Coach aims to drive circularity with Coachtopia docu-series

Last year’s Coachtopia launch was a big deal on the eco-focused product front for Coach and the company is supporting it this year with The Road to Circularity, a new docu-series.

It goes behind the scenes of Coachtopia “to shed light on rarely documented aspects of the global fashion industry”.

Launching this week with its first episode, hosted by visual storyteller, sustainable fashion advocate and Coachtopia community member Aditi Mayer, the series aims to “discover the extraordinary people and partners who are collaborating with Coachtopia to develop the ideas that are making circularity at scale a possibility”.

And the company said it “takes a frank look at the problems facing the fashion industry and the mindset shifts required to tackle them, to pioneer circular solutions for the future”.

Joon Silverstein, SVP, Global Marketing and Sustainability at Coach, and Head of Coachtopia, said the firm has been “working closely with a wide range of inspiring young leaders through our Beta Community, and we have heard how frustrating fashion’s lack of transparency can be to this generation”.

The new series aims to ease some of that frustration. She added that “we’re excited to share our work-in-progress because we know that to tackle climate change, we can’t be afraid to take bold if imperfect steps, and to be honest about how far we have to go. It’s our way of using brand storytelling to shed light on bigger issues and to spark conversations that have an impact beyond Coachtopia”.

The first episode is called Making with Waste and sees Mayer in Chennai, India, visiting KH Exports, a family-run leather manufacturing company that has been working with Coach since 1987. The company had tasked it with reimagining Coach’s leather waste as a unique raw material.

The film sees Mayer following KH’s craft processes, from the sorting of waste in its “leather scrap yard” through to product prototyping, material design, production and more. She “not only explores the possibilities of making with waste but uncovers the personal stories of the community of designers, craftspeople and producers that are tackling some of these challenges with passion and ingenuity”.

She also learns more about the techniques used in the range, such as Upcrushed Upcrafted Leather, which uses heat and pressure to transform irregular scraps of leather waste into suede-like materials with a unique pattern and finish.

“It’s startling to think that, because of our cultural mindset around perfection, the natural grain of leather can be seen as a defect, leading to more waste,” she said. “It makes me realise that circularity is not just about changing the way we make, but changing the way we think.”

The episode was made in partnership with production company Special Order and director Christina Burchard and is available on Coachtopia’s social channels with the next episodes to follow later this year.

Coach aims to drive circularity with Coachtopia docu-series

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