New creative appointments named at Coach

NEW YORK — Coach announced that Zach Augustine will join the company as EVP, global environments, effective March 11, reporting to Reed Krakoff.

Augustine will lead initiatives across visual merchandising, architecture and creative cevelopment partnering with the other leaders to create a consistent and cohesive brand story.

Augustine joins Coach from Nike, where he held the role of global creative director – direct-to-consumer experience. Prior to Nike, he was co-founder of Winston, a consulting firm that worked with clients on projects ranging from brand identity design to retail and showroom design, development and production. He started his career in visual merchandising at Giorgio Armani and worked in creative leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Diesel, Polo Jeans, Nautica and Levi Strauss before launching Winston.

Additionally, Erin Thompson will join Coach this spring as VP artistic director, global environments.

In this role, Thompson will oversee all creative development for windows, in-store, showrooms and events, reporting to Augustine. Thompson comes to Coach from Selfridges & Co., in London, where she most recently held the position of head of visual, having initially joined the company in 2002. Prior to Selfridges, Thompson spent twelve years at Mulberry in progressively senior visual merchandising roles.

Lew Frankfort, chairman and CEO of Coach, said, “The appointments of Zach Augustine and Erin Thompson to these newly created roles are the latest steps we’ve taken to broaden our capabilities to enhance the Coach experience through product, retail environments and integrated marketing communications. This comprehensive approach to our transformation to a lifestyle brand will add excitement and cachet to Coach.”