Tuesday, May 19, 2026

How Coach earned 800,000 new Gen Z customers and became responsible for 89% of sales at Tapestry

For the past six years, CEO Joanne Crevoiserat has been steering the retail business Tapestry. Once a Fortune 500 company, Tapestry fell off that list a few years ago but is still a large business, with 2026 sales outlook of $7.95 billion. For a while, Crevoiserat was focused on the merger of Tapestry with Capri to create an “accessible luxury” powerhouse, but that ended up getting blocked by the FTC in 2024.

Now, Crevoiserat has some good news. Tapestry is the parent to Coach, Kate Spade, and Stuart Weitzman. The standout in its most recent earnings was the Coach brand, which saw sales hit $1.7 billion in its most recent quarter. That’s outpacing competitors—Michael Kors sales fell 5.6% in their last quarter. LVMH sales of fashion and leather goods fell 2%.

My colleague Phil Wahba outlines all of this in a new story for Fortune. Coach has become Gen Z’s favorite affordable luxury handbag brand. (And sales are up 55% in China, which helps with these results too.) Coach is estimated to have 800,000 new Gen Z customers compared to last year. UBS credits Tapestry as leading among retailers in use of AI for customer insights. Coach’s billion-dollar marketing spend helps too.

Coach now represents a whopping 89% of Tapestry’s sales—making Tapestry nearly a one-brand company. While Coach has been on the rise, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman have struggled. Read Phil’s full story for more on how Coach conquered Gen Z—and how it outpaced the other brands in the Tapestry portfolio.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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