Storypatch? When did that start?

[VintageViv]

Hi all! Just wondering if anyone knows when they started using the term "Storypatch" on the Creed. It jumped out at me when I saw it here on TPF (on a poster's beautiful Swagger) and I checked the Creed in the Sierra Satchel I got last year and sure enough that says Storypatch too. Most of my Coaches are older (10-20 year range). Does anyone know exactly what year the "Storypatch" usage started? Thx!

 

[whateve]

I think it has only been a few years. I don't have a big collection of creeds from later years, but I have a few from 2017 that use the word storypatch. This is the oldest I have, from January 2017.

I found an older one, September 2016:

 

[VintageViv]

I think it has only been a few years. I don't have a big collection of creeds from later years, but I have a few from 2017 that use the word storypatch. This is the oldest I have, from January 2017.

I found an older one, September 2016:

Thx!

 

[Hyacinth]

I think it has only been a few years. I don't have a big collection of creeds from later years, but I have a few from 2017 that use the word storypatch. This is the oldest I have, from January 2017.

I found an older one, September 2016:

Thx!

I think it might be an old name that they decided to resurrect. The earliest I've found so far goes back to 2010 when several Poppy styles, 15301 and 15304 were called Storypatch Glam Hobo and I think Storypatch Glam Tote, with date codes from mid-2010 and with the graphic from the front patch used as the design. The name itself might go back much farther, it may have been used in some early advertising.
Click on the thumbnails:


Coach also used the name in a 2014 lawsuit
http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/coach-files-suit-against-tumi-for-copying

 

[VintageViv]

I think it might be an old name that they decided to resurrect. The earliest I've found so far goes back to 2010 when several Poppy styles, 15301 and 15304 were called Storypatch Glam Hobo and I think Storypatch Glam Tote, with date codes from mid-2010 and with the graphic from the front patch used as the design. The name itself might go back much farther, it may have been used in some early advertising.
Click on the thumbnails:
View attachment 4383114 View attachment 4383116 View attachment 4383117

Coach also used the name in a 2014 lawsuit
http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/coach-files-suit-against-tumi-for-copying

Good digging, @Hyacinth! You're the Coach Nancy Drew! I thought "storypatch" sounded kind of odd like Coach was trying too hard to sound old-timey so it actually being an oldtimey usage makes sense!

 

[VintageViv]

Good digging, @Hyacinth! You're the Coach Nancy Drew! I thought "storypatch" sounded kind of odd like Coach was trying too hard to sound old-timey so it actually being an oldtimey usage makes sense!

...or maybe "Jessica Fletcher" would be a more appropriate comparison given all the Coach she carried (per the Coach in movies/tv thread!)

 

[Hyacinth]

I think it has only been a few years. I don't have a big collection of creeds from later years, but I have a few from 2017 that use the word storypatch. This is the oldest I have, from January 2017.

I found an older one, September 2016:

Thx!

...or maybe "Jessica Fletcher" would be a more appropriate comparison given all the Coach she carried (per the Coach in movies/tv thread!)

Hey, I'll take it! Dibs on Jessica Fletcher, BeenBurned is our Sherlock Holmes, and Whateve is our Nancy Drew (she gets the cool roadster while I'm stuck on my trusty bicycle).

 

[whateve]

I think it might be an old name that they decided to resurrect. The earliest I've found so far goes back to 2010 when several Poppy styles, 15301 and 15304 were called Storypatch Glam Hobo and I think Storypatch Glam Tote, with date codes from mid-2010 and with the graphic from the front patch used as the design. The name itself might go back much farther, it may have been used in some early advertising.
Click on the thumbnails:
View attachment 4383114 View attachment 4383116 View attachment 4383117

Coach also used the name in a 2014 lawsuit
http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/coach-files-suit-against-tumi-for-copying

What happened with the lawsuit? Did Coach win?

 

[Hyacinth]

What happened with the lawsuit? Did Coach win?

Crikey, I have NO idea, looking up legal records isn't one of my strong points. They probably could afford better lawyers.

Back to Google, if you don't hear from me, send in the cavalry.

 

[bags_to_die_for]

I think it has only been a few years. I don't have a big collection of creeds from later years, but I have a few from 2017 that use the word storypatch. This is the oldest I have, from January 2017.

I found an older one, September 2016:

I hate to dig up an old post, but thought this was significant enough to add here.
Here's something that really shakes up the Coach Serial number saga!
They've not only reverted to this Storypatch creed, they're using FOUR digit style numbers again!
I know this is authentic because it was recently purchased new, at the Coach Outlet in Canada.

Not only that, I called Coach myself because I couldn't believe it only has a FOUR digit style number instead of five, on what I consider to be a newer style, and when they looked it up in their data base it came up as it should, as the...

'Coach Signature Georgie Blocking Exotic Mix Small Top Handle Bag'

So Coach DOES have this style number in their recent data base!
You might want to update your records, unless there's something you know about this number that I'm missing here? The bag has a Made in Vietnam tag on it, and if I'm reading that date code right, it's from 2020, correct? Since when did they use only four digit style numbers in the 2000s?
It's like they always said, just when you think you've got Coach figured out, they do something like this!
The second creed patch is an image from another Georgie bag I found online.

 

[Hyacinth]

I hate to dig up an old post, but thought this was significant enough to add here.
Here's something that really shakes up the Coach Serial number saga!
They've not only reverted to this Storypatch creed, they're using FOUR digit style numbers again!
I know this is authentic because it was recently purchased new, at the Coach Outlet in Canada.

Not only that, I called Coach myself because I couldn't believe it only has a FOUR digit style number instead of five, on what I consider to be a newer style, and when they looked it up in their data base it came up as it should, as the...

'Coach Signature Georgie Blocking Exotic Mix Small Top Handle Bag'

So Coach DOES have this style number in their recent data base!
You might want to update your records, unless there's something you know about this number that I'm missing here? The bag has a Made in Vietnam tag on it, and if I'm reading that date code right, it's from 2020, correct? Since when did they use only four digit style numbers in the 2000s?
It's like they always said, just when you think you've got Coach figured out, they do something like this!
The second creed patch is an image from another Georgie bag I found online.

View attachment 5153776

View attachment 5153784

View attachment 5153819

They started using apparently unused 4-digit numbers a year or two ago when they ran out of 5-digit numbers. They may even be re-using older 4-digit numbers but since I don't get involved with newer bags I haven't really paid attention. Sometimes they also add a letter in front of a 4-digit number, just to confuse things even more. The ridiculous games they've been playing with serial and style numbers since 2014 has been a total turnoff and makes using the numbers to ID and authenticate bags an exercise in futility.

As for "storypatch" vs "creed" I don't think Coach understands the difference in meaning between the two. A creed is a statement of belief. A storypatch is what? A patch that tells a story? NOT the same thing. Ironically, the Urban Dictionary defines "story patch as " When your story has a hole in it you give it a story patch". (Hmmmm, maybe the "storypatch" description is more accurate than I thought).

The excellent "Coach Screed" from Cyberia Vintage has come a bit closer, this is about 8 paragraphs in:

Cyberia Vintage: The Coach Screed

"...We don't want more Disney cartoons plastered on Coach bags. We want that vintage Coach quality leather back. And there are a lot of us who feel this way. (Not for nothing was Coach the most popular handbag maker in America for decades.) The advent of the new 'hug-it' creed seems to have increased these numbers even more, and brought things to a head. The entire extended Coven has convened and the verdict is in: this is the last straw. Get ready for it...the latest iteration of the Coach creed:

(see the linked page for photos almost at the beginning of the page, under "The Final Insult")

As the wording of the new hug-it creed shows (Coach Leatherware stoops to "Genuine Leather"!?), it's high time we all understood exactly what that special old Coach leather was. We're talking the concrete materials now, how those bags were made and what they were made from. Because if the language of the new creed tells us anything, it's that we're on our own now in terms of objective metrics of leather quality. The old Coach used to focus almost exclusively on describing and explaining the leather used, as the mainstay of its advertising, and the old-school Coachistas --the original buyers who put the Coach bag on the map-- knew all this stuff.

But times have changed and the new-Coach/Tapestry approach is literally opposite...silent or euphemistic at best, advocating leather-alchemy at worst. Especially for those of us who have only the dimmest memories of those sleek yet soft and chunky leather Coach bags that the older girls and the grown-ups had, pre-2001 and before logomania hit, we really need to get up to speed because Coach/Tapestry has made it no secret that they're targeting us now. And some of us feel, targeting us like children (widdle fwowers! "iconic" Dumbo!), or 'snowflakes' (so anxious for everything to be "uniquely [our] own"), or maybe just plain flakes...unable to tell when quality materials are eliminated, so long as a prominent shiny brand logo is slapped on the front of something. It's for us they devised, just before this new 'hug-it' creed, "the Storypatch" as a "badge of authenticity."

I. The Creed was a Quality Guarantee
It is imperative to know, as the original Coachistas always did, that the primary purpose of the Coach creed was as a guarantee stamp, assuring buyers of concrete grades of quality leather. It was the company's way of warranting to the buyer that the highest quality materials had been used, thus the bag was actually worth the asking price. It is no coincidence that, prior to 2001, every Coach creed, from the advent of the creed stamp in the 1970s onward, contained the word "full-grain." It was guaranteed.

This is why people called it the "creed," which implies a set of beliefs, principles, a set of ethics -- a promise by the makers to uphold those ethics in their product, as the foundation of what that brand logo symbolized. And that is an entirely different concept of both branding and value itself. Where value is tied to concrete standards of quality, the brand logo is just a shorthand for that quality in the product. And so it always was with the Coach stamp. Until recently. When a creed becomes a "storypatch" (it's storytime, little girls!) and value is supposed to inhere in a logo stamp alone, no wonder it can be framed as a "badge of authenticity" -- because that much they'll still warrant us. Yes, it's really truly made in an authentically Coach/Tapestry-contracted factory somewhere in China, made of don't-ask by who-knows. But they can't tell the difference, they just want the logo because we're a designer-lifestyle-brand now. We'll cut quality and raise prices and have runway shows. It'll be great, like taking money from a baby. (Again, warned ya...screed.)..."

 

[whateve]

I hate to dig up an old post, but thought this was significant enough to add here.
Here's something that really shakes up the Coach Serial number saga!
They've not only reverted to this Storypatch creed, they're using FOUR digit style numbers again!
I know this is authentic because it was recently purchased new, at the Coach Outlet in Canada.

Not only that, I called Coach myself because I couldn't believe it only has a FOUR digit style number instead of five, on what I consider to be a newer style, and when they looked it up in their data base it came up as it should, as the...

'Coach Signature Georgie Blocking Exotic Mix Small Top Handle Bag'

So Coach DOES have this style number in their recent data base!
You might want to update your records, unless there's something you know about this number that I'm missing here? The bag has a Made in Vietnam tag on it, and if I'm reading that date code right, it's from 2020, correct? Since when did they use only four digit style numbers in the 2000s?
It's like they always said, just when you think you've got Coach figured out, they do something like this!
The second creed patch is an image from another Georgie bag I found online.

View attachment 5153776

View attachment 5153784

View attachment 5153819

Thanks. We became aware of the 3 and 4 digit style numbers last year. Some of them have letters in the style number. The Cashin 22 tote has a 3 digit serial number. They are reusing style numbers. One example is 1674, used for a recent butterfly charm and an older fish charm.

 

[bags_to_die_for]

They started using apparently unused 4-digit numbers a year or two ago when they ran out of 5-digit numbers. They may even be re-using older 4-digit numbers but since I don't get involved with newer bags I haven't really paid attention. Sometimes they also add a letter in front of a 4-digit number, just to confuse things even more. The ridiculous games they've been playing with serial and style numbers since 2014 has been a total turnoff and makes using the numbers to ID and authenticate bags an exercise in futility.

Thank you, that's good to know. I suppose changing things from time to time, is their way of throwing off the counterfeiters? But I was shocked to see them using four digit numbers again. I was worried about a possible switchback at the outlet, but Coach customer service verified it was valid.
That would be a nightmare if they "reused any of the older numbers again." Can you imagine the confusion that would cause? Although with the Date Codes present, I suppose it would be easy enough to determine which is which. It will be interesting to see how many more of these pop up. I think I'll be going to Macy's and check some of the style numbers on the newest bags there.
Can't wait to see what's in store for the future!