Mike Redwood
Columnist
International Leather Maker
Coach is one of the great success stories of the modern leather industry. Founded in the U.S. and built by Miles and Lillian Cahn, it grew from a small New York workshop into an international brand. In 1988, it began its global expansion and by 1989, sales had doubled turnover in 5 years to around US$100 million.
In a mere 40 years, Coach has grown from a US$50 million business to over US$5 billion, and even more when it is seen as part of Tapestry. It has done an amazing job staying relevant throughout this time, building and maintaining consistent brand loyalty from consumers, of whom I am one. I wrote earlier this year about its wise and clever approach to circularity in its Coachtopia range earlier this year. Coachtopia is Coach’s circular, Gen Z–oriented sub‑brand built around waste‑based design and take‑back, and Generation Phoenix (Gen Phoenix) is the UK recycled‑leather manufacturer supplying key materials into that range and now into wider Coach programmes. A few weeks ago, I visited Generation Phoenix and found a company that was deeply impressive in terms of manufacturing, innovation and cultural mentality to be part of this Coach evolution.
Yet, in a company of US$5 billion, one buyer cannot check all the leather. There is not enough baseball glove leather for such volumes, and I think their thread-maker closed at the end of last century. Coach continues to manage the Brand with great skill, and we see others doing so in Italy. France has achieved huge success with its luxury goods trade based largely on domestic manufacture and a great deal of local leather. But the big question that remains for tanners is how leather needs to be made, to be marketed and to evolve in a world where it starts as an individual skin but will lose that individuality on the journey from craft through luxury to modern globalised conglomerated luxury.
It is a story worth reflecting on — as a way of understanding how craft and luxury intersect, and whether craft quality inevitably declines as brands grow and battle to retain their tacit knowledge and values. It is a dilemma for leather with market segments for very high technology materials and those where each hide is individually approached by the judgment of the craftsperson. In many ways, leather requires both in the same square foot.
First briefcase
I first encountered Coach in 1987, when I travelled from the UK to New York to meet Lew Frankfort shortly after his appointment as CEO. I arrived a day early and visited the Coach store out of curiosity. I bought a leather briefcase.
At the time, Coach was a respected, growing leather goods company with a strong reputation for solid materials and dependable construction. It was not presented as luxury in today’s sense, but as something worth saving up for: well-made, durable and honest. I liked the baseball-glove leather Miles Cahn had championed, and the practicality of the design for frequent international travel. I was particularly struck by the individually stamped number inside the bag and the card offering repair for life.
I still use that bag.
Second briefcase
It was not until well into the new century that I decided, despite its good condition, that a change of look was needed. The newer Coach briefcase I bought looked good and carried familiar brand values, but in use it told a different story. The leather was fine but lightly pigmented rather than full aniline. More telling were the components: the thread, the zip, the fastenings. They were clearly specified to a different standard. Within a few years, I stopped using it and eventually gave it away. The earlier bag remains in regular service nearly four decades later.
This comment is not a criticism of Coach. It is an observation that many in the leather trade will recognise: quality reveals itself slowly, often long after the point of sale. Those of us who work with leather know that it is rarely the hide that fails first. More often it is the things around it — stitching, hardware, edge finishes, linings, adhesives. These rarely feature in marketing, but they determine longevity in real use.
In the late 1980s, many leather goods were built with a degree of conservatism. Threads were over-specified. Zips were chosen for durability rather than cost or lightness. Components were selected on the assumption that the product might be heavily used, repaired, and still be in service many years later. Failure was reputationally unacceptable.
As brands grow and markets change, those assumptions inevitably shift. Luxury can reward quality, time and restraint — but it can also reward image, speed and volume. By the early 2010s, higher volumes, globalised supply chains and tighter margin expectations meant that many component decisions moved away from workshops and into central sourcing functions.
Products designed to be used
Quality does not disappear overnight. Often the opposite happens in the short term: visual finish improves, tolerances tighten, consistency increases. What changes is the time horizon built into the product. Components are specified for a reasonable ownership cycle rather than an unknown future.
What is lost is the quiet margin of safety that only shows itself after years of use, and at what stage does “efficiency” slide towards built-in obsolescence? Older tanners will remember leather buyers who were formidable gatekeepers — deeply knowledgeable, uncompromising and intensely protective of product integrity. Coach had such a figure in Fred Freisenham. The first 80,000 sq ft I sent him was returned promptly to Europe. Quite why it failed his specification was never fully clear, but Fred was absolutely clear about what he wanted. We adjusted, learned and went on to build a strong relationship that supported Coach’s rapid growth.
Coach has weighed in on this, saying its heritage was built on crafting products designed to be used, repaired and loved for decades and that commitment remains central to who they are today. While materials and components have evolved over time, their approach to quality has not changed: every Coach bag is designed and tested to meet rigorous durability, performance and environmental standards. Today, Coach also balance new goals such as lighter-weight construction, responsible material sourcing and circularity to ensure its products reflect both heritage and the expectations of modern customers.
“It is our belief that well-made things should endure. We honour the craft that has defined Coach for more than 80 years.”
An evolving craft
Leather buyers still exist, but their skill sets and authority are different. Instantly knowing whether a tannery is truly competent or a leather genuinely right for a product is no longer always central to the role. Such audits are important, but they have had their “unexpected consequences.”
Craft is not a story; it is a system. It is sustained by networks of tanners, component suppliers, finishers, technicians and merchants who know each other, trust each other and share responsibility for outcomes — often anchored in place, as remains evident in Italy and Japan.
When those networks are weakened through centralisation, supplier interchangeability, or excessive cost pressure, quality rarely collapses. It drifts.
As the leather industry faces regulatory pressure, sustainability demands and ongoing cost challenges, efficiency and scale are understandably in focus. But my old briefcase is a reminder that durability is not an abstract value. It is the cumulative result of thousands of small decisions made across the supply network.
Customers may not articulate these differences, but they experience them. Over time, those experiences shape trust more powerfully than any campaign or certification.
Sometimes, the most useful lessons are not found in trend reports, but in the products that are still quietly doing their job decades later. And I know that the fact I am still using my original Coach bag, without the need for repair after nearly 40 years, owes a great deal to Fred Freisenham. Thank you, Fred.
mike@internationalleathermaker.com
You can find Dr Mike Redwood across social media at @michaelredwood.
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