.jpg)
Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons
What does it take to create an iconic handbag brand? Each week, Emily Blumenthalâauthor of Handbag Designer 101 and founder of The Handbag Awardsâdives deep into the stories behind the handbags we love. From world-renowned designers and rising stars to industry executives shaping the retail landscape, Handbag Designer 101 brings you the inside scoop on the creativity, craftsmanship, and business savvy it takes to succeed in the handbag world.
Whether youâre a designer, collector, entrepreneur, influencer, or simply passionate about handbags, this podcast is your front-row seat to the journeys of visionary creators, the origins of iconic brands, and the cultural impact of these timeless accessories. Discover valuable insights, expert advice, and the inspiration to fuel your love of handbagsâor even launch your own brand.
Tune in every Tuesday to "Handbag Designer 101" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, or watch full episodes on YouTube, and highlights on TikTok.
Handbag Designer 101: The Stories Behind Handbag Designers, Brands, and Industry Icons
What Really Makes an It Bag in 2026? Beth Goldstein Breaks It Down đđ| Emily Blumenthal & Beth Goldstein
Think you know what defines an âIt Bagâ? Think again. In this episode of Handbag Designer 101, Beth Goldstein, Executive Director of Footwear & Accessories at Circana, joins Emily Blumenthal to unpack how social media has transformed the handbag marketâand why a $299 Trader Joeâs tote can now claim the title.
From viral hits to lasting brands, Beth explains how todayâs fragmented market is shifting power away from legacy labels and toward innovative independents. With names like Coach, Veronica Beard, and Clare V evolving fast, the space is more competitiveâand more unpredictableâthan ever.
đĄ Key Takeaways
đ The Democratization of the It Bag: How social media turned the rules upside downâand what that means for designers.
đď¸ Retail Shake-Up: Amazon and Costco are winning, while department stores scramble to stay relevant.
đ Play the Long Game: Why brands like Telfar and Brandon Blackwood took 5â10 years to âmake it overnight.â
Whether youâre building a brand or studying the industry, this episode is packed with insight on market trends, pricing pressure, and why fashion innovation must continue despite the odds. đ§ Listen now.
Our Guest: Beth Goldstein is the Executive Director and Industry Analyst for Accessories and Footwear at Circana. Her data-driven expertise helps brands and retailers understand where the handbag industry is headedâand how to stay one step ahead.
Host Emily Blumenthal is a handbag industry expert, author of Handbag Designer 101, and founder of The Handbag Awards. Known as the âHandbag Fairy Godmother,â Emily also teaches entrepreneurship at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is dedicated to celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, and the art of building iconic handbag brands.
Find Handbag Designer 101 Merch, HBD101 Masterclass, one-on-one sessions, and opportunities to book Emily Blumenthal as a speaker at emilyblumenthal.com.
Youtube: / Handbagdesigner101-ihda | Instagram:/ Handbagdesigner
TikTok: / Handbagdesigner | Twitter: / Handbagdesigner
retailers just continue to look for the products that are going to compensate for the losses in some of the bigger brands that they've carried, but the problem is it's just they're just not there. There's lots of little, small brands that are doing great things, but it's just the volume isn't there. So I do think we'll continue to see the market there contract. The thing that's important is that you know the innovation on the fashion and the function, even though it's tough out there, cannot stop because otherwise then we have nowhere to go. Then it's just going to get worse.
Speaker 2:Hi and welcome to Handbag Designer 101, the podcast with your host, emily Blumenthal, handbag industry expert and the handbag fairy godmother. Each week, we uncover the stories behind the handbags we love, from the iconic brands and top designers to the creativity, craftsmanship and culture that define the handbag world. Whether you're a designer, collector or simply passionate about handbags, this is your front row seat to it all welcome back beth goldstein, executive director of footwear and accessories of circana.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to handbag designer 101, the podcast. I'm excited to have you back thank you, happy to be back.
Speaker 1:Good to see you.
Speaker 3:It's been a while yes, it is I, but you're one of my most favorite people to talk to because we could talk about what? The same topic, probably nonstop, and I get you know we could just keep going back and forth, back and forth. The State of the Union of Hamburg, bags.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 3:So I think it's been a year since we've had you on it's summer, right now, summer of 2025, not to date. This because obviously this episode will be good at any time to listen to. But people have been coming to me more recently about this construct of an it bag and whether or not it still exists, and is it possible for a new brand to become an it bag, or is it really a brand who kind of has paid their dues, has been in business five to seven years, has figured out trends, has a loyal audience, and then just comes up with a silhouette that start grabbing people's attention and then, officially, can have some impact on trends. What are your thoughts on this? Beth Goldstein? No pressure.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that social media has changed the game so drastically that anything can be an it bag. The 299 mini canvas tote from trader joe's, you know, is an it bag, right, and it just happens fast and one thing is hot, you know, maybe a couple of weeks and then it's on to the next. So I think there still can be an it bag, but it's a little bit different than it had been in the past and, you know, it's like anything can be one and it's very hard to pinpoint when or what it's going to be.
Speaker 3:Right, like Jack and Moose, the little Chiquita bag, that would have been one, and some people have said he came out of nowhere, but he was in business in 2009. Right, so you know, he had been quietly or not so quietly building his audience, came out with this bag and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, to everybody but he and his following, it seems like oh, where'd he come from?
Speaker 1:right, right, and then you know do fun things, like you know, paraded around paris on the, you know, like it's a car, you know, and then that starts to go viral and more people can see it than ever before, and then then you know it comes, but I don't know that there's anything. I mean, obviously there's a few out there still that are, you know, command, you know that have the demand that they always did, but I don't think anything is as big as it once was, because there's so much out there and you know we have visibility into so much more and you know the way consumers buy and use bags has really changed.
Speaker 3:Do you think the market is, I don't want to say fractured, but because there's so many different segments of a segment right now, like when I worked in media a billion years ago and cable TV had come out not to date me, but all of the advertisers were flipping out like, how are we going to capture an audience and how do we segment our budget? Like, do we put it on six different cable channels and then six different, you know, paid channels and then four different network channels? Do you think it's the same for trying to find your audience?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's, you know, I mean it's that times 10. Now you know, so I do, and I guess I would say so it's like fragmented. There are so many Fragmented. That's what I meant. Yeah, so you have the big brands still that are out there, but there are so many small, emerging brands and I mean you've been preaching this forever. You know that are putting great product out there, that you know, when we look at the data and the sales, like you can see them growing, but they're much smaller and you know are nowhere coming down. You know, coming up to the volume that some of the bigger brands have, but the volumes for some of those bigger brands have come down as well as a result. So it's kind of, you know, leveling out a little bit results.
Speaker 3:So it's kind of, you know, leveling out a little bit. Are there like, just based on your expertise, knowledge, research, what are some of the big brands that still have a foothold within the market?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think Coach, definitely they've really Coach has had a great turnaround and so much, so much has been written about that that you know in in the last year or so. But that was an example of kind of sacrificing some sales in the short term, which isn't as easy for a public company to do, to really focus on the brand and the product and the messaging and the proposition and really speaking a new language. So you know, we've seen the success there. You know some of the you know brand like Longchamp is still very strong. You know they're just kind of practical. The pliage bag forever, yes, accessible, practical. You know I guess it is sort of like. You know, inside it's a little bit of a black hole, but you know, just overall the bag, yeah, lightweight, good, good price point. You know quality. So you know. And then there are some of the designer brands.
Speaker 1:Interesting, when we look at designer right now, I mean there's no secret, luxury is struggling. There's a you know a bunch of going of things going on there with some retailers, with just, I mean, consumer being challenged or not. You know consumer can't, that, the consumer that would stretch to get designer products maybe can't right now and that's obviously a big piece. But but because of that, you see, on the spectrum of price points of designer, you know $2,500 and above is still doing okay, maybe not quite growing but it's doing better than the $2,500 and below because you've got that consumer at that really very high end. That isn't really affected.
Speaker 1:And you know, I guess there still is that quiet luxury has been talked about the last couple of years. It's still hanging around there. But also, I just think the value proposition there, you know consumers just the priorities are different, not necessarily willing to spend that money on on something like that, maybe seen as less of a status item as it once was in the past. So I mean I just think not that there isn't still great product or really high in demand brands and products. It's just that it, you know it's changed a bit.
Speaker 3:Do you think, like the? I just did a write-up for an online publication where they came to me talking about it bags like what were my thoughts on it? And you know, the only one that could come to mind, at least most recent, that was coveted, that wasn't circular, that was people wanted shiny and new, was the Margo bag by the row, that there really wasn't any other bag that people, other than maybe something by Lueve, but Lueve is still fun and unique, but you could still get your hands on it. It wasn't in short supply but the Margo and, ironically, you know, I find it so interesting because the bag is not so groundbreaking it really isn't pretty simple yeah but the row has status.
Speaker 3:The row has been around. The row is started by people that you know, the Olsen twins, who've always had a lot of respect, at least fashion-wise.
Speaker 1:Fashion space, yeah.
Speaker 3:They've had other bags that have been ooh-ahs, but nothing has had its tipping point until the Margo, and I think it came out at the peak of Quiet Luxury, because I think right now it's kind of anyone's game. Because you could have big logos, you could have no logos.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:You know, it's kind of like when people talk about denim. You know, low rise, high rise you know? Yeah, exactly, I feel like you know, you can't really put your finger on one specific item. I think it's more brand and community driven, less so product.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good point. We're seeing that in footwear too, because there was like oh, low profile, you know slimming down, but then you know, and Adidas, you know, and other brands are doing really well with that. But I mean, then you look at New Balance and it's super chunky and New Balance has been for the third year in a row, it's the number one growth brand in footwear. So it really does. The trends can all coexist today, so yeah, it's a good point Do you think novelty has any kind of foothold today?
Speaker 3:Do you think people are still excited by the fun, the whimsical, the unique?
Speaker 1:Yes, you know the market there is smaller because it's not for everyone, but it does create that dog bag from Kate Spade or the telephone bag from Betsy Johnson. I mean they're great and really interesting and maybe just helps. It's a little bit of a halo effect for the brand too. Those aren't necessarily the biggest volume drivers but they do help brand buzz and awareness and all that.
Speaker 3:I want to talk about La Boo Boo. Oh my gosh, because again it came out of nowhere but it didn't Like. I feel like it's very much. You know Malcolm Gladwell, who I have very mixed feelings about but I enjoy what he has to say most of the time. But in his very first well, his very first famous, famous book with the tipping point, he has a case study about Hush Puppy Shoes where you know it's circular economy it was. You know they were famous to a point then no one was interested. Then some very cool influencer like you know when they call them early adopter, now we call them influencers started finding hush puppy shoes from vintage stores. Lo and behold, that brought a resurgence. La boo boo I mean charms like this have been around for Ed Burr. Why do you think this one? Why, because of it was seen on celebrities, influencers, prada bags Like. Why, why do you think this has and do you think this has had an impact on bag charms as a business?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and on the bag business, right, because everybody's focused on getting the charms or the little boo-boos for their bags and not on getting a new bag. So it's, you know the price point's accessible. It's exciting because it's hard to get. You're seeing it on social media. It's interesting because people don't seem to care whether they're real or fake in some cases. I mean, maybe some people do, but like the foo-foo.
Speaker 3:I think they call the pooh-pooh. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:But you know it's funny. You know that story from years ago, the Hushpuppies story. You know it was very much before all of this social media. Yet it's the same thing happening but it's just it's like amplified. You know, like the impact is just like exponential and so it just creates something. You know people get attached to it. You know the idea.
Speaker 1:It kind of sits between a bunch of different industries and trends that are going on, like in the toy industry, collectibles and nostalgia and all that have been really strong, you know, especially among adults.
Speaker 1:Like adults have been driving a lot of the business in toys and a lot of that is because with like lego and building and you know maybe some stress release and you know all that kind of stuff. But like these collectibles and just little things that are cute and the videos with adults playing with toys and mini brands and and all of that, so it plays in a trend, it plays into fashion with accessorizing and personalization and it's back to that idea of novelty and you know the ability to customize. So right, it's like interesting because everybody wants one and it's sort of the same thing but you can get different ones and you can then use them differently and accessorize your bags differently. So it's like you're playing the trend, but you have something that's unique to you. So I mean it's kind of it's certainly blown up. I think it probably is hit its peak and you know we'll be moving on to, you know, to the next thing at some point. Not to discredit it or anything, but that's just what you know was.
Speaker 3:Strike, while the iron's hot. Do you have one?
Speaker 1:No, no, no no.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't, you know I mean, do you?
Speaker 1:No, and my daughter wants one. But I'm like I don't know. I mean, yes, we found one one time like we could get it, but I'm not like going out that the circular market you know, beyond Poshmark, with all those platforms.
Speaker 3:Do you see that now as truly a viable channel of retail? All of that like from the RealReal to Poshmark, to what are the other two that are Gen Z, that like they're obsessed with?
Speaker 1:Well, there's like in bags, there's Rebag and then there's ThredUp. Right, yeah and yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do think you know it's a hard. It's a hard one to measure and track and see what's really happening there. But I think that that has become definitely another avenue, particularly in the designer space. You know there's so much out there now and Depop there's a lot of inventory there too. So you know you can always find anything you want. And now you know almost on every you know most of the department stores may have some vintage or pre-loved product.
Speaker 1:I mean, I was poking around on Amazon, like on Prime Day. I was seeing like deals on phone designer handbags on Amazon, so it's really everywhere. So I do think that's a little bit of a challenge also for a designer space. I mean, I guess it's good in the long run, you know, for the environment I suppose, but I don't know that it's had much of that impact yet and, you know, in terms of cutting down on the amount of things we're producing.
Speaker 3:So let's just jump into this because I'm really curious. So it's summer Right now. In terms of bag trends, clutches have made a comeback to some degree. Wouldn't you agree? Which? What has you cut out for? A sec Clutches, oh, clutches, yeah. So in terms of, like other silhouettes, what is doing? Well, what do you think is on its way out? Just so we can, because I always love to hear these numbers and statistics from you, because I think it always speaks to where we're at socioeconomically and ethnographically, in terms of where we're at.
Speaker 4:If you ever wanted to start a handbag brand and you didn't know where to start, this is for you. If you had dreams of start a handbag brand and didn't know where to start, this is for you. If you had dreams of becoming a handbag designer but aren't trained in design, this is for you. If you have a handbag brand and need strategy and direction, this is for you. I'm Emily Blumenthal, handbag designer expert and handbag fairy godmother, and this is the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. Over the next 10 classes, I will break down everything you need to know to make, manufacture and market a handbag brand, broken down to ensure that you will not only skip steps in the handbag building process, but also to save money to avoid the learning curve of costly mistakes.
Speaker 4:For the past 20 years, I've been teaching at the top fashion universities in New York City, wrote the Handbag Designer Bible, founded the Handbag Awards and created the only Handbag Designer Podcast. I'm going to show you like I have countless brands to create in this in-depth course, from sketch to sample to sale. Whether you're just starting out and don't even know where to start or begin, or if you had a brand and need some strategic direction, the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass is just for you. So let's get started and you'll be the creator of the next it bag. Join me, emily Blumenthal, in the Handbag Designer 101 Masterclass. So be sure to sign up at emilyblumenthalcom slash masterclass and type in the code PINECAST to get 10% off your masterclass today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really a mix. I mean that's what's really interesting. I mean, obviously hands-free is still important. So you've got various things going on there in terms of you know like the actual, like belt bag or fanny pack is, you know that's a little less prominent, but you know some of the sort of variations, small cross bodies and you know sling type of items. So those are still important. You know the hands-free options, all different kinds of. You know materials, a lot of that, but you still do see the athleisure influence there. But you also on the other side see that there are some you know bigger totes that are the like okay, throw everything in and then also some satchel, which is a little bit. Then you have the more, a little bit more tail put together and there are definitely you know a few brands that are doing well there and you know some new brands popping up in those spaces. You know the temporary space. So it's really you know it's a mix and again it's kind of like that everything can kind of live together and anything kind of works.
Speaker 3:What are some brands that are new on the sales list that weren't on before?
Speaker 1:So a lot of the kind of new emerging brands are in more of the contemporary space. So you know that runs the gamut in terms of points, but it generally is somewhere below the designer tier but in the $400 to $700 range and that's kind of where like things are more accessible and the quality is still really good. We see brands like like a Veronica Beard is growing, strathberry Stodd, you know, claire V, not that not these are brand new brands, but you know they're small and still kind of emerging. There's a brand I a couple of brands that I actually noticed on the Nordstrom anniversary sale that's going on now.
Speaker 1:That one, a Teddy Blake, that I hadn't heard of, and then I mean I'm going to butcher the tradition but the Maison des Sabres. So that's a lot of like very tailored, looks nice, very nice leather also a lot of charms, like a little bit of novelty and whimsical there. So I'm, you know I'm always impressed, you know, when I see completely you know, new brands and we see show up in our sales data but they're on the smaller side in terms of volume but they are driving growth. So definitely new brands that are emerging.
Speaker 3:And then within the price point you said, 400 to 700 approximately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. Yeah, I mean could be some of the smaller, some silhouettes could be a little less, some silhouettes could be a little bit more. But that is a point that you know is driving some growth because it's you know the quality's there. You know brands kind of like poland, you know that kind of that kind of space. I've seen some videos. There's this guy, what's his name?
Speaker 3:tanner leatherstein yeah, we had him on. He was like one of my first guests.
Speaker 1:You know that's funny because when I started seeing I just started seeing his videos recently they got fed to me and I thought he was familiar and I couldn't pinpoint why. It was probably because I saw his. So yeah, these are like. I mean, I get hooked on these videos, sort of like you know packing videos, like when people packing their luggage and you know getting everything in there.
Speaker 3:Oh my God the luggage packing, forget it, I could watch that all day, love it Because the one thing I found with traveling, no matter how organized your stuff is, as soon as you get there it's just a mess. Like, yeah, you can be as tidy and you know, everything is in its little zippy pouches, and then, as soon as you get there, it's like, oh my God, I'm a, I'm a, and you have to get it all back in to come home. Yeah, I'm like a 14 year old teenager, stressed, trying to clean up my room. The same thing. No, he is very interesting because you know, if you can, I recommend I'll put a link back to that episode because he came from Turkey, his family was in Tannery, he traveled all over and he was a taxi driver. He ended up in Texas. He has a wallets company. He's still working with his family, is Tannery in Turkey but has, you know, obviously made a name for himself doing these videos, which is very, very clever. But he has a wallets business on the side and his family packed up and moved to Spain, actually, where there's one part of Spain where most of the leather factories are, and they moved there, which was very clever because that's another hub for where handbags are being made, this one particular spot in Spain and being part of this whole dialogue. It's interesting. I know right now there's a factory in Romania that's actually one of the handbag awards winner. She has her own factory, and I have another handbag awards winner who had her own brand and then she worked for a whole bunch of other brands. Now she is specifically working for representing factories in Mexico, trying to bring them business leather, not PU, fake leather, faux leather, whatever pleather, whatever people call it, pvs and PU, which we would know it to be, but nobody else would.
Speaker 3:I think there's a lot of opportunities to potentially have your bags made in real leather and made well, and especially with tariffs. I think a lot of people get hung up on having everything done in China and I think there's a lot of other opportunities that people don't seem to realize if they put in a little extra effort to do some extra digging. They're factories that want your business as long as you know what you're doing. Nobody wants a designer or a brand that doesn't know how to run a brand run a business, because then no one wants to take your orders and then that brings your prices up and then you end up pricing your bags at a price point that is unsellable, therefore rendering you with three to five years to be out of business. So I've dealt with a lot of brands and designers who are like my bags are going to be upwards of eight $900.
Speaker 3:And I said, girl, you cannot, you cannot, no one will buy you because you're up against. You know, established brands like a Stratfairy, like a Veronica beard, that can charge that amount but have a name, have a back, have a retail locations, because most of these quote unquote brands that are making it bags, they all have a history, they've all cut their teeth, they've all done that. You know I I'm a mess. Now I've got my act together. Like brandon blackwood, he he'd been around for almost 10 years before he had a stipping point. I knew him for ages telphar had been around for years winning the exactly.
Speaker 3:yeah, you were part of that winning the best retail bag, and a lot of people don't know that, but you know and I know because we were there for it. So I've got the video, the receipts and everything to prove it. But I think, before anybody thinks that they can be a marathon runner, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes training before you get to that point, and I think a lot of brands should spend a lot more time doing homework, research, competitive analyses and following things like Cercana to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, getting data, yeah.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of data that's available for free, isn't there?
Speaker 1:Some, yes, but obviously you know we work with clients on more of a you know some subscription basis, but also an ad hoc basis where it's you know a report or just a couple of you know a presentation, where I come in and kind of talk about what's happening. So, yeah, there's lots of different ways.
Speaker 3:But it's. There's enough information available that one could use to at least drive, in terms of contextualizing, where your brand should be at, based on even what's available within a press release or what's on your social media, things like that your quotes, your quotes are um, your quotes are basically what people should run their brands by. Oh, so you were saying that you brought up a brand?
Speaker 1:oh, yeah, I brought up tanner litherstein because just because I was talking about contemporary and he I've seen him do I mean it's letting. It's a little like when he like stabs into a bag, you're like, oh, but you know a lot of those brands in those ranges. He really comes up and they get pretty high scores on his ranking, you know for quality, you know given the price point. So I just, you know that's interesting. So I think you know there's so much more. Obviously you know he's there. But there's a lot more information out there about products and you know now even this new crop of content that popped up after the tariffs were announced, where it was like factories saying, you know, we're making the Bottega bags, you know, call us directly and you know $450, you know. And so that was like oh my God. So it's just there's a lot out there that, whether it's real, that is influencing people and how they shop and buy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean even the brand Demelier that has been around. She used to have a brand called Millie Milloo and was a finalist for the Handbag Awards in 2014. So you know, I think there's.
Speaker 1:It takes some iterations, maybe before you you know, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 3:So I think people should, designers should really pace themselves, to be patient, and I always say start with as few silhouettes, as few options as possible before you move forward, because you just you got to cut your teeth and learn what you're doing before you even start. And actually I actually have a collaboration coming out with iPal Handbag Factory where we're doing we're going to do one bag and test it out based on our research and trends with Nicole, who runs by Kyle, who's amazing in terms of her craftsmanship, and me working in handbags and a throwback to what vintage bags were, like an inspiration from a Sears catalog from 1950. There are a lot of things that are available that people can pull from that. It's not knocking off anybody. It's using something for inspiration based on what the current trends are dictating and then just taking a twist to modernize it. Like no bags predating I don't know the past 15 years had crossbody straps. Now every bag must have even clutch must come with a crossbody strap, or also two, just once out.
Speaker 1:Yep A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:That multifunction, versatility is super important. It offers a silhouette that maybe you know that only had one use. It just gives it another or one or two different types of uses and it justifies potentially of stretching. For I mean, I remember this, a couple of this was 10 years ago. I was in London and I wanted a mulberry bag. Of course I like got a small one, but I mean price point was still very high. But this is unusual in this in like in that space at this time. But the bag reversed and you know it was black. Or you could flip it around and it snapped over and then it was black, or you could flip it around and it snapped over and then it was this metallic. Then it's this metallic gray and it's got the chain strap that can be long, you can double it up, you could take it off. So, like I was like, oh, you know, this all justifies that price point and you know that was the bag that keeps on giving yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So I was like, of course it's worth this money, husband you know.
Speaker 3:Do you think the DIY trends have anything to do with what's going on like craft, handmade? Do you think that's impacting sales? Because I don't know how much it could at the level of volume that you cover, but do you see that having an impact?
Speaker 1:Maybe very small, just that. It's another thing that consumers are interested in, but I don't think it's having much of an impact on, like you know, the overall retail sales.
Speaker 3:Wow. Do you think there's anything else we can expect to see coming up, based on projections of what you're seeing?
Speaker 1:It's a good question. I mean, the business is soft. You know, when you look at the numbers, we're down. The dollars are down the last couple of years, although on a scale we track kind of the total market, kind of at a high level, you know any channel or retailer that you might buy from. And then we've got a more granular tracking of, like, the retail space, which is a lot of, where you know the department stores, online retailers, chain stores, you know that kind of thing, even an athletic retailer. So overall, at the high level, we actually see that units have been up slightly over the last couple of years, but it's a lot of these lower price point. I mean, amazon's the biggest growth driver. In the last year Costco was the number two growth driver and you know Costco is bringing in some brands, right, they also have some dupes and all of that. But then they go up on social media and I'm like I went to Costco to find you know so-and-so and there's that you know that's impressive, right?
Speaker 1:Look how smart I was for doing that. You know, a lot of third party on Amazon, a lot of like kind of in the athletic space, of course, are slowed down. But I mean the Lululemon belt bag definitely ate into the broader handbag space because I was like, oh, look at this little thing, for you know, 40 something bucks and it can fit what I need and hands-free and all that. And our phones do more that you know our phones are our wallets essentially. So you know things you know change so the dynamics really have changed. So on, overall we've seen units grow slightly but dollars down because lower price point product.
Speaker 1:When we look more on the wholesale space and we look at that traditional like women's handbag business. You know in the department store arena that's really tough and so you know retailers just continue to look for the products that are going to compensate for the losses in some of the bigger brands that they've carried. But the problem is it's just they're just not there. There's lots of little small brands that are doing great things, but it's just the volume isn't there. So I do think we'll continue to see the market there contract, but it is leading to some good innovation.
Speaker 1:I mean, look, it's hard to reinvent the wheel here, but adding function, adding novelty. Like Kurt Geiger is one. Now of course it's still a younger brand and it's growing, but it's got. It does have that novelty appeal at a price point. That's, that's right. So that's one that continues to grow. But the the thing that's important is that you know the innovation on the fashion and the function, we can, even though it's tough out there, like cannot stop because otherwise then we have nowhere to go. You know, then there's, then it's just going to get worse.
Speaker 3:So Do you see boutiques having an impact in any of this? Do you track those sales?
Speaker 1:We don't really but it's important though and we see it in some other industries where specialty, smaller specialty retailers are starting to have, you know, particularly in athletic footwear, you know are starting to have, you know, particularly in athletic footwear, you know starting to have more of an impact, because it's that more localized, personalized kind of experience. So it's on the whole, it's it's important, um kind of like bookstores having that to manage small players and a lot of work to you know to manage. But yeah, I do think it's important and then there can be more.
Speaker 1:You know, now, now again I keep coming back to this, but just with online and the social media. There there's more visibility for anyone you know, small retailer or brand, than there ever was before.
Speaker 3:Wow, oh my God, this is so much to take in. I think anybody who listens to this may need to listen to it twice. Beth Goldstein, thank you so much. I'm so excited to have you on my speed dial to have you for the State of the Union of Handbags. How can we find you? Follow you, learn more about you and your role at Cercana and your amazing quotes.
Speaker 1:Well, you can definitely just search for me on LinkedIn and I would love to connect. You could always also our website, circanacom, and we do have a page for accessories. You can click on there, see everything that we're doing, or you can shoot me an email. Very simple Beth Goldstein at circana. You can see it behind in my in my fake office here that I'm sitting in Beth Goldstein atArcanacom.
Speaker 3:And that's C-I-R-C-A-N-A for those who are not watching this on YouTube. That's right, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, going to have you back soon. Thank you so much. Thank you, thanks for listening.
Speaker 4:Don't forget to rate and review, and follow us on every single platform at Handbag Designer. Thanks so much. See you next time.
