Handbags vs. AI boom: luxury goods posted better price gains than stocks in the S&P 500
Hermès handbags have outperformed stocks in the S&P 500 in terms of price appreciation / Photo: photo-lime / Shutterstock.com
Some limited luxury handbags and sneakers are appreciating faster than stocks in the main U.S. index S&P 500, the platform FashioNica found out. The goods of French brand Hermes, for example, including the world-famous Birkin bags, are particularly quoted. Analysts call luxury goods assets and compare them, for example, to gold.
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Mini Kelly II bag from Hermes rose in price by more than 300% in 2022-2025: its price rose from $9200 to $36,980, writes Business Insider, citing a study by FashioNica. By comparison, the S&P 500 index rose 43% over this period, the publication notes. Hermes shares have added 27% over three years.
Hermes' most famous bag, the Birkin, also showed an impressive result, with a 285% increase in price over three years. Among other sharply rising prices are The Row Margaux 15 bag from fashion house The Row (+56% over three years) and the limited edition sneaker collaboration between Louis Vuitton and Nike - Louis Vuitton X Nike Air Force One Low (+125%). Gold has gained 184.5% over three years.
Why handbags are better than stocks
"A lot of people buy Birkin bags and literally just keep them in their home as if they were real assets. It's like buying gold," said Amrita Bashin, CEO of luxury resale platform Sotira. She said the high price tags of bags like the Birkin and Mini Kelly II are due to one thing: genuine, palpable scarcity. Anyone who has tried to buy such a bag knows: Hermes carefully selects buyers, and even after approval, they are placed on long waiting lists, Bashin added. This artificially maintained scarcity with constantly high demand makes these models a sustainable tool for maintaining value, she explained.
Luxury handbags are a good alternative for investors with well-diversified and balanced portfolios, Brooks Macdonald senior investment manager Phoebe Shamier noted. Handbags are among the least volatile of all collectibles and offer a good risk/return ratio, CNBC wrote. In addition, handbags have proven to be a good hedge against inflation, the channel cited a Credit Suisse 2022 study.
However, few luxury handbags get more expensive rather than cheaper over time. Historically, only Hermes' Birkin and a small group of other designer handbags have maintained their price at 90% or higher, according to a study by resale site Rebag published in 2024.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
