Luxury Brand Coach Bans Fur

Fashion company Coach recently became the latest brand to adopt a fur-free policy. “We understood from our employee population and from our consumers that it was important to them that we take a stand on this issue,” Coach CEO Joshua Schulman told Business of Fashion. “We’re doing it because we believe it’s the right thing to do.” The company’s decision to ban fur came after pressure from animal-rights group The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which has been instrumental this year in pushing a number of companies—such as Donna Karan/DKNY, Burberry, and Diane von Furstenberg—to adopt fur-free policies. “HSUS has been working with Coach toward this outcome for many years, educating its executives and shareholders about the animal cruelty associated with fur, and filing several shareholder resolutions with Coach over its use of fur in its bags and clothing lines,” HSUS CEO Kitty Block said. “We couldn’t be more pleased that Coach has listened to our concerns, and we’re grateful.” Thanks to the efforts of a number of activists and organizations Los Angeles and San Francisco have passed legislation this year that bans the sale of fur in their respective city limits. “We are winning,” Block said, “and the future we’re helping to create is decidedly fur-free.”