The bursting of the Birkin bubble; What Hermes Can Learn From Rolex and Ferrari

 

A Birkin bag on display in Germany. Photographer: Yen Duong/Bloomberg

The Hermes resale market has contributed to the bursting of the Birkin bubble, with some Birkin and Kelly bags changing hands for less than a few years ago.

Hermes can seize back the narrative by introducing its own authorized resale program, enabling it to exert greater control over its leather goods on the secondary market.

You can’t buy Hermes’ most desirable bags — the Kelly, Birkin and Constance — in a store. 

Because demand typically outstrips supply, customers must instead join a waitlist. Consequently, used models that are immediately available in the resale market typically cost more than their new counterparts.

An authorized resale program, similar to Rolex's "Certified Pre-Owned" program, could help Hermes crack down on "flippers"  who secure a bag by getting to the top of the Hermes wait list — only to immediately sell it on for a profit.

Andrea Felsted Bloomberg May 1, 2026

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-05-01/hermes-should-follow-rolex-and-ferrari-into-the-resale-market

Birkin: The Bag, the Woman, the Myth

This month the original Birkin bag, made by Hermès for the British actress Jane Birkin in 1984, sold for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s in Paris.

All of this is happening two years after her death on July 16, 2023, following a cancer diagnosis and more than a decade of treatment.

Ms. Birkin, who was born in London, became a revered actress who appeared in more than 70 films and a musician whose most famous song, “Je t’aime … moi non plus,”

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/birkin-bag-woman-myth.html