Fashion Brand Coach Partners with Everywhere Apparel, Launches Coachtopia
Well-known luxury fashion brand Coach recently launched a new sub-brand called Coachtopia, which focuses on circular fashion and “collaborative creativity,” according to a press release. The launch propels the brand’s progress toward a fully circular business model — an approach wholesale basics brand Everywhere Apparel prides itself on. So naturally, the two teamed up to bring reimagined and recycled products to consumers.
“Circularity is about reimagining not just the product lifecycle but the relationship between brand, planet, and consumer,” said Joon Silverstein, head of Coachtopia, in a press release. “That’s why we’ve created Coachtopia as both a discovery lab to pioneer circularity in fashion and a collaborative platform for change. 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.”
Through its Made Circular principles, Coachtopia works to design out waste and reduce the use of new materials. Its Made Circular principles are:
- Craft with recycled, repurposed, or renewable materials
- Design for multiple lives
- Create circular pathways
Silverstein adds that the sub-brand is a “new world” within Coach — “an agile start-up with a mission to reimagine the end-to-end system.” It features a collection of bags, accessories, ready-to-wear, and footwear.
Coachtopia x Everywhere Apparel
Viewing circularity as a journey rather than an endpoint, Coachtopia says it works to refine its ways to reduce waste and carbon footprint. To do this, it collaborates with several partners. Its partnership with Everywhere Apparel, known for its closed-loop system, involves fabric sourcing.
“We source the minimum 95% recycled cotton fabrics for Coachtopia T-shirts and hoodies through Everywhere Apparel, a company that collects, sorts, and shreds pre- and post-consumer waste materials to create new yarns and fabrics,” the press release states. “When a piece of Coachtopia clothing is no longer usable, we plan to work with Everywhere Apparel to mechanically recycle these materials into new textiles of the same value, with the goal of working toward a closed-loop system where new products are made from old.”
Other key Coachtopia partners include:
- 1% for the planet
- The Ellen MacArthur Foundation
- EON
- Gen Phoenix
- Good Shipping, 3 Degrees
- ReCircled
- WSP
Collaborative Creativity and Innovations
Coach recognizes the increasing passion the younger generations have for the climate crisis and driving change. Because of that, a big part of Coachtopia is its unique, collaborative community aspect. It invited its target consumers (Gen Zers) to join its Slack channel, where the brand hears its customers out and works directly with them to create products, content, and campaigns.
Among the Gen Zers in the channel are climate activists, designers, and upcyclers to journalists, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, and fashion enthusiasts, according to the Coach press release. Members share their thoughts on circular fashion, help shape concepts, and set expectations for change.
The Coachtopia launch collection features products made with upcrafted and recycled leather, plastic, and cotton, to name a few. Through WSP’s environmental impact calculation tool, Coachtopia can assess the impact of its products. The results will be published in mid-2023.