Major Rebrand by Coach, Inc.
Photo: Andrew Neel
Coach, the American luxury leather goods company, has been on a buying spree over the last two years, acquiring shoe brand Stuart Weitzman and handbag brand Kate Spade. This past Wednesday, the brand announced it will be changing its name to Tapestry, Inc. with the rebrand taking effect on 31 October 2017.
With 76 years of experience and three brands under its belt, the company felt it was time to define its shape as a multi-brand entity with distinct personalities, rather than let itself be ruled by a single brand. CEO Victor Luis told The New York Times:
“It’s a wonderful metaphor for what we believe in, which is individual threads of different colors all working together to create a picture.”
The name search, conducted by the Carbone Smolan Agency, took two to three months with a list of thousands narrowed to “tens”; these were then tested for legal compliance and cultural associations in the brands’ key markets.
Photo: Tapestry
The new name, Tapestry, Inc. is reflective of the values shared between the company’s acquired brands. “We searched for a name to reflect these values while also expressing the cultural diversity of our people and our brands for today and tomorrow,” Luis says. The company also settled on Tapestry because it was easily understandable and did not sound too corporate, particularly when you compare it to LVMH, Kering, and other brands in the $80 billion global premium fashion market.
”The idea of inclusiveness also fits with the company’s global ambitions. Tapestry is currently composed of brands based in the United States, but Luis said he is open to acquisitions in Europe and Asia. Tapestry “is a home that is not limited to any category, channel or geography.”
Paradysz believes that the renaming has a lot to do with Coach’s desire to simplify the brand for consumers in an effort to better connect with them. Doing this also ensures that each of the brands is able to maintain a separate identity, rather than bleed together into a single unit. “They’ve been careful not to pollute the brands they’ve built or acquired,” he says.
Composite: Design Taxi
Despite concerns about the old-fashioned and possibly elitist associations, the “word’s suggestions of craft and handwork outweighed the negatives,” according to the Times. Still, those concerns seemed to be borne out by a backlash among some on social media. Luis told Reuters, “At the end of the day some of the social media reaction is misplaced because people think we are changing the name of the Coach brand, which we are not doing,”
None of the luxury house’s acquired brands will undergo identity or aesthetic changes, which means Coach will still keep its iconic logo.
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