Coach has launched Explore Your Story, a global, co-created campaign with Gen Z communities from the US to China. Featuring Elle Fanning and other cultural voices, the initiative blends literature, sport and digital culture, positioning storytelling as a collective act of self-expression and cultural connection.
In an era defined by scrolling, swiping and short-form snippets, Coach has chosen to pause, turn the page and invite a generation to rediscover the depth of story. The American fashion house has unveiled Explore Your Story, a global campaign built in collaboration with Gen Z communities across the United States and China, positioning storytelling not merely as inspiration but as shared cultural architecture.
What began as a listening exercise quickly evolved into a strategic shift. Across workshops, conversations and co-creation sessions, one theme surfaced repeatedly: despite being the most digitally connected generation in history, Gen Z is craving depth. In a landscape of digital fragmentation, they are reaching for narratives that linger, that stretch beyond the 15-second clip, and that allow them to see themselves reflected in something enduring.
Coach’s insight was crystallised in a remark from a young woman in China, who described books as her “portable refuge”. The phrase resonated. It captured both intimacy and mobility — a private sanctuary carried through a public world. Reading, once framed as a solitary pursuit, is now flourishing as a social force. Platforms such as BookTok have transformed personal reading lists into collective movements, while campus book clubs and online forums have turned fictional characters into shared reference points for identity and belonging.
For a generation that is hyper-connected yet often speaks of isolation, storytelling has become connective tissue. Shared narratives offer not only escape, but recognition. Stories circulate, spark discussion, and solidify community. Coach recognised that if it wished to remain culturally relevant, it could no longer simply tell stories about its audience. It had to build stories with them.
Explore Your Story marks that pivot. The brand describes it as an evolution from storytelling to story-building, from brand as author to brand as platform. Instead of broadcasting a polished message, Coach has sought to create a participatory ecosystem where Gen Z voices help define the cultural moment. The campaign is the company’s most co-created to date, shaped alongside young communities who contributed to the central insight, influenced the narrative arc, selected the books featured at its heart and guided how the initiative manifests across digital and physical spaces.
The campaign opens with a series of films featuring a cross-section of global cultural figures: actor Elle Fanning, actor Storm Reid, basketball star Paige Bueckers, (G)I-DLE leader SOYEON, French creative Lilas and Chinese singer Shan Yichun. Each brings their own narrative sensibility, reflecting the campaign’s core belief that identity is layered and intersectional, shaped by culture, community and personal history.
Beyond the films, Explore Your Story unfolds as a global ecosystem. University activations, community-led conversations and digital storytelling hubs extend the campaign’s reach into real and virtual spaces. Rather than a single advertising burst, Coach is constructing a living framework that evolves through participation. The approach acknowledges that cultural relevance today is not secured through volume, but through resonance.
To anchor the initiative in tangible form, Coach has reintroduced its iconic Tabby bag, this season accompanied by miniature, fully readable book charms selected in collaboration with Gen Z communities worldwide. These charms allow wearers to quite literally carry a story that matters to them — a symbolic gesture that has quickly gained traction across social platforms. The accessories have become conversation starters, prompting users to share the significance of the titles they choose and, in doing so, reveal fragments of their own identity.
The choice to integrate literature so prominently reflects the campaign’s broader thesis: identity does not exist in silos. It lives at the intersection of interests — literature and sport, music and activism, digital culture and lived experience. Coach has built partnerships accordingly. Collaborations span Sunnie, the Gen Z-led community and book club founded under Hello Sunshine, publishing leader Penguin Random House, the WNBA, China Youth Daily and China’s leading video platform Bilibili. The constellation of partners underscores the brand’s assertion that cultural relevance is built at crossroads, not within categories.
Creatively, the campaign is helmed by agency Forsman & Bodenfors, with strategic direction from Mandai Loop. Director Marcus Ibanez and photographer Elaine Constantine bring a cinematic, documentary-inflected sensibility to the visuals, while director of photography Patrick Golan shapes the campaign’s intimate aesthetic. Production is handled by new—land, with an original score by Jean-Marc Yee that underscores the reflective tone.
The strategic logic behind Explore Your Story is clear. For decades, fashion brands have relied on aspiration — projecting idealised images and inviting consumers to align themselves accordingly. Coach’s latest move suggests a recalibration. In an age when audiences are sceptical of top-down messaging, authenticity emerges not from polished monologues but from shared authorship. By positioning itself as a platform rather than a narrator, Coach signals a willingness to relinquish some control in exchange for deeper engagement.
This approach also acknowledges the shifting economics of attention. Gen Z’s time is fragmented, but their loyalty can be fierce when they feel seen. By embedding itself within reading communities, sports leagues and digital platforms that already command organic devotion, Coach taps into pre-existing ecosystems of meaning. The brand does not attempt to own the story; it contributes to it.
The campaign’s title operates as both invitation and imperative. Explore Your Story suggests curiosity, movement and agency. It reframes consumption as participation — not merely acquiring an object, but aligning with a narrative. In practical terms, that may mean carrying a Tabby bag adorned with a favourite book charm. Symbolically, it means recognising that personal identity is an evolving manuscript, shaped by the stories one absorbs and shares.
As Explore Your Story rolls out globally, Coach is betting that long-form thinking can thrive in a short-form world. The resurgence of reading among young audiences offers supporting evidence. What was once dismissed as analogue has become aspirational again — not in opposition to digital life, but interwoven with it. Book recommendations circulate on video platforms; annotated passages become shareable content; fictional universes spill into real-world conversations.
Coach’s campaign sits at this intersection. It treats storytelling as infrastructure — a means of building courage, empathy and collective belonging. “Our stories give us courage,” the brand asserts, “and they become more powerful when more voices join in.” In a cultural climate often characterised by noise and division, that message lands with quiet force.
Whether Explore Your Story reshapes the broader fashion marketing landscape remains to be seen. What is clear is that Coach has identified a generational pulse: a desire for meaning that outlasts the scroll. By building with Gen Z rather than speaking at them, the brand has opened a new chapter — one written not in isolation, but in community.
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