Kate Spade

Kate Spade New York operates as one of three principal banners within Tapestry Inc., the multinational specialty accessories and lifestyle group listed on the New York Stock Exchange under TPR alongside Coach (the flagship Tapestry brand) and Stuart Weitzman. Tapestry is headquartered in New York City and acquired Kate Spade in 2017 for approximately $2.4 billion in cash from previous owner Coach Inc. (the predecessor Tapestry entity), positioning Kate Spade as the contemporary feminine accessible-luxury banner alongside Coach’s heritage leather-goods positioning.

Kate Spade and her husband Andy Spade co-founded the brand in 1993 in New York City with a focus on accessible-luxury women’s handbags featuring a defined feminine aesthetic that distinguished the brand from broader American leather-goods competitors. Liz Claiborne Inc. acquired Kate Spade in stages between 1999 and 2006, eventually rebranding the parent company as Fifth & Pacific Companies in 2012 and then Kate Spade & Company in 2014, before Coach Inc. acquired the company in 2017. The brand’s design direction has evolved through multiple creative-leadership periods, with current Creative Director Eva Erdmann appointed in 2024 to lead the brand’s continued repositioning under Tapestry’s strategic plan. Tapestry Inc. reported total revenue of approximately $6.7 billion in fiscal year 2024 (ended June 29, 2024), with Kate Spade contributing approximately $1.3 billion. The product range covers women’s handbags, small leather goods, ready-to-wear apparel, jewelry, footwear, watches (under license), eyewear (under license), home goods, fragrance (under license with Inter Parfums), and stationery, with the Jack Spade men’s banner having been discontinued in 2018 to focus the broader brand on women’s product. The 2023-2024 abandoned acquisition of Capri Holdings (which would have brought Versace, Jimmy Choo, and Michael Kors into the combined group) was blocked by the FTC and subsequently called off in late 2024.

Kate Spade operates approximately 320 directly operated stores globally, supplemented by extensive wholesale placement in department stores, outlet centers, and select international franchise partners. The strongest markets include the United States, Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Australia, and select Southeast Asian markets. The typical Kate Spade store occupies 1,500 to 3,500 square feet, with formats emphasizing the brand’s feminine-and-playful visual identity, integrated accessories and handbag merchandising, and ready-to-wear adjacencies. For mall operators, Kate Spade is a Class A specialty contemporary accessible-luxury tenant for regional and super-regional centers, typically positioned in the contemporary luxury cluster alongside Coach, Michael Kors, Tory Burch, and broader contemporary accessible-luxury accessories retail. The brand has stronger positioning in outlet center environments than in premium regional mall positioning, with the outlet network representing a meaningful share of the directly operated retail footprint.