Coach

“In, in the middle of the year, and there was some discussion of pulling the IPO. I was able to deliver numbers that gave Goldman confidence on that and that they could take us public successfully, which we did.”

“And we did over a million dollars in year one.”

“On bags, in Japan, they spent At the time, six times as much as the average American spent.”

“We ultimately did 10,000 dollars a square foot in that space.”

“And I wanted to get out as quickly as I could before the numbers grew so that The benefit would accrue to the coach shareholders, not to the Sarah Lee shareholders, right?”

“There was a handshake between me and the CEO chairman of Sara Lee that if I could get them a billion dollars, they would give us our freedom.”

“So they paid thirty million.”

“I went after the young female professional who Was looking to be emancipated, not get married right away, but travel, be independent, break the glass ceiling, and I was able to offer her a bag at 40,000 yen while the European competitors were a 100,000 yen, an…”

“By, on the spring of 1984, we were twenty million dollars, and the channels that I started were about 50% of the business.”

“I learned that women are particularly loyal To bags. And why were they loyal? Because it's a very personal object. It's a vessel. They open 50, 60 times a day.”