 1963.[5]
In the mid 1970s, production of handbags in New York City ended, and was moved
elsewhere in the United States. Around the same time, the company changed its
name to Coach Products, Inc.[6]
Business was strong throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Products were in high
demand, and under a new vice president for special products, Coach started a
mail-order business. They also owned specialty stores, and began to sell Coach
bags outside of department stores. Sales increased, and soon demand was greater
than the supply. Eventually, Coach would restrict sales to hand-selected
vendors. In 1979, Lewis
Frankfort, Coach's current CEO, joined the company as vice-president of
business development. He was mentored by the then executive vice president,
Richard Rose. Rose was a maverick and is responsible for turning the Coach brand
into a household name.
In 1980, the company changed its name to Coach
Leatherware Company, Inc.[6] In
1983, the Cahns purchased a 300-acre (1.2 km2)
dairy farm in upstate New York that they operated under the name "Coach Farm".
It was intended to be a vacation spot away from the New York Coach office, but
instead they commuted 2 hours every week from New York City to their upstate
farm.
The Cahns decided to sell Coach.[5] In
1985 [8][9],
Coach was sold to Sara
Lee Corporation for $30 million
dollars. The Cahns retained ownership of the original corporate entity, Coach
Leatherware Company, Inc., originally Gail Leather Products, Inc., which was
now renamed The Coach Farm
Corporation,[6] and
produced goat
cheese under the Coach
Farm trademark. The Coach Farm
Corporation continued to be headquartered at the Coach headquarters at 516 West
34th Street in New York. Sara Lee took over the factories, the 6 boutiques, and
its main store on Madison Avenue in New York City. Shortly after, new boutiques
were opened in Macy's stores in New York and San Francisco. Additional Coach
stores were under construction in Denver and Seattle, and similar boutiques were
to be opened in other major department stores later in the year. Coach also
opened mall storefronts in New
York, New
Jersey, Texas,
and California.
By November, the company was operating 12 stores, along with nearly 50 boutiques
within larger department stores.
Sara Lee divested itself of Coach first by selling 19.5% of their shares of
Coach at the Coach IPO in October of 2000, followed in April 2001 with the
distribution of their remaining shares to Sara Lee’s stockholders through an
exchange offer.[8]
Coach Inc. has distribution, product development, and quality control operations
in the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and South Korea.
Lewis Frankfort has been involved
with COACH for more than 30 years. He has served as Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Coach since November 1995. He has served as a member of Coach?s Board
of Directors since June 1, 2000, the date of incorporation.. Frankfort
transformed Coach from the relatively small company that it was in 1985 into the
worldwide known brand that it is today.[7] He
is also known for making Coach bags affordable. Up until the 1990s, women's
handbags were either very expensive, or very inexpensive department store
knock-offs. Coach was the middle ground between the two, therefore filling a gap
in the market.[7] Today,
Coach operates 25 stores in the United States that carry full Coach collections,
including women's footwear, men's briefcases and the new jewelry line. Six are
located in New York City and two in Hawaii. Other locations are in East Hampton,
NY, Short Hills, NJ, Philadelphia, Nashville, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Scottsdale, Seattle, Washington D.C.,
Louisville, Omaha, and Westchester County, New York.
In 2011 the company announced that their headquarters would move from 516 West
34th St to the nearby Hudson
Yards Redevelopment Project[10]
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