I can’t remember that happening any other time in the past decade. For example, right now, two of the four sizes of Vuitton’s most famous bag, the Speedy, are sold out in monogram canvas, both in the traditional and bandouliere models. But lately, Louis Vuitton bags, wallets, and small accessories can feel downright scarce.
Barring an It Bag situation or special circumstances (such as the incredible, sustained demand for the Hermès Birkin and Kelly), though, it’s pretty easy to buy even the most popular designer bags from nearly any brand. Louis Vuitton does many things other brands do to shore up a sense of exclusivity around its products, like requiring shoppers to buy directly from the brand and never putting accessories on sale. If your company is that big, you’re going to be satisfying the majority of consumer demand as a matter of course, because the business wouldn’t have grown to that size if it didn’t have manufacturing abilities that outpaced its competitors, which makes true scarcity far less likely than it would be for a smaller brand. To a certain extent, that’s a question of scale: Louis Vuitton has been the biggest luxury brand in the world for all of recent history. In my nearly decade-long career covering luxury brands, I’ve never thought of Louis Vuitton bags as scarce.
