[ALERT] Coach to Replace Troubled Shoe Retailer at Ponce City Market

On the heels of a surge in popularity among Gen Z and millennial shoppers, leathergoods retailer Coach is planning to open a new store at Ponce City Market in Atlanta.  

Coach Flagship store in New York

A permit filed with the City of Atlanta indicates that the new store will be about 3,000 square feet and that the company plans to spend nearly $600,000 converting the existing retail space to suit their needs.  

The new Coach store (675 Ponce de Leon Avenue, Suite 115-B) will occupy the current Allbirds store on the North Avenue side of the project.  Allbirds, once a DTC (Direct to Consumer) darling, has struggled in recent years and announced January 28 it plans to close all of its remaining full-price retail stores by the end of February as the company returns to a primarily DTC model.  The Allbirds store at Ponce first opened in August 2021.  

Meanwhile Coach, which was established in New York in 1941 and has gone through many ups and downs as a company, is currently riding a wave of renewed excitement and interest in the brand. 

Part of the brand's resurgence can be credited to Stuart Vevers, who was named executive creative director of Coach in 2013.  British-born Vevers came to Coach after stints at Calvin Klein, Bottega Veneta, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, and Loewe.  Under Vevers' direction, the brand has not only leaned into its heritage as a high quality leathergoods company, but also returned to ready-to-wear.  The company also has a popular ongoing collaboration with Disney and its many characters.  

Coach resonates with Gen Z and millennial shoppers in part for the brand's connection to and popularity during the early 2000s and the so-called "Y2K style." 

A June 2025 article on CNBC titled "How Coach got its cool back" indicated that "more than two-thirds of Coach’s nearly 900,000 new customers in North America were Gen Zers and millennials in the last quarter," according to the brand. 

Today, Coach operates two full-price retail stores in metro Atlanta: Lenox Square in Buckhead and Mall of Georgia in Buford.  The company also operates six outlet stores: North Georgia Premium Outlets in Dawsonville, The Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta in Woodstock, Tanger Outlets in Locust Grove, Calhoun Outlet Marketplace in Calhoun, Tanger Outlets in Commerce, and Tanger Outlets Savannah in Pooler.  

The company has in years past also operated full-price stores at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, North Point Mall in Alpharetta and Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, but all of them closed more than a decade ago.  ToNeTo Atlanta heard rumblings in 2025 that Coach could be returning to Perimeter Mall, something that still seems plausible.  

Are you excited about the opening of Coach at Ponce City Market?  What other brands would you like to see expand in metro Atlanta?  What is your favorite leathergoods maker? 

Please share your thoughts below.