Dive Brief:
- Coach launched a sub-brand called Coachtopia on Thursday that focuses on circular fashion by crafting all-gender bags, accessories, ready-to-wear and footwear with recycled materials that can be used again when the products have reached the end of their lives.
- Coachtopia is rolling out in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., with plans to expand to Asia later in the year. The sub-brand is attempting to avoid using virgin materials, and plans instead to focus on using leather from Coach’s production waste or from tannery scraps.
- Customers will be able to turn in Coachtopia products at Coach retail stores and earn store credit based on the product’s original retail price, according to the announcement. Coach leaders said they drew inspiration for creating Coachtopia after launching a branded resale program in 2021.
Dive Insight:
The new sub-brand focuses on creating products that are repairable and can be disassembled and developed into new items. For instance, they include removable hardware, detachable handles and designs featuring only one material, which tends to make recycling easier.
“It’s a bigger, bolder step forward in realizing our vision for sustainability at Coach, where we prioritize experimenting and learning, and ethical design intentions over cookie cutter perfection,” Coach Creative Director Stuart Vevers said in the announcement. “Coachtopia takes this to a new level by challenging us to ‘design in reverse,’ with the end goal of circularity top of mind.”
Recycled materials play a large role in the new collection. Along with recycled leather, Coachtopia’s hoodies and T-shirts will be made from at least 95% recycled cotton, bag straps and hardware will be made from at least 70% recycled resin, and canvas totes and footwear webbing will come from entirely recycled polyester.
Each Coachtopia product will also come with a digital passport that can be accessed via an embedded chip. The passport will share the product’s materials with customers, as well as provide a way to track how it has been repaired and transformed into new items.
Coachtopia has also built an online community of Gen Z members who are sharing their ideas and opinions about the sub-brand’s products as they are designed. Founding members include actor Lola Tung, climate activist Maya Penn and fashion designer Tyler McGillivary.
The new effort isn’t Coach’s first foray into circular fashion. The brand launched a resale program in 2021 called Coach (Re)Loved, which allows customers to trade in their bags for store credit that are then restored or remade into new products. More than 20,000 Coach products have been turned in through the program since it began, according to the brand.
The resale program helped spur Coachtopia, the announcement suggested.
“Coach (Re)Loved has provided critical insights into the aspects of traditional luxury craftsmanship that make circularity challenging, and thus the need to design for circularity from the start in order to achieve it at scale,” the announcement said.
