(Reuters) -Coach and Kate Spade parent Tapestry will invest $15 million in eco-leather producer Gen Phoenix as part of an effort to make more sustainable leather goods, the companies told Reuters.
Tapestry’s investment will bring its stake in Gen Phoenix to 9.9%. Tapestry said the partnership will bolster its efforts to attract younger Generation Z consumers – those born from 1997 to 2012 – who have an appetite for sustainable leather goods.
The companies’ partnership began in 2022 with the launch of Coach’s Gen-Z oriented Coachtopia line, which makes products designed with at least 50% recycled leather fibers from waste that are supplied by Gen Phoenix, according to its website.
Scott Roe, who is both chief financial and chief operating officer at Tapestry, said Coachtopia is a bellwether for younger consumers’ spending habits.
“It’s not that Coachtopia is so commercially massive, but it is helping us understand what’s important to this really critical demographic,” he said.
Roe would not say how much Coachtopia accounts for in Tapestry’s total earnings, only that it is “relatively small.” Gen Phoenix estimates that its materials have an 80% lower carbon footprint than virgin leather.
The brands previously collaborated on an uncoated lining material that Coachtopia brought to market in under a year, said Elyse Winer, chief marketing officer at Gen Phoenix.
As part of the investment, Gen Phoenix, which sources waste materials from European tanneries and factories, will supply recycled leather to Tapestry for three years.
Gen Phoenix CEO John Kennedy said the company is eager to work with all of Tapestry’s brands.
Roe said it remains to be seen how the recycled material could be used in other product lines.
“There’s a lot of opportunities to redirect a lot of that waste stream,” he said.
(Reporting by Samantha Marshak; editing by David Gaffen and Deepa Babington)
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