Coach no more; as the company changes its name to Tapestry, effective this Halloween (October 31st, in case you forgot)… but why though? And isn’t it kindov a dumb move to change the name of such an icon? And isn’t Tapestry unexciting to say the least?
Who wants a purse with Tapestry on it? #NoOne
— Caroline (@carolinemooretx) October 11, 2017
Actually, they just changed the Holding company name to Tapestry, not the actual brand name, so nobody understood it.
Coach’s stock price is up 11% for the year but fell as much as 3% in apparent panic over the news. To calm down nervous customers fearing what’s to come, Coach CEO Victor Luis had to reassure that “No one will ever see the word Tapestry on a Coach store”, explaining to TheStreet that the name change was just for corporate purposes.
They needed to make clear that Coach will be Coach, and they didn’t.
Coach says it did “extensive research” with its 20,000 employees worldwide in order to find a name “that will stand the test of time, help it grow into new categories and avoid confusion among consumers and investors”. Changing the name Coach to a word that means “any woven fabric” doesn’t immediately show results of a 20,000 member study, but that “test of time” will show if Tapestry passes or fails I guess.
Unfortunately, the Coach/Tapestry company has been mismanaging the hell out of that brand for a long time up to this point…
Coach was a mid to high end retail brand that was known for quality and then they cheapened the crap out of it, and now they’re doubling back again and saying “no we wanna be high end again” which is a tough square to circle.
“Coach bag” in 1997 meant “she probably drives a Lexus and the family has a tennis membership at the country club”.
“Coach bag” in 2017 means “she’s the Mexican housekeeper”.
