Yahoo Sports Telfar Plans Last Bag Security Program June 16 to 18
Telfar, which launched an unlimited preorder that ignored fashion’s logic of exclusivity and scarcity with the Bag Security Program in 2020, is switching gears. From June 16 to 18, Telfar will launch the fifth and final Bag Security Program, and it’s the last chance for shoppers to order any bag, in any size and any color, and have it custom made.
Telfar plans for the bags to arrive twice as fast as before, starting within two weeks of preorder, between June 26 and Aug. 31.
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To publicize the launch, Telfar conducted a series of one-on-one Zoom calls with customers in which Telfar personally informed them of the news. These recordings were shown on giant screens throughout New York, including on an LED box truck traveling the boroughs, the big screen of the Greenpoint drive-in, and the video screens of Barclays, where passersby gathered to hear the news.
Bag Security is ending as Telfar seeks strategies beyond the drop model, including its own TelfarTV streaming platform and the launch of brick-and-mortar stores in 2024.
“We are really trying to be true to the fact that Telfar is something we do with our customers. They make it up as much as we do — so as we grow, other brands’ blueprints don’t fit. We have to do everything differently,” said Babak Radboy, Telfar partner and creative director.
Last week, for example, Telfar launched a secret sale by texting customers directly via SMS revealing a one-hour window to get any bag they wanted. With the text instructing customers “don’t tell anyone,” the experiment “was wildly successful” and the text went viral, trending on Twitter with zero publicity or marketing, according to the company.
“Bag security changed our lives and changed fashion, New York literally looks different — and we were able to leave the fashion system. We literally do exactly what we want as a company. That’s exactly what we are doing by moving on from it, too. We want people to be able to get our bags — but also for people who get our bags to get us. Otherwise what is it? So we want to make it both easier and harder. Because it’s never been about money. So it better be about something,” said Telfar Clemens, founder of Telfar.
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