Coach History

Coach was founded in 1941 as a division of Gail Manufacturing which was a family owned business in Manhattan New York. Gail Manufacturing started with six artisan’s leather workers that made small leather goods. These leather workers started this particular division with making small leather goods such as wallets, gloves, and handbags in a loft on the edge of Manhattan's garment district. By 1946, Miles Cahn, and his wife Lillian joined the company as leather workers. This was nothing new for either of them as Miles owned a leather manufacturing business before he joined the company. Miles had a lot of ideas and wanted to implement them in his new position. He was inspired by the distinctive properties of a baseball glove as he noticed that the gloves leather began to soften when it was used more often. After refining the leather and making it stronger and softer, he began implementing the same idea with the other small leather goods that was being manufactured at the time.
By 1950, Miles Cahn was running the leather factory for the owners of Gail Manufacturing. While still producing billfolds, wallets, and small leather goods, the company finally began to make a profit. After running the workshop for over a decade, Miles and his wife took out a loan and bought the factory and the company in 1961. It was then; Lillian Cahn suggested to her husband that they should begin creating women's handbags. The new line for women’s handbags was called Coach. During that time, most women's handbags were made of thin leather and were pasted over cardboard. The new Coach line introduced handbags that were made from sturdy cowhide and entered the market of luxury women's handbags with their new innovations. The company's name was changed to Gail Leather Products Inc. Cahn's designer was Bonnie Cashin who didn’t begin designing for Coach until the year after in 1962. Coach began to really make headway in the luxury handbag market with Cashin's new designs and matching