Author: openjargon

• Rudy Giuliani is dropping coin on polyester ties and pizza, bankruptcy records show.
• Unfortunately for his creditors, he's spending more money than in previous months.
• Some of the financial disclosures that Giuliani prepared himself don't add up.

Now we know what it looks like when Rudy Giuliani tightens his belt.

The former New York City mayor disclosed excruciating details of his financial life with a series of bankruptcy court filings this week, detailing a month of his income and spending.

Unfortunately for Giuliani's creditors looking to satisfy his $153 million in debt, he spent more in May — the month covered in the disclosures — than in previous months.

The most eye-popping expenses include pricy restaurant bills while he evaded being served a criminal indictment for his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona. They also include quite a few Amazon purchases, including cheap ties and "deep bronze" tanning lotion.

Giuliani earned $61,717 in income in May and spent about $33,000. The spending is thousands of dollars higher than in previous months, which creditors have already complained is irresponsibly excessive.

For the first time, Giuliani disclosed the financial details of Giuliani Communications, the company he owns that produces his video livestreams on social media.

It, too, is operating in the red — especially since his radio show was canceled last month.

In response to questions about her work for Giuliani Communications, Maria Ryan, the company's president, discussed theories about coronavirus vaccines and said she was "very disappointed" in Business Insider.

Giuliani has an Amazon habit

Giuliani's largest expense is the $12,000 monthly maintenance fee for his New York City co-op, which Giuliani is trying to sell. The 80-year-old with no dependents also seems to spend hundreds of dollars each month on groceries.

Several of the exhibits included in Tuesday's cache of filings detail Giuliani's spending on Amazon. To compile them, Giuliani appeared to take photos of his laptop showing each Amazon order and then added them to a black-and-white PDF before submitting them to court.

They show expenses you would expect from a social media vlogger, including a tripod and USB cables.

They also include personal items, including coffee (Giuliani appears to be fond of illy), socks, and a lot of neckties.

On May 7, Giuliani spent $22.98 on a 6-pack of "Men's Necktie Classic Silk Tie Woven Jacquard Neck Ties," which comprised a filibuster-proof majority of the nine ties he ordered from Amazon that month.

"The ties aren't silk, but I expected that to be a lie, so it was kind of baked in to the price," one Amazon reviewer wrote.

Photos on the Amazon listing do not show a fabric composition tag. A tag in a photo for another tie from the same brand on eBay says it's made from 100% polyester. Listings for other ties from the same brand on AliExpress and Shein show they are made from 100% polyester.

That comes to a very good deal of less than $4 per tie. But it's not clear why Giuliani, who has worked at the highest levels of politics and law — he was a personal attorney to Donald Trump during his presidency and served as the US Attorney in Manhattan — needed new ties.

Giuliani also spent about $13 on a 6-ounce bottle of "Jergens Natural Glow Instant Sun Sunless Tanning Moisturizer + Bronzer, Self Tanner, Deep Bronze, for Natural-Looking Tan."

Hopefully, he was satisfied. Giuliani has had problems with cosmetics in the past.

Giuliani's financial statements also show multiple Amazon purchases in the $3-10 range, appearing to show he purchased movies or TV episodes for streaming. The documents filed to court don't disclose what he watched.

While Giuliani was evading service for a criminal indictment from Arizona on election interference charges — he was eventually served on May 17 and posted a $10,000 bond — he racked up pricey restaurant bills in Palm Beach, where he owns a condominium apartment. For dinner on May 9, he dropped $167 at a restaurant called Bricktop's. The next day, $113 for a meal at City Pizza. And the day after that, another $119 at the Italian joint Bice.

Mysteriously, Giuliani — who, again, has no dependents — appears to have two different bills each marked as a "Telephone expense." His AT&T bill is $228, and he pays Verizon $256 per month.

Some numbers don't add up

Much to the consternation of creditors, retirement funds such as Individual Retirement Accounts are generally protected from bankruptcy proceedings. But creditors accuse Giuliani of using money from it irresponsibly.

For the first time, Giuliani disclosed that his IRA at Citi — which forms the bulk of his net worth — had a balance of about $2.5 million in 2022.

But the numbers in a table he provided in a Tuesday filing showing its disbursements don't seem to add up.

According to the filing, Giuliani withdrew $1.8 million from the account between 2022 and 2023.

That should have left him with a balance of about $700,000 at the start of 2024, when he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But Citi bank documents filed to court show a balance of over $1 million.

It's not clear what caused the discrepancy. Neither Giuliani's spokesperson nor his bankruptcy lawyers immediately responded to a request for comment.

In previous filings, lawyers for Giuliani said he withdrew heavily from his retirement account over the past several years to build up Giuliani Communications, the company that produces his video blogs, where he discusses politics.

Giuliani's vlogging company is operating in the red

Balance of Nature, a vitamin supplements company, was Giuliani Communications' biggest sponsor in May, paying the company $11,500.

Giuliani Communications also made $1,200 from MyPillow, the bedding company owned by Mike Lindell, another election conspiracy theorist who has been the subject of numerous defamation lawsuits.

Newsmax, which hosts one of Giuliani's shows, paid $8,300 that month. And he made another $2,200 from X, formerly known as Twitter, where he livestreams.

Giuliani's biggest payment came from WABC, the New York radio station owned by Republican billionaire and grocery store mogul John Catsimatidis, which paid him $15,000 per month.

That income is now gone. The station dropped Giuliani in that month after he continued to push false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

On a monthly basis, Giuliani Communications spends more money than it makes — even before the WABC cancellation.

Giuliani pays himself $45,000 each month, exceeding the company's combined income (Giuliani Communications had about $200,000 left on its balance sheet in May).

He also pays $10,000 per month to Maria Ryan, Giuliani's reported girlfriend who also serves as the company's president and recently brokered a deal with a coffee company to sell "Rudy's Coffee."

In an email to Business Insider responding to a question about her salary, Ryan, who previously worked in healthcare administration, said she took a reduced salary to work for Giuliani and said "there are people who still do not know the truth about the origins of Covid 19."

"I took a large pay cut to join Giuliani Communications," she wrote. "I did it because as an American 🇺🇸 I saw the censorship during the pandemic."

"I am very disappointed in you. There are no real journalists left," she added later in her email. "You are attacking me why? Because I am President of Giuliani communications."

"Please leave me alone. I am a grandmother of five and they are traumatized by you," she continued.

The filings come at a perilous time for Giuliani. The federal bankruptcy judge overseeing his case is considering whether to appoint a bankruptcy trustee, who would be able to control his financial life without encumbrance.

Nearly all of Giuliani's debt comes from a $148 million jury judgment against him in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers, who he falsely claimed manipulated ballots.

The bankruptcy process has halted them from enforcing the judgment and seizing his assets outright. Giuliani's lawyers have asked the bankruptcy judge to hit the pause button on the Chapter 11 process while he pursues appeals in the defamation litigation.

"Unbelievably, Mr. Giuliani continues to spend state, party, and judicial resources in pursuit of an appeal that would be fully briefed by now had he himself not chosen to seek chapter 11 reorganization instead," lawyers for the Georgia workers, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss, wrote in a letter filed to court Wednesday. "This is one more demonstration among many that Mr. Giuliani cannot be trusted to manage his own bankruptcy."

Giuliani's lawyers have said he's struggling to pay for an accountant to put together the monthly bankruptcy reports, which has led to hiccups in past filings.

Earlier filings were compiled by Joseph Ricci, an accountant whose firm was paid $4,000 by Giuliani Communications in May. Ricci has since declined to work on the banruptcy, Giuliani's lawyers have said.

The most recent reports name Giuliani himself as the party "responsible" for compiling them.

One of Giuliani's monthly expenses includes Merry Maids, a home cleaning service. Giuliani paid $195, which is pretty good for a 2,200-square-foot 3-bedroom apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Confusingly, Giuliani was billed twice for the service on the same day, on May 3, which shows why it's always a good idea to double-check your bills.

• This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
• You can sign up for Business Insider's daily newsletter here.

Happy Friday! Democrats are freaking out following Joe Biden's performance in the first US presidential debate last night. Donald Trump fired off a number of lies and misleading statements, but the debate was still a complete disaster for Biden.

In today's big story, we're looking at how young people are booking their summer vacations, finances be damned.

What's on deck:

• Markets: Imposter syndrome is an asset for this tech banker.
• Tech: Tech CEOs explain why layoffs are plaguing the industry.
• Business: It turns out nice employees finish last.

But first, just charge it.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

Destination debt

Buy the ticket, take the ride… go into crippling debt?

Summer is in full swing, and Independence Day is approaching. That means plenty of people are entering vacation mode. But these trips also put a good chunk of young people into debt, writes Business Insider's John Towfighi.

Surveys from Credit Karma, Bankrate, and Bank of America show Gen Zers and millennials are willing to go on summer vacation at all costs… literally.

Almost half of millennials surveyed (47%) were willing to take on debt to fund their travel plans, with Gen Z not far behind (42%). (However, it's not just young people. A third of Americans were happy to swipe their way to their next trip, according to Bankrate's report.)

Multiple surveys also found young people are willing to put travel plans ahead of their financial goals. In fairness, you'll always be saving for something, but you can't frolic on the Amalfi Coast in your 20s forever.

To be clear, we're not talking about a couple of overdraft fees to make it through a long weekend on the beach.

Almost a quarter of young people surveyed by Credit Karma expected to rack up $2,000 in debt this summer. And about 10% of that group were willing to push it even further, surpassing $4,000 in summer debt.

Fueling your summer vacation with debt isn't a great idea, but it's easy to see how young people can fall into that trap.

This is, after all, a country built on debt. When the government can't stop borrowing money, it's no wonder its citizens feel so comfortable doing it.

The summer is also prime time for the bane of most people's finances: weddings. Bachelor and bachelorette parties can be a particular drag. In 2023, one app estimated the typical bachelorette attendee spends $1,200 per party.

But even if exercising your credit limit might feel like a necessary evil these days, it's a particularly bad time to do it.

The average credit card interest rate is above 24% right now! So what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but the charges you piled up to get there will stay with you for a while, thanks to interest.

That's not to say you should be a homebody this summer. There are plenty of ways to travel on a budget. Maybe you do a tiny bit of work while you're there, or perhaps you don't pay to pick your seat (the middle's not so bad).

Whatever the case, just be able to afford it.

3 things in markets

1. How imposter syndrome fueled a tech banker's rise on Wall Street. As a college kid, Rob Chisholm was turned off by Wall Street's cutthroat reputation. But today, he's at the center of some of the biggest deals shaping the tech landscape. He got candid about dealing with imposter syndrome and offered advice for bankers trying to stay true to themselves.
2. TIMBER! Lumber prices are dropping. With peak home-building season coming up flat due to a lack of demand, lumber prices are down 24% from their mid-March peak. It's a sharp 180 from the start of the year when lumber brokers thought business would boom to address the housing shortage.
3. Trump's policies could be disastrous for the economy, experts warn. A group of Nobel Prize-winning economists led by Joseph Stiglitz sounded the alarm on the economic consequences of a second Trump administration. Stiglitz told BI exactly how Trump's second coming could result in higher inflation, worse inequality, and a broader economic slowdown.

3 things in tech

1. OpenAI's head start fizzles. Though ChatGPT launched OpenAI to the forefront of an intense AI arms race, the company has struggled to maintain that momentum. It's getting harder to match the buzz created by ChatGPT's initial launch — and OpenAI's rivals are catching up.
2. What's driving Big Tech's relentless cuts, according to its CEOs. Leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai are blaming tech layoffs on overhiring and a shift toward a smaller workforce. Others say they're restructuring to prioritize AI development.
3. AI will help — not hurt — livestreaming, Twitch CEO says. Contrary to the fear that AI could displace creators, Twitch's Dan Clancy is confident AI will actually help them. He said it's because viewers are looking for a human connection, something AI alone can't deliver.

3 things in business

1. Nice workers finish last. A TikToker went viral after sharing a work theory: people who are both good at their jobs and a pleasure to work with will never get promoted past junior levels. Cynical as that sounds, she may be onto something. Experts say "performance punishment" is a real thing.
2. Amazon Prime + Gigi = advertising win. Gigi, a new adtech startup, wants to help brands with streaming TV ads on Amazon. Working together could help boost Amazon's rise in TV advertising.
3. The Supreme Court had a big week. In a ruling on Thursday, the country's highest court dealt a blow to the SEC by severely limiting the way it pursues financial fraud cases. It also nixed a $7 billion bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma that protected the Sackler family from further lawsuits.

In other news

• A crisis comms expert says now is Gavin Newsom's chance to get what he wants: the presidency.
• Summer camps are cracking down on 'Sephora Kids' by banning luxury skincare products.
• I'm delighted by this car dealership's parody of 'The Office'.
• Billionaire Joe Ricketts' latest drama is right out of 'Yellowstone.'
• A Tesla driver says he crashed his brand new Cybertruck after the brakes stopped working.
• The 'worst moment' of Sam Altman's OpenAI ousting happened just before midnight, Airbnb CEO said.
• Patagonia gave 90 staff a choice — relocate across the US or leave the company. They've got 3 days to decide.
• Arizona Iced Tea founder explains why he's bucked the inflation trend and never raised its iconic 99-cent price in 32 years.
• Roaring Kitty post of a dog sparks brief rally in shares of Chewy and Petco.

What's happening today

• Iranian presidential election: Four candidates vie to succeed former President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a plane crash in May.
• Glastonbury festival begins in the UK with Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA headlining.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. Annie Smith, associate producer, in London. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.

• A steep shortage of homes has created a serious housing crisis across the country.
• Record numbers of Americans are spending more than they can afford on their mortgage or rent.
• Biden and Trump offer divergent approaches to federal housing policy.

The US is facing a housing crisis. A severe shortage of homes, high interest rates, and elevated building costs mean record numbers of Americans are spending more than they can afford on housing and are homeless.

The economy will likely be a central focus of this week's first presidential debate. Former President Donald Trump has promised to attack President Joe Biden specifically on inflation. And Trump has repeatedly accused his successor of not doing enough to keep housing costs in check.

Since taking office, Biden has pursued a grab bag of policies to incentivize affordable home construction and preservation, loosen regulations that restrict home construction, and subsidize homeownership and the cost of renting. As president, Trump proposed massive cuts to federal housing assistance for the neediest households and rolled back some fair housing policies, while urging states and cities to pursue some zoning reform — a goal that progressives also tend to support.

There have been some bipartisan efforts at the federal level to address the housing crisis. Generally, Republicans tend to be content with states and local governments controlling housing policy, while Democrats are traditionally more supportive of federal subsidies and intervention.

But lawmakers across the ideological spectrum are quick to concede the country is facing a crisis. Home prices have risen 47% since the pandemic, mortgage interest rates are hovering around 7%, and over half of renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing, making them cost-burdened, according to a new Harvard report on the state of US housing. Even as the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates, demand and prices have stayed high, keeping housing inflation stubbornly elevated.

Americans are increasingly concerned about it. US adults listed housing costs as their second-most pressing financial issue in a recent Gallup poll. The concern is bipartisan, although more pronounced among Democrats. Three in four US adults — 83% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans — say the lack of affordable homes is a "significant" problem.

Where Biden stands

As president, Biden has pushed a series of pro-housing policies and generally come out in favor of more federal participation in housing policy.

Among those policy pushes was the "Housing Supply Action" plan, which leverages federal grants and loans to incentivize states and cities to loosen land use regulations and facilitate new construction. The administration has also pushed a slew of initiatives to boost the supply of affordable housing, including encouraging the conversion of office buildings into homes with billions of dollars in federal grants and loans and boosting support for manufactured housing.

Biden's fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, which represents a sort of wish list of the administration's priorities but would require action from an often-gridlocked Congress to become law, includes $258 billion for housing initiatives, including tax credits for first-time homebuyers, homeowners who sell their starter homes, and those who build or renovate starter homes, and an expansion of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit and housing choice vouchers for renters.

Biden has discussed housing in the State of the Union and on the campaign trail, including in Nevada, which is facing a particularly severe affordability crisis. "If inflation keeps coming down — and it's predicted to do that — mortgage rates are going to come down as well, but I'm not going to wait," he said during a speech in Las Vegas in March.

In another indication that the White House is centering housing policy as the election nears, Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week announced $85 million in funding for 21 cities to subsidize affordable housing development and the construction of supportive infrastructure, including power lines and water mains.

Some of Biden's farthest-reaching policies were cut from the Inflation Reduction Act, and still others are unlikely to make it through Congress, where Republicans have opposed the vast majority of Democrats' housing proposals.

While some housing policy experts have praised the Biden administration's policies, many of the same experts say its actions haven't gone far enough to address the crisis.

Where Trump stands

As president, Trump didn't pursue as many policies directly intended to make housing more affordable. While in office, Trump's proposed budgets included significant cuts to agencies that provide federal housing subsidies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His proposed 2021 budget would have cut housing assistance and community development aid — including shrinking the housing voucher program and slashing funds for public housing — by about 15%, not factoring in inflation, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Trump rolled back certain fair housing protections, including imposing a higher bar for proving housing discrimination and eliminating an Obama-era rule designed to reduce racial segregation. Trump claimed Biden wanted to "abolish" the suburbs and assured suburbanites they would "no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood" after he dismantled the Obama rule, which Biden later restored. The Trump administration also created "Opportunity Zones," designed to incentivize businesses to invest in low-income neighborhoods. But the program has done little to boost affordable housing.

Trump hasn't talked much about housing policy on the campaign trail, despite arguing that Biden hasn't done enough to control housing costs. Last year, he unveiled a vague proposal in a video posted to Truth Social to build up to 10 new American cities on federal land as a way to give American families "a new shot at homeownership."

In another video titled "Ending the Nightmare of the Homeless, Drug Addicts, and Dangerously Deranged," Trump said he would "ban urban camping" in an effort to criminalize unsheltered homelessness. Trump has also promised to crack down on immigration, which his campaign argues would relieve pressure on the housing market. Campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to NPR that Trump would "stop the unstainable invasion of illegal aliens which is driving up housing costs, cut taxes for American families, [and] eliminate costly regulations."

• Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, won't leave the $24 billion she inherited to her children.
• Bill Gates' children will receive less than 1% of his total fortune.
• Elton John and other celebrities have announced their plans to leave their fortunes to charity.

Everyone wants what's best for their kids, and for some high-profile business magnates, billionaires, and celebrities that means not handing their wealth to their children.

Laurene Powell Jobs told The New York Times in 2020 that she doesn't want to pass the $24 billion fortune she inherited from her late husband, Steve Jobs, to their children.

"I'm not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that," she told the Times. "If I live long enough, it ends with me."

Business Insider compiled a list of 12 high-profile millionaires and billionaires, including some the world's biggest business magnates, who won't be signing over their fortunes to their kids in their will. We ranked these wealthy parents in ascending order by their net worth.

Keep reading for a look at the 12 high-profile billionaires and millionaires who aren't leaving their fortunes to their children.

British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson wants her three children to have to work for financial security.

Nigella Lawson is a food writer, TV personality, and journalist. She was one of the pioneers behind the 21st-century celebrity-chef movement with her books including "Feast," "Nigella Express," and "How to Be a Domestic Goddess."

In 2014, The Guardian reported that Lawson's production company Pabulum Productions was producing a profit of nearly $4 million from her popular TV shows and cookbooks. According to Speakers Corner, which lists Lawson among its public speakers, she has sold more than 10 million cookbook copies worldwide. 

Lawson has two adult children from her first marriage and one step-daughter from her second marriage to advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, which ended in 2013.

"I am determined that my children should have no financial security," Lawson told British magazine My Weekly in 2008, as reported by the Daily Mail. "It ruins people not having to earn money."

Gordon Ramsay has said he won't leave his vast fortune to any of his six children.

Gordon Ramsay is one of the biggest names in the British restaurant industry with a net worth of $70 million, Forbes reported in 2020. He is the owner and operator of 35 restaurants worldwide, with seven Michelin stars between them, according to his company website, and the celebrity chef has a strong TV presence, hosting shows such as "MasterChef USA," "MasterChef Junior," and "Hell's Kitchen." 

The father of six, who has been married to wife Tana since 1996, has no intention of leaving their fortune to their children.

"[My fortune is] definitely not going to them," Ramsay told The Telegraph in 2017. "And that's not in a mean way; it's to not spoil them. The only thing I've agreed with Tana is they get 25% deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat."

"I've been super lucky, having that career for the last 15 years in the US," Ramsay said. "Seriously, it has earned a fortune and I've been very lucky, so I respect everything I've got."

Ashton Kutcher isn't even going to set up a trust fund for his children.

Kutcher and his wife, Mila Kunis, are both successful Hollywood actors and recently sold the first home they purchased together for a whopping $10.4 million, People reported in 2022.

On a 2019 episode of the Dax Shepard podcast "Armchair Expert," Kutcher said he wasn't creating trust funds for his two children with Kunis. He also said he'd hear out their business ideas but wouldn't give them special treatment over the other pitches he hears for his venture capital firm, A-Grade Investments.

"My kids are living a really privileged life, and they don't even know it," said Kutcher.

Sting said he plans to spend his money instead of leaving it to his six kids.

The father of six, best known as the front man of the rock band The Police, told The Daily Mail in 2014 that his children would not inherit a penny. Forbes estimated in 2023 that Sting's net worth was about $210 million.

"I told them there won't be much money left because [my wife and I] are spending it," Sting told the Daily Mail. "We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn't much left."

"I certainly don't want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses 'round their necks," he continued. "They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate."

Elton John said it's "terrible to give kids a silver spoon" and won't leave his sons a massive inheritance.

With a career in music spanning four decades, Elton John's retirement tour earned a massive $939 million, according to Billboard, adding to his $81 million net worth, per Forbes' 2020 estimate.

John and his husband, David Furnish, have two sons — Zachary, 13, and Elijah, 11 — but the singer has no intentions of spoiling them with his vast fortune.

"The boys live the most incredible lives, they're not normal kids, and I'm not pretending they are," John told The Daily Mirror in 2016. "But you have to have some semblance of normality, some respect for money, some respect for work."

The couple borrows from the Warren Buffett school of inheritance.

"[Buffett] has a really cool model in that he leaves his children enough money so that they have a house, a car, and all their basic needs covered and cared for so they never need worry," John continued. "But it's not crazy, silly, go-wild money so that they could be buying Picassos or private jets."

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber says it doesn't bother his kids that he wants to leave his fortune elsewhere.

Webber is the musical theater composer behind award-winning, long-running shows such as "The Phantom of the Opera," "Cats," and "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat." The composer — with seven Tonys, three Grammys, an Academy Award, and a knighthood — had a net worth of about $1.07 billion in 2018, Forbes reported.

The famed composer and father of five told The Daily Mirror in 2008 that he didn't plan to pass his vast fortune on to his children.

"I am not in favor of children suddenly finding a lot of money coming their way because then they have no incentive to work," he said.

Instead, Webber told the Daily Mirror that he wants to invest his fortunes into musical projects after his death, although he had no finite plans at the time. "It is extremely likely that my wife Madeleine will outlive me so I will leave the problem with her," Webber said.

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas plans to use his multibillion-dollar fortune to fund the education of other people's children.

Lucas, a father of four, saw his net worth rocket to $6.4 billion after selling the Star Wars franchise and his production company "Lucasfilm" — both of which Lucas owned 100% of the rights to — to The Walt Disney Company for $4.05 billion in 2012. Forbes estimates his 2024 net worth at $5.3 billion.

However, a spokesperson for Lucas told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012 that the majority of the funds made from the deal would go toward educational philanthropy projects.

Lucas founded the George Lucas Educational Foundation, also known as Edutopia. This foundation aims to research and improve educational practices in schools so that children gain the most from their education.

He has one adopted daughter from his first marriage, two further adopted children, and a daughter with his second wife, Mellody Hobson.

Laurene Powell Jobs said that her family's billionaire status "ends with me."

Laurene Powell Jobs inherited a multibillion-dollar fortune from her late husband, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, after his death in 2011.

The 56-year-old billionaire is a formidable presence in the investing world and a full-time philanthropist. She is the founder of College Track, a nonprofit organization that helps prepare low-income students for higher education, and the "social change organization" the Emerson Collective.

Jobs has three children: Reed, 32; Erin, 28; and Eve, 25. Forbes estimates her and her family's net worth at $14.7 billion.

"It's not right for individuals to accumulate a massive amount of wealth that's equivalent to millions and millions of other people combined," Jobs told The New York Times in 2020. "There's nothing fair about that."

Michael Bloomberg also plans to give his fortune to charity instead of to his daughters.

Former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is the founder and CEO of software, data, and media company Bloomberg LP and is the 14th richest person in the world, with a fortune of $106 billion, according to Forbes.

The former mayor of New York City has publicly announced he hopes to give away his entire fortune before he dies, the majority of which will be donated to his philanthropic initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Bloomberg also plans to leave his company to Bloomberg Philanthropies upon his death, "if not sooner," Bloomberg spokesperson Ty Trippet told the Financial Times in 2023.

Bloomberg's two daughters, Georgina, 41, and Emma, 45, both work for philanthropic causes themselves.

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan wrote in a Facebook post after their first daughter was born that they intend to leave their fortune to charity.

After welcoming his first daughter, Max, with his wife, Priscilla Chan, in December 2015, Zuckerberg publicized the child's birth by posting an announcement on Facebook.

In the post, Zuckerberg declared he and his wife would donate 99% of Max's inheritance to charity. According to Forbes, Zuckerberg has a net worth of about $182 billion and is the fourth-richest person in the world.

The announcement, addressed to Max, said, "We want you to grow up in a world better than ours today."

"We will do our part to make this happen, not only because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation," Zuckerberg continued.

The couple has since welcomed two more daughters, August and Aurelia. 

Warren Buffett is leaving much of his fortune to his best friend Bill Gates' foundation instead of to his children.

Warren Buffett made his name as an investor and serves as the CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns or holds stakes in dozens of companies including Kraft Heinz, American Express, Duracell, and Apple.

Buffett has been named "one of the most successful investors of all time" and has a net worth of over $134 billion, according to Forbes.

Buffett is also a keen philanthropist who plans to donate 99% of his vast fortune to various charities when he dies, leaving nothing to his children. He is the cofounder of the Giving Pledge, an organization he launched with Bill Gates asking wealthy people to donate at least half of their fortune to charity, according to Forbes.

NBC News reported that rather than handing each of his three children money, Buffett has instead promised to give about $2.1 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to each of his children's charities as rewards for the foundations' success.

The majority of his fortune will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has already donated $56 billion to this foundation and his children's foundations, Forbes reported.

Bill Gates may be a multibillionaire, but his kids will "only" be millionaires.

Like many of the world's richest billionaires, Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a keen philanthropist and plans to pass on the vast majority of his fortune to charitable causes. He has a net worth of about $134.1 billion, according to Forbes.

Gates and his now ex-wife, Melinda, established the world's largest private charitable foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which works to "help all people lead healthy, productive lives." Melinda has since stepped down from the foundation.

Bill Gates' three children have inherited their father's philanthropic gene and are reportedly happy not to be inheriting their father's fortune.

In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything," the Microsoft magnate said his children will inherit just $10 million each — equivalent to less than 1% of his fortune, the Huffington Post reported.

"I definitely think leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favor to them," Gates said. "Warren Buffett was part of an article in Fortune talking about this in 1986 before I met him, and it made me think about it and decide he was right."

Bobbie Edsor, Marissa Perino, and Taylor Nicole Rogers contributed to an earlier version of this story.

• Many tech figures were less than impressed with Joe Biden after his debate with Trump.
• Venture capitalists queried Biden's fitness for office, while joking the country was in danger.
• Other responses ranged from sharp criticism to mockery and despair.

Several Silicon Valley figures have offered their thoughts on President Joe Biden's performance in Thursday's presidential debate — and it's not a pretty picture.

Many believe that the night simply could not have gone worse for the president.

The event triggered no shortage of hot takes from tech personalities and influencers, who took to social media to mock Biden's performance against Donald Trump.

Over the course of roughly 90 minutes, Biden's fitness for office was questioned as he fumbled several lines, appeared to forget what he was saying, and was dragged into a battle of vindictive personal attacks with his Republican nemesis.

"We have a 1,000 trillionaires in America — I mean billionaires in America," the sitting president said at one point while commenting on the country's tax system.

Some Silicon Valley figures have warmed up to Trump

Heading into Thursday's debate, the election was clearly splitting opinion among Silicon Valley figures.

Biden had earned public support in tech circles from the likes of LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman and Vinod Khosla, a billionaire venture capitalist who hosted the president at his home for a fundraiser last month.

But he had also drawn sharp criticism from powerful tech figures like Elon Musk, who wrote on X in April that Biden "is just a tragic front for a far-left political machine" who "obviously barely knows what's going on."

After the debate, Musk chose to focus on the blizzard of memes that had been circulating rather than the candidates' performances.

Plenty of other tech figures did not hold back when discussing Biden's performance, however.

While there's been a deafening silence from Biden supporters like Hoffman and Khosla have shared a deafening silence following last night's broadcast, ardent Trump supporters were vocal.

David Sacks, an influential entrepreneur and investor who officially endorsed Trump this month, took to social media to lay into the president's blunders on live television.

"If Biden can't handle a debate, how can he handle the most dangerous foreign policy situation since the Cuban Missile Crisis? It's time to pull back from the brink," Sacks wrote on X in the aftermath of the debate.

Jason Calacanis, an angel investor who cohosts the "All In" podcast with Sacks, also took to X to comment that wrote on X that a "hot swap" is coming, suggesting that the Democrats were getting ready to replace the incumbent president as their candidate.

"This is unfair to Biden — let him retire and enjoy his twilight years," he said while adding during a live blog that "he objectively seems out of it."

It's notable, though, that he was not positive about Trump's performance either. He accused the former president of rambling and said the fact-checkers would likely "savage" his claims.

Some tech figures leaned into mockery. Nikita Bier, a Los Angeles-based founder, seemed to excoriate the president's performance, writing that "it's crazy that the entire future of the country was changed by a single intern forgetting to bring the Adderall to Atlanta."

Meanwhile, Shaun Maguire, general partner at venture capital firm Sequoia, said: "If Biden was that bad when maximally prepped," it's worth asking what America is getting "behind closed doors."

Others expressed their dismay more broadly.

Delian Asparouhov, partner at Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, kept things more straightforward, writing: "Every American citizen tonight," alongside a screenshot of Ralph Wiggum from "The Simpsons" carrying the simple caption: "(chuckles) I'm in danger."

Startup investor Sarah Guo also lamented the situation, saying simply, "This is not the best America has to offer."

Still, others sounded positive notes for the Democrats as a whole. Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham posted on X that "Biden bombing the debate" was good for the party as a better candidate would emerge.

While speculation swirls around whether the Democrats will indeed replace Biden as their nominee ahead of the election, it's clear that a growing percentage of Silicon Valley has decided who their preference is.

• Biden's debate performance has led to mounting pressure for him to bow out of the presidential race.
• Experts said it's not too late, but a decision to drop out could lead to chaos, like in 1968.
• Biden could say he's not running, resign as president, or face delegate defections.

Can the Democrats replace President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket?

Following the president's fumbled debate performance on Thursday, this question could be on many people's minds.

And as Business Insider has previously written, history can usually guide us on what could happen.

In 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out of the race, his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, entered the Democratic primary, but he was too late to get on some states' ballots.

Humphrey amassed a larger share of delegates than his rivals, Robert F. Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, but did not have the majority needed for the nomination.

This led to a contested Democratic National Convention in Chicago, marked by violent protests.

The nation, already facing upheaval with the Vietnam War and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., had been thrown into shock and mourning when Kennedy, the younger brother of late President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles.

Delegates eventually voted to name Humphrey the nominee, but he ultimately lost the election to former Vice President Richard Nixon.

Biden may choose not to stand, but it could lead to chaos

If Biden were to drop out of the race before August, when Democrats are scheduled to formally nominate a candidate in Chicago, there would likely be another contested convention.

Mitch Robertson, a lecturer in US modern political history at University College London, told BI that such a scenario would evoke the tumultuous events of 1968 — a comparison that he said was both apt and disheartening.

Robertson said that, like 1968, which was precipitated by Johnson announcing that he wouldn't run for president, Biden would need to make the decision to decline his party's nomination.

Like Johnson, he could also pledge to serve the rest of his term in office.

Still, it would kick off a contest to find his replacement, as there is no formal mechanism for Biden to automatically anoint his successor.

Robertson said that the process could be bad news for the Democrats.

"The lessons of 1968 and the convention of 1968 in particular have always loomed large in the Democratic mind and the US political history mind as an unmitigated disaster," he said.

In 1968, it led to chaos and an election loss, which Robertson said would be the Democrats' main fears of a contested convention, "that it would do the same thing all over again."

It takes a majority of the roughly 4,000 pledged delegates to win the party's nomination. In the primaries and caucuses, Biden won 3,900 delegates.

Thomas Gift, director of UCL's Center on US Politics, explained that if Biden bows out, and the DNC rules don't change, his pledged delegates would become uncommitted, potentially leading to lobbying and voting for a replacement.

"I think that is still quite unlikely, but it is more likely than it was before last night," he told BI.

Gift said a key challenge is that there is "no obvious heir apparent."

Typically, the vice president is the go-to individual, but Gift said Vice President Kamala Harris's approval ratings are too low for her to be a serious contender.

"I think a lot of individuals would want to throw their hat into the ring," he said. "I think it would have the potential to create a lot of disorder, chaos, and conflict within the party."

Mark Shanahan, an associate professor at the University of Surrey, whose research focuses on US presidential politics, said the "best bet" is that Biden throws his support behind a strong new candidate before the August convention.

Governors Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer, as well as Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, are seen as potential candidates.

Shanahan continued: "The worst-case scenario for the Democrats is there's no clear succession by the time of the convention, which becomes, in effect, an 'open convention' and who takes on Trump in November is decided through a divisive faction floor fight in Chicago."

Biden could resign, but Harris wouldn't automatically become the nominee

Biden could go one step further. Under intense pressure, he could resign as president.

It would make Harris the president, but not necessarily the nominee.

"Even if Kamala Harris is president, it still doesn't mean that Biden can say, 'All my delegates are now hers,'" Iwan Morgan, emeritus professor of US History at UCL's Institute of the Americas, told BI.

"The rules are very clear," he said. "You're committed to a particular person on the first ballot."

The delegates wouldn't automatically transfer to Harris, so she would still need to win a majority of delegates at the convention, which Morgan said would involve a lot of "horse-trading" and intense lobbying.

Delegates could defect

Another scenario, which the experts said is pretty unlikely, is that delegates could defect en masse.

"Unchartered waters doesn't even begin to describe it," Morgan said. "Yes, they could do that, but it would need to be coordinated."

While delegates aren't legally bound to their candidates, they are largely presumed to be loyal.

The current DNC rules read that "delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them."

Theoretically, this provides some wiggle room, but not much.

"The point is the DNC is under Biden's control," he said. "It's just a question of what kind of influence can be brought to bear on Biden."

It's not too late, but it wouldn't be easy

Morgan said the Democrats still have time because the election campaign "proper" doesn't typically start until Labor Day in September.

However, he added that for a smooth process, "the sooner they can move Biden, the more chance they have to prepare for the convention."

John Owens, a professor of US government and faculty fellow at the American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, told BI via email that "given Biden's insistence on this early debate, there may be enough time for Democrats to turn this round."

But he said it's going to be a tall order and will depend on the flexibility of the party, as well as state rules and regulations making this possible.

Owens said one thing is clear to him: "Biden is toast, and if the Dems do not turn this around, US democratic procedures and culture may also be toast."

• Biden struggled in the first 2024 presidential debate.
• His weak performance, marked by slurred speech and gaffes, overshadowed his arguments.
• Trump appeared more confident and alert, despite making several inaccurate statements.

The first presidential debate of 2024 did not go well for President Joe Biden.

As he and former President Donald Trump sparred for an hour and a half on Thursday night, it became clear that Biden's style points — or lack thereof — would come to define the night.

Despite a few jabs at Trump, Biden spent much of the debate slurring through sentences and, at times, sounding incoherent.

"We finally beat Medicare," Biden said at one point, just one example of several major gaffes.

But the shortcomings of Biden's performance — which Business Insider's politics reporters called a "complete disaster" — went beyond his speaking segments.

BI spoke to a public-speaking coach and an executive coach, both of whom said Biden's conduct while listening to Trump speak also hurt his image.

'It wasn't the president's finest hour'

When it was Trump's turn to speak, Biden sometimes looked toward the ground as though drifting from the conversation. At various points, Biden held an intense yet vacant stare with his mouth ajar and brows furrowed.

"It wasn't the President's finest hour. He primarily played into his opponent's accusations of weakness, and people often view a leader's speaking performance as shorthand for their leadership style," Paul Falzon, a Singapore-based public speaking and presentation coach with 20 years of experience, told BI.

"I believe he spoke too quickly," Falzon added. "He couldn't enunciate and emphasize keywords effectively, something compounded by the raspy quality of his voice."

Biden's occasional habit of averting eye contact and looking down indicates he was listening carefully and preparing rebuttals, Falzon said. Still, it made him seem "somewhat cowed," Falzon said.

"I don't think Biden's base can put a positive spin on his first debate performance," Falzon said.

Adriana Giotta, a clinical psychologist and executive coach, shared a similar critique of Biden's reactions during the debate.

"Too many stunned, sarcastic, or disconnected facial expressions as a reaction to the speaker do not convey professionalism and equanimity, instead exuding weakness," Giotta told BI about Biden's demeanor.

"I would instead recommend always maintaining a strong posture with the head raised and the gaze looking ahead to keep the facial expression as neutral as possible," she added.

The age of TikTok isn't being kind to Biden

Trump has often used Biden's age to argue that Biden is unfit for office. Biden is 81. Trump is 78.

To be sure, Biden's reactions during the debate can't be taken as absolute indicators that he wasn't paying attention to the conversation or is unfit for office.

But politicians' gaffes land badly in the age of TikTok and Instagram Reels. In Biden's case, social media is filled with clips of him appearing to hobble away during leadership meetings or having to be ushered off-stage by other politicians.

The White House has disputed these clips, saying many were edited or cropped in bad faith to portray Biden as feeble or forgetful.

The damage, however, is not so easily reversed — especially when considering how young voters get their news.

Google recently found that Gen Zers, 41 million of whom are eligible to vote in the US this year, tend not to consume long articles or research, choosing instead to view headlines or watch videos before going straight to social media comments sections.

And Thursday's debate will likely serve up fodder for those who want to portray Biden as a senile man, even if some of his arguments were logical and factual.

Trump, for his part, repeatedly lied about or mischaracterized Biden's policies during the debate, hurling several false statements on immigration and economic growth.

But demeanor-wise, he appeared active and alert. The public-speaking experts BI spoke to agreed that Trump seemed more confident and exuded more conviction.

Trump's body language demonstrated "more assurance, leadership abilities, and reliability to the audience," Giotta said.

Falzon echoed this idea.

"His gestures were more expressive and less aggressive than his debates in 2020, and this gave him the aura of confidence," Falzon said about Trump.

"However, I don't think we should confuse his confidence with substance," Falzon added.

In many moments, the dichotomy between his composure and Biden's was painfully apparent.

And the Trump campaign knows it. Hours after the debate wrapped, it emailed supporters lauding a "split-screen for the ages."

"A strong, focused, and powerful performance from President Donald J. Trump and an incoherent, humiliating, and embarrassing display of Crooked Joe Biden's weakness and decline," it said.

The Trump and Biden campaigns did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI.

• Some of Silicon Valley's biggest names are in their tech bro era.
• It wasn't always like this — many Big Tech CEOs have shed more nerdy personas from their startup days.
• Here's a look at tech's most influential executives then and now.

Mark Zuckerberg isn't the only tech CEO whose style has noticeably evolved over the years.

Other Big Tech leaders have significantly changed up their looks since starting their companies; some are nearly unrecognizable (we're looking at you, Jeff Bezos.)

Here's a look at the style transformations of some of tech's biggest names:

Jeff Bezos

Bezos founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994. He attributes his new look partly to working out with a celebrity personal trainer and changing his diet.

Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard in 2004.

Gone are the days of the Zuck who famously wore the same thing every day to save brainpower for more important decisions. Instead, Zuck can now be seen sporting graphic tees and chain necklaces.

Part of Zuckerberg's physical transformation also stems from hobbies like Brazilian jiu-jitsu and MMA fighting.

Michael Dell

Dell is another member of the college dropouts-turned-tech founders club.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998.

Elon Musk

The photo at left shows Musk in 1999, around the time the "PayPal mafia" was formed.

Musk has said he doesn't care for exercise and "almost never" works out, though he's credited fasting and the weight loss drug Wegovy with his appearance today.

Bill Gates

Gates and the late Paul Allen cofounded Microsoft from a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1975.

Jack Dorsey

Twitter was founded in 2006. Cofounder Dorsey has been seen with a full beard pretty regularly since departing as CEO and focusing his efforts more on cryptocurrency at Block, formerly Square.

Richard Branson

Richard Branson started the Virgin brand in 1970 with a mail order record business.

At 73 years old today, Branson's day-to-day life still features plenty of exercise, from tennis and cycling to kite-surfing.

Jack Ma

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma disappeared from public view in 2020 after criticizing China's financial regulation system. He resurfaced in Thailand in 2022 and has been teaching as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo.

Anne Wojcicki

Anne Wojcicki founded genetic testing company 23andMe in 2006.

Whitney Wolfe Herd

Whitney Wolfe Herd founded Bumble in 2014 and stepped down as CEO last year.

Evan Spiegel

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snap, which owns services like Snapchat, in 2011.

• The Henley Passport Index ranks the most powerful passports in the world for visa-free travel.
• Singapore is in the top spot with its passport, which allows holders to travel to 195 countries.
• The US passport can access 188 countries, behind passports from 27 other countries.

Thinking of visiting China, India, or Venezuela with a US passport for your summer vacation? Not so fast — or at least not before securing a visa. Some of the best wonders of the world require US citizens to obtain a visa before take-off, an inconvenience in planning that long-awaited international getaway.

US passport holders can access 188 countries globally without a visa, putting it in eighth place among world passports on the global mobility spectrum, according to the 2024 Henley Passport Index. Passports from 27 other countries provide more global mobility than a US passport.

The index is a ranking of passports based on how many countries their holders can access without a visa and is based on data from the International Air Transport Authority.

Singapore is in the top spot with its passport, which allows holders to travel to 195 countries without first securing a visa. Japan had previously held the No. 1 position but has since fallen to No. 2, joining France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, which all allow access to 194 countries.

Below are the countries with the most powerful passports, ranked by ascending number of visa-free travel options, based on the 2024 Henley Passport Index.

10. Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia passport holders can visit 186 countries without visas in 2024.

9. Holders of Estonia, Lithuania, or United Arab Emirates passports can visit 187 countries without a visa in 2024.

8. Travelers can visit 188 countries without a visa in 2024 if they have a passport from the USA.

7. Travelers can visit 189 countries without visas in 2024 with a passport from Hungary, Poland, Czechia, or Canada.

6. Holders of Greece, Malta, New Zealand, and Australia passports can visit 190 countries without a visa.

5. Travelers can visit 191 countries without a visa in 2024 if they have a passport from Norway, Portugal, or Switzerland.

4. United Kingdom, Denmark, and Belgium passport holders can visit 192 countries without visas in 2024.

3. Sweden, South Korea, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland, and Austria passport holders can visit 193 countries without a visa in 2024.

2. Holders of Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, and France passports can visit 194 countries without a visa in 2024.

1. Travelers can visit 195 countries without a visa in 2024 if they have a passport from Singapore.

Zoe Rosenberg contributed to an earlier version of this report. This story was first published in January 2023 and updates were made in January 2024 and June 2024.

Throughout the early aughts, my purse of choice was a brown wristlet covered in monogram Cs.

The wallet-sized bag was, of course, from Coach — or at least designed to look like it was. (I'm pretty sure my aunt bought it from a street vendor in New York City.) But the accessory's impact was all the same.

Whenever I pulled a few dollars out of my imitation bag to buy a candy bar or CD, I felt like Paris Hilton and the other celebrities I'd read about in teen magazines.

Unfortunately, the brand had lost most of its appeal by the time I reached adulthood and could afford a real Coach purse. Its famous letter pattern looked especially outdated.

So, it was shocking to me and other millennials when Coach staged a successful comeback.

Seemingly overnight, the brand's old-school magazine advertisements were replaced with eye-catching TikToks, its unknown models stepped back to make room for stars like Lil Nas X, and its famous neutral bags were pushed to the side for cute, cherry-print purses that Gen Z loved.

The rebrand, which started in 2020, worked instantly and is still boosting sales four years later. Tapestry, the label's parent company, reported Coach as its top earner during the second quarter of 2024 with $1.54 billion in revenue — a 7% increase compared to last year.

And if you speak with any Coach fan about why they like the brand, those numbers won't surprise you.

"A lot of us are looking for an it-brand to wear that isn't totally going to break the bank but is still very cute and high quality. And that's Coach," Erin Keel, a 26-year-old fan from Los Angeles, told Business Insider.

The origins of a legacy brand

Coach, founded by six artisans in 1941, started as a small leather goods company that crafted wallets. It eventually grew with the help of Lillian Cahn and Miles Cahn, who purchased the business in 1961 and renamed it the Coach Leatherware Company. Lillian was responsible for introducing handbags to the brand.

The work of designer Bonnie Cashin was especially popular in the brand's earlier days. She added the now-famous turnkey hardware to various Coach designs and was responsible for crafting a purse that mimicked paper grocery bags. The piece has long been coveted, with Coach selling refurbished Cashin Carry Totes on its site today.

Lew Frankfort, who joined Coach as vice president in 1979 and became CEO in 1995, transformed the company into the American fashion house we now know.

He did so by making Coach a cultural touchstone.

In the late '90s and early 2000s, the brand's monogrammed purses in tan colorways were the epitome of luxury. They were everywhere — from celebrities' arms to red carpets.

But by the 2010s, profits and interest were dropping — something experts then cited to high prices and the elimination of coupons, which later forced Coach to discount items heavily.

Competitor brands like Michael Kors and Kate Spade swept business from Coach around 2014, and Frankfort stepped down from his role as CEO that year to become executive chairman.

With Victor Luis now at the helm, the brand's choice to pull its focus from department stores in 2016 also led to further sales declines. And with fewer people buying Coach bags, consumer ideas of the brand shifted.

Keel, who purchased her first Coach accessory — a discounted cardholder from Coach Outlet — around that time, remembers the change in the brand's perception vividly.

"I was at a party, and I overheard a girl talking about how she had a bunch of designer bags, like Chanel and YSL," she told BI. "Then I heard her say that Coach wasn't really designer and that it was only for people who were broke."

"My face went bright red, and I just felt so embarrassed," she continued. "I remember clutching the cardholder in my hand, trying to cover the fact that it was Coach."

Coach, eight decades later

Thanks to the brand's overhaul, hearing such a strong take on the legacy brand today would almost feel preposterous.

After two leadership changes — Luis was ousted in 2019, and his successor, Jide J. Zeitlin, left in 2020 — Todd Kahn joined the brand.

Under his leadership, Coach returned to its glory days. It began relying heavily on digital marketing across TikTok and Instagram, where its Tabby design eventually took off and became an it-bag of 2023.

One advertisement, in particular, grabbed consumer heartstrings as Lil Nas X, Camila Mendes, and other celebrities opened their Tabby bags to reveal their inner thoughts and "emotional baggage."

Last year, the fashion house also launched Coachtopia, a sub-brand focused on sustainable accessories and creative designs, many of which cater to Gen Z consumers.

The above efforts were flawlessly executed and almost immediately successful. Tapestry reported that Coach sales increased by 11% in the third quarter of 2023. The parent company's most recent report said Coach had acquired 1.5 million new North American customers in the second quarter of this year.

Beth Goldstein, a Circana fashion analyst specializing in accessories, told BI that while fashion is cyclical, it's not necessarily common for a brand to come back as strongly as Coach has in recent years.

"The brand did a good job when it said: OK, we need to reset this supply and demand equation, and we need to pull back from retailers that are not doing our brand any favors," she told BI of the brand, noting their discounted products at department stores and other retailers. "And they did that at the expense of sales, but they focused on brand equity and the product and put those two things first."

The multi-generational approach

At the core of Coach's success, of course, is its fan base.

As Tapestry stated in its latest report, many of Coach's original millennial customers are still around, but much of the company's comeback can be credited to Gen Z.

Keel purchased her first Coach purse in 2021 and now has a collection of nearly 20 bags. She regularly posts social media content about her collection and is particularly drawn to Coach's sustainability efforts, its wide range of bag styles, and high-quality products.

"I like Coach because it's trendy but still very timeless," Keel told BI. "And they come out with a lot of different, fun pieces frequently throughout the year, so it's something you never get bored of."

"Nostalgia is one of the most powerful marketing tactics."

Customers are drawn to more than just new, trendy pieces. Old Coach designs are also seemingly impacting the brand's current business.

As the brand previously shared on Instagram, its Tabby bag was inspired by a 1970s Coach design. In June, it also relaunched its Swing Zip bag, which first went on sale in 1998.

Kate Bauer, a 29-year-old from Toronto, collects vintage Coach bags that she exclusively buys secondhand. She told BI that the importance of old Coach styles to the brand's current business has never been clearer.

"Nostalgia is one of the most powerful marketing tactics, and Coach has done a really good job of creating new bags that reference old ones," she told BI. "And that consistent aesthetic has been instrumental in keeping the brand at the forefront of people's minds."

When I entered one of the brand's boutiques earlier this month, I felt two time periods colliding.

The shop's brown walls, warm lighting, and glass cases screamed 2006. So did the few monogrammed wristlets I saw displayed on mannequins. Still, the Tabby purses that lined each shelf brought me back to 2024.

It became clear that the recipe for Coach's comeback was much simpler than I originally thought. The brand didn't need to change much. It simply needed to grow up and get with the times.

Can the Coach comeback last?

Goldstein noted that it's a "natural progression" for most fashion and accessories brands to have ups and downs.

She said Coach's ongoing success story is a little less common, but other Y2K brands, specifically Crocs and UGG, have staged similar comebacks recently and made them last.

All three brands, Goldstein noted, expanded the ranges of their classic products to include more unique styles.

"They all focus on individuality and inclusiveness," Goldstein said of Coach, Crocs and UGG. "They offer a message of 'you be you' and sell products that consumers don't already have."

Like any company, Goldstein said, Coach and similar brands need strong management to leverage future success. A consistent focus on consumer interests and new ideas is also key.

"I don't think any one brand can be as big as it ever was before because there's too much competition now," she said. "But I do think that Coach absolutely has lasting power."