Coach Turns Trash into Treasure with Their New Sub - Label ‘Coachtopia’
Photo: Coach via: Harper's Bazaar
Coach has just launched their new sub brand called ‘Coachtopia.’ The new branch of the famous bag brand is their recent sustainable initiative and their goal to lower their carbon footprint. The brand has already been making strides in sustainability. For instance, they launched a vintage clothing line and their (Re) Loved line for secondhand and vintage bags. Every bag from this brand is upcycled and is made from leftover leather scraps from the cutting floor. More specifically, it is the small scraps that are not used when Coach cuts the pattern of their bag from various hides. These scraps normally end up as waste and in landfills. The Coach’s creative director, Stuart Vevers said about the initiative, “Since I joined Coach, my vision for the house was to imagine a fashion world that includes everyone,” she said. “The name ‘Coachtopia’ is, of course, a playful mix of our brand name and the idea of social perfection but it genuinely connects to our community-driven approach, and also a sense of optimism for the future.”
Photo: Coach via: Harper's Bazaar
The way ‘Coachtopia’ works is that Coach receives inventory of leather scraps from their factories in both India and Vietnam. This inventory includes both sizes and colors of the scraps. Coach decides on bag designs based on this inventory and figures out new uses for them. The design team has been able to design these scraps into brand new bags. So far, the collection includes bags of various patterns such as sequins, patchwork and checkerboard.
Photo: Coach via: Fashionista
The makers of the bags use heat to merge the scraps together to create the bags based on the designs. In addition to using leather scraps, the brand is using other sustainable fabrics. For instance, they created their bag straps from industrial plastic waste and used the leftover zipper scraps as a patchwork design. The collection includes the bags: the Ergo, the Wavy Dinky and the Belt Bag. Additionally, there are smaller leather goods such as wallets and card cases. Each bag includes a NFC chip that allows customers to scan it with their phone and learn more information about what the bag is made out of and where the materials come from.
Photo: Coach via: Harper's Bazaar
Joon Silverstein, the leader of ‘Coachtopia’ and Coach’s senior vice president of global marketing, creative and sustainability came up with the idea from doing a value chain audit and calculating their carbon footprint to make valuable changes. They found that the fashion industry’s production of raw materials is responsible for up to 38% of greenhouse gasses. Silverstein said, “We asked ourselves: how can we use waste materials to create beautiful things,” he said. “It was really a process of designing backwards: starting with materials that already exist and harnessing our leathercraft expertise and creativity to transform waste into valuable new materials.”
Photo: Coach via: Harper's Bazaar
‘Coachtopia’ is the brand’s way of reaching the Gen Z demographic. Gen Z is a generation that has been pushing for more sustainability and transparency within the fashion industry. The brand added several young, gen z designers to push this initiative forward and give product feedback to help the brand reach more young consumers. This sub - label is a great initiative for the brand. As climate change becomes more and more of an issue within the fashion industry, many brands are beginning to come up with more sustainable initiatives and collections for consumers to shop in. ‘Coachtopia’ is a remarkable collection idea for any brand. It is a way for brands to not waste any materials and recycle the ones that they have already purchased. This allows brands to save more money in the long run. As time goes on, hopefully brands will follow suit and create labels that do this with their leftover materials. Shop the new sub - label here.
