Last Thursday, Coach announced its stake in circular fashion with the launch of Coachtopia. Coachtopia is a sub-brand of Coach, with sustainability at the centre; the brand will lead with a Made Circular™️ design philosophy, in which its customers can shop limited drops of experimental designs created from excess waste materials. Alternately, shoppers can hand back their own seasoned Coach items, to be reimagined for a new life of wear.
Every product comes with a digital passport accessible via an embedded chip in the item, on which the customer can access information on the product including its design and impact, as well as the product’s journey as it is restored and reimagined by the Coachtopia community.
The use of new materials accounts for 38% of the fashion industry’s greenhouse gas emissions*.
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Image courtesy of Coach, @coach
“We know that to transform our impacts, we need to fundamentally shift mindsets—from seeing opportunity in waste to designing backwards to taking a more open-source approach to creativity,” says Joon Silverstein, Senior Vice President for global marketing, creative and sustainability, and now the Head of Coachtopia.
Alongside the new limited collection, Coach has launched a community of Coachtopians, a collection of Gen Z individuals to deliver new ideas to the brand, and guide future collections. The team ranges from activists, designers and students, all looking to contribute to a greener Coach, and use the brand as a platform for change.
“We’re building it not just for our consumers, but with them, inviting a growing community of hundreds of Gen Z individuals to join us on our Slack channel [a messengering service], [to] collaborate with us on products, take centre stage in our content and campaigns—and reimagine our future together,” Silverstein continues.
Through this Made Circular™️ approach, Coach hopes to reduce the brand’s impact and move towards an approach of ‘Nothing New’.
Coach has appointed 20-year-old Amazon Prime star Lola Tung, currently starring in the streaming channel’s latest hit, The Summer I Turned Pretty, to front this new eco-conscious movement.
Tung has become a prominent figure in online culture for Generation Z, making her the perfect figure-head for the brand as it hopes to appeal to its younger audience with a more sustainable approach.
Prices for the current drop range from £20 for a leather sticker set, to £495 for its popular Wavy Dinky bag in Checkerboard Upcrafted Leather.
Coachtopia has launched online in the UK, US and Canada, and is currently available at Selfridges and its East London store, and the brand is scheduled to venture into Asia later this year.
Shop the collection now here.
*Source: Fashion on Climate, McKinsey & Company, 2020
