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This week, I’m reaching deep into my bag of tricks to talk about, well, a bag. Or rather, a brand that makes bags, and so much more. Ready to hear about not just leather goods, but leather greats? Let’s get to it before I make another terrible pun.
Before we get too far into Coach, I want to give some context on why the brand caught my eye. Let’s zoom out and look at non-luxury fashion (aka apparel) as a whole, and how Coach’s engagements compare with the space.
From May 2024 to April 2025, Coach increased engagements by 43% relative to the prior 12 months—not a crazy high growth rate, but still notably higher than the brand’s peers:
Two things stand out:
So that’s the last 12 months, but how about we take a more expansive view of things? How’s Coach’s recent momentum?
You ever notice how most of the brands I feature in this newsletter tend to be growing YoY, with a big spike in 2024? Funny how that works.
As with some of those other brands I’ve profiled, especially in the fashion or fashion-adjacent space, Coach had a rough 2020. It wasn’t the time to be buying handbags, much less wallets. But how about some other metrics? Did we see the same pattern that we see here for EMV?
Coach Creator Count: 2018 - 2024
The pattern isn’t quite as pronounced for Coach’s creator count—which, while very alliterative, remained a little flat from 2018 to 2020. That changed subsequently, though, with another big jump between 2023 and 2024.
One day I’m going to find a brand whose creator count and post count graphs diverge wildly, and I’m going to be very excited about it, because that will give me something more interesting to say than “it same.” But for now, I’ll point out how even an increased post count in 2020 didn’t save the brand from stumbling a bit. If you take anything away from this humble newsletter of mine, it should be that getting a lot of creators to talk about you is only half the battle: you also, of course, have to make sure they’re saying worthwhile things.
Case in point: Coach’s engagements graph.
Not only do we have that substantial dip in 2020, we also have a decline in 2022 that goes unnoticed when we look at other metrics. Further proof that you always have to dig a little deeper to get the full picture.
It’s a very tidy 3x growth for Coach’s impressions between 2019 and 2024, and like engagements, Coach did see a few setbacks in 2020 and 2022 before rebounding in a big way.
And what was behind that rebound, exactly? When I delved into creators’ content about Coach, and considered the brand’s broader creator strategy, here’s what I saw:
So I looked at Coach’s creator community (again, alliteration) from June 2024 to May 2025. Below are their top five creators by EMV during that time period. Put yourself in my shoes, and please tell me what stands out to you:
Alright Brandon, go off king! Mr. Nguyen powered $21.1M EMV for Coach, approximately 5x the total of the brand’s No. 2 EMV-driver, Ava Grace Lurie ($4.4M EMV). As you can probably predict, this discrepancy boiled down to posting frequency, where Brandon once again lapped the field:
Brandon posted about Coach 1,759 times in 365 days: nearly 5x per day, straight through the year. Those are Rick Ross for Luc Belaire numbers! (*Insert Rick Ross grunt*)
Brandon defines himself as a ‘Coach Retail Employee’ in his social media bios, and has generally carved out a niche as one of the most dedicated, prolific, and impactful single-brand advocates that I’ve seen outside of the grocery space. His content typically displays customized handbags that leave his fans clamoring for more. Combined with his exuberant personality and deep aesthetic knowledge, Brandon has emerged as a true force for driving Coach’s revival—and social media users are taking note:
Comments like this one are a fixture on Brandon’s videos (@branbran1997 on TikTok), and you know what, Tee? You’re not wrong. Now you have the data to prove it!
And Brandon, if you see this, tell Coach to give you a raise. (And mention HBBIP in your next post, please and thank you.)
2. A Tale of Tiers
One thing that struck me about Coach’s creator community was how evenly spread it managed to be across different tiers. When you think ‘fashion,’ and even ‘luxury fashion,’ you tend to think about powerhouse creators: celebrities, models, high-powered fashion bloggers—and, of course, Brandon.
But just one of Coach’s top eight EMV-drivers from June 2024 to May 2025 was a powerhouse creator. Brandon is an established creator, while Ava and Alexis are micro-creators. In fact, micro-creators accounted for roughly 31% of Coach’s $275.9M EMV during the time period monitored:
This 31% average ranked above the top 30 non-lux fashion brand’s average 24% proportion. Meanwhile, in almost an exact reversal, Coach’s 23% proportion of powerhouse EMV fell below a 31% average among those same top 30 brands.
Coach flipped the script and was rewarded for it. By expanding the type of creators who talk about handbags and other leather accessories, the brand enabled—and actively invested in—the rise of creators like Brandon: genuine superfans who sit close to the merchandise, and who can leverage their expertise in ways that fans find persuasive and engaging (remember those engagement numbers?). That’s what creator marketing is all about.
So congrats to Coach, and congrats to Brandon! One man really can make a difference.
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