Telfar’s Bag Security Program: Revolutionizing the Fashion Exclusivity Market

Earlier this week the designer brand Telfar announced they would be doing a bag security program. For background information, Telfar is black owned fashion brand that was established in 2004. But it was in 2014 when their now staple “shopping bag” was released. It has become fairly more popular in the last couple of years. The bag comes in 3 different sizes (small, medium, large) and has various color assortments.

It started becoming popular because of the price. It was a designer bag at an accessible price point. The small bag is $150, the medium bag is $202, the large bag is $257. This is different to most fashion labels as their bags are priced higher most of the time, being at a double or even quadrupled price point. (A small bag starts off at: Louis Vuitton $365, off-white $860, Prada $680, Gucci $890, etc. and the bag prices only go up when getting bigger size, per usual.)

This started catching the attention of more people. Also the design. It’s an everyday bag. The simplicity of the design is what makes it for anyone, it’s nothing to flashy but nothing very bland. The logo on the side is what really makes the bag pop. Not to mention the various colors that can be available. You could use it for school, as bag for everyday or the literal name, as a shopping bag. Moreover, the brand was very inclusive. Stating that they are a unisex line. Additionally, the brands slogan “It’s not for you, It’s for everyone” really tied everything together. Oh, AND it’s faux leather, we love animal cruelty free bags. Top it off by it being spotted by many celebrities like Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid on the streets.

As the brand and the bag started to become popular they kept selling out. Why? There was a high demand and not enough bags in production. The bags are only made in certain quantities for each color and size. While this may be good for the brand’s name as it’s getting its being talked about for scarcity and exclusivity. Overall, it’s bad for the consumer and even the brand. A lot of the bags ended up getting bought by resellers who had bots ready to buy them when they dropped. This made the bag even harder to get and the resell values to go up. Bags were/are being sold for 4-10 times their original price.

According to Telfar, they plan production for 6 months in advance. And since bags sells in seconds, and they do not know if it’s an actual consumer or a bot they do not know how many to make. Telfar is self financed. This makes it even harder to produce bags because overall it’s a business, if you don’t sell the bags you made it’s your loss. But they do believe in inclusivity not exclusivity. Remember their slogan;

“It’s not for you, it’s for everyone.”

They decided to have a bag security program on June 19, 2020 & now October 5, 2021z. With this program you could order any size bag with any color, and get as many as you wanted. While you weren’t going to get them quickly, as they made the bags per order, so this stops resellers because this is a even more direct consumer to seller option. They did say that you will get the bags between December 15, 2021 and January 15, 2021 ( for security program 3 it’s by March 31, 2022.) This would be separate from their already planned monthly releases. You could either try and wait for one of those releases and hope you get a bag or pre-order a bag on that certain day and be guaranteed a bag with a waiting period of a couple of months.

I think this was a brilliant move by Telfar. They are breaking the barriers of exclusivity and pricing. They could have easily raised the prices on the bags and tried adding more bags in the planning. The public would’ve understood as they knew that the bags are in high demand. But they didn’t they instead found a way to still get the bags out their for their actual consumers and supporters without raising prices or over charging them. I give them mad respect for that.

This could change the way luxury brand releases are dropped. Instead of a certain quantity, they just make them pre-order and have them all shipped out around a certain date. Again, cutting out resellers who make huge profits from buying large quantities and then pricing them as they like. This is great thing that more brand should do not only to get the consumers the products they want; but to get the actual earnings for their products.

Some people actually didn’t. People on social media platforms like twitter were actually upset telfar was doing this. Saying that it’s lost it’s “exclusivity” and “hype.” Which they didn’t even want in the first place. In their statement released for security program they state they are not about the hype. Then people say not everyone can wear a telfar bag. It’s a monochrome bag… and even their slogan it states “…it’s for everyone.” And people even started making color meanings to what bag you had.

It was mostly people who love being/having “exclusivity.” (Lol) Telfar just want to get their bags out to the people that want them. I think this was so unnecessary. Some people just don’t like seeing others happy or with something they have, when the own brand wants the products to be accessible. Which is SOOO WEIRD!!! Like ??!! Make your own bags and brand? Idk lol.

I hope they do this again because I missed out (lol.) Also because it shows that the brand cares about its supporters and consumers. Like they stated it’s a community. Also it’s a black owned brand! Which is awesome! Not to mention Telfar Clemens, the creator of telfar is queer. Everyone needs to start supporting black queer designers! Are you planning to get a telfar bag?

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[UPDATE]

I updated the post to add the current dates as I see I have newer readers for this post. I hope you all got a bag. I ordered my second one. As someone who participated in the second program I like that I actually got a bag because I have been trying again to get a second one but no luck. So this security program came in clutch.