Coach Inc. is an American luxury leather goods company known for ladies' handbags, as well as items such as luggage, briefcases, wallets and other accessories (belts, shoes, scarves, umbrellas, sunglasses, key chains, etc.). Coach also offers watches and footwear.

History

Coach is a well known purse/ bag company which is rather expensive. Coach began as a family-owned business in a loft in Manhattan, New York in 1941 with American designer Bonnie Cashin. In 1960, Miles and Lillian Cahn, owners of a wholesale handbag manufacturing business, asked Cashin to become designer of a proposed retail collection. As Cashin was initially too busy with other design contracts, she did not become their designer until 1962.

In developing accessories for her style of contemporary dress, Cashin dramatically changed handbags with designs akin to modern sculpture, dyed in candy colors of pink, orange, yellow and blue, and lined with linens designed by textile designer Dorothy Liebes. With a greater variety of shapes, colors and textures in her "Cashin-Carry" designs, many featured wide openings or exterior coin purses and pockets. Coach Incorporated is now considered to be a very "fashion-forward" brand and is commonly sold and purchased throughout the country.

Cashin designed matching shoes, pens, key fobs and eyewear and added hardware to her clothes and accessories alike, particularly the silver toggle that became the Coach hallmark, declaring that she had been inspired by a memory of quickly fastening the top on her convertible sports car.and sports cars.

Collections

The company maintains a profit margin several times higher than competitor designer brands. With its longer production runs and lower-cost production facilities in developing countries such as China and the Dominican Republic, Coach is able to take better advantage of economies of scale than its higher-priced and less profitable counterparts.

There are currently 25 stores that carry full Coach collections, including women's footwear, men's bags and briefcases and now the women's ready to wear line and also the new jewelry line. Six are located in New York City and two in Honolulu. Other locations are in Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, East Hampton, Greenwich, Houston, Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Manhasset, Natick, Palo Alto, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Seattle, Troy, Washington, D.C., Beachwood,Ohio, Edina, Minnesota The Mall of America in Minnesota, and The Westchester shopping mall. There is also an outlet of the popular store in Sandestin's Silver Sands.

Notably in Canada, there are now eight stores in Ontario with seven of the stores in the Toronto area, one at Yorkdale, Sherway Gardens, Square One, The Promenade Shopping Centre, Toronto Eaton Centre, Shops at Don Mills, and on Bloor Street in the prestigious and upscale Yorkville area, the eighth store is located in Ottawa at the Rideau Centre; two in Alberta, one at West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, and the other in Southcentre Mall in Calgary; and four in British Columbia, one at Metropolis in Metrotown, Oakridge, Pacific Centre, and on Burrard Street in the heart of Vancouver's downtown and financial district.

External links

• Official Coach website
• Coach Tote Design Contest

http://www.coach.com