Tapestry Unveils Regenerative Leather Goals and Coach’s (Re)Loved Apprenticeship
Tapestry and its brand Coach announced new sustainability efforts aligned with leather legacy.
The first is an expansion of Coach’s (Re)Loved program, launching an apprenticeship tied to remaking, upcrafting and redesigning used bags.
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Applications for the yearlong (Re)Loved apprenticeship are available online at Tapestry careers and are open to all skill levels. The program begins in June, after which participants may score a job working and reworking Coach bags.
(Re)Loved launched in April 2021 with a suite of fast-selling reimagined goods. After a bag-slashing scandal erupted on social media in October, Coach doubled down on its (Re)Loved program. The company has since doubled its count of stores carrying (Re)Loved items (from 15 to 30) and it’s eyeing a full rollout to its 162 stores across the U.S. and Canada in the next few months.
“These two initiatives really build on our legacy of creating products crafted to last [and] our commitment to offering services to our customers to help them care for and maximize longevity of their products,” Joon Silverstein, Coach’s senior vice president, global head of digital and sustainability, told WWD. “We’re excited about our continued progress against our sustainability initiatives and to be sharing these commitments.”
Silverstein said Coach is looking to “significantly expand” its craftsperson team as (Re)Loved becomes a greater proponent of its long-standing legacy.
Additionally, Tapestry’s stable of brands (including Coach) are driving forward interest in regenerative agriculture through a partnership with Boulder-based nonprofit Savory Institute and their Land to Market Program.
The partnership will result in “new styles in regenerative leather later this year,” per Silverstein, although no details or metrics on the overall partnership were provided.
This past fall, Tapestry (including Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman) announced its commitment to science-based climate targets and the goal of reaching net-zero global emissions by 2050. Checking in on the leather supply chain, as of January, 77 percent of Coach leather goods and 99 percent of footwear were sourced from Leather Working Group gold-rated facilities.
Silverstein maintained that the partnership is for the long term, putting assurance in the Land to Market’s program of working directly with farmers, ranchers and raw material providers using what’s called an Ecological Outcome Verification. Essentially, the empirical method is one developed by a suite of scientists and stakeholders that Savory uses to annually track positive trends in biodiversity, soil health and ecosystem function on participating farms.
Savory’s Land to Market program counts Kering, Burberry, Timberland, Eileen Fisher and more in its fashion camp promoting its verified sourcing solution for regenerative agriculture, a growing trend in fashion.
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