Why Is It Suddenly So Hard to Buy Louis Vuitton Bags?

We've got some tips and tricks for snagging the most popular bags while you can

In my nearly decade-long career covering luxury brands, I’ve never thought of Louis Vuitton bags as scarce. 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. 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.

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. 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. But lately, Louis Vuitton bags, wallets, and small accessories can feel downright scarce. 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. I can’t remember that happening any other time in the past decade.

Louis Vuitton Speedy
via Fashionphile

The Speedy isn’t a bag whose scarcity makes sense—it’s positioned as a handbag gateway drug, the type of bag that inures new customers to the idea of being luxury shoppers. Its purchase should feel like an event because it’s an individual first, not because the bag itself was difficult to track down. The Birkin, on the other hand, is the kind of bag whose scarcity moves it to the top of the shopping list for women who have long been buying whatever they want; gaining their attention requires different tactics than for those first entering the ranks of luxury shoppers. Because introductory-tier bags like the Speedy are affected by Louis Vuitton’s stock issues, as well as many wallets and small leather goods that are generally intended to be sold at high volume, it seems as though Vuitton’s out-of-stock problem is at least partially genuine rather than totally manipulated by LV in order to stoke customer demand. So what’s causing it?

The Cause of the Out-Of-Stock Problem?

We reached out to Louis Vuitton for comment, but the brand declined to participate in this story. That’s generally how luxury brands approach inquiries to their stock practices and manufacturing, which are full of tightly guarded secrets. What we do know, though, is that consumer interest in Louis Vuitton, and especially in its monogram bags, has rebounded in a huge way under the leadership of creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere. At the same time, the brand’s handbag and accessories lines have been in expansion mode, adding new designs frequently, which logically spreads LV’s existing manufacturing capacity thinner to cover a wider set of bags.

And we know that Louis Vuitton is actively looking to expand its handbag manufacturing: In October 2017, the brand announced it would be building a new bag and luggage manufacturing center in Keene, Texas, which will open in 2019 and employ 500 people. By all indications, the bags are selling out because people are buying them. Louis Vuitton may also be shifting its manufacturing capacity to increase production of other bags in its lineup, thereby making fewer of the super-popular styles than it has in the past, but it’s hard to imagine widespread inventory problems and investment in increased manufacturing capacity happening simultaneously without significantly increased consumer interest playing a role. It seems like a perfect storm of factors: demand is increasing just as Louis Vuitton has chosen to reallocate its resources in a way that constrains the supply of certain bags.

Shop Louis Vuitton Pochette Metis

Our forum members speculate that Louis Vuitton is shifting some of its focus to its more expensive all-leather bags, and at least on the surface, this theory seems plausible—stock levels of the popular leather bags we checked are doing notably better than their monogram counterparts, although there are also inventory problems to be found among them. For instance, the just-launched Epi leather version of the Louis Vuitton Neonoe Bag is fully sold out online, although all colors were available at launch and a couple of them were still in stock as of last week. Forum members have been floating rumors and theories, some of them heard from in-store LV associates, about looming discontinuations of popular bags and tighter stock constraints coming up. Based on everything I’ve read and seen, though, the simplest explanation is probably the right one: The bags have become notably more popular, so there are fewer of them available, and that will probably be true until Vuitton expands its manufacturing capacity in a meaningful way.

On our PurseForum, members have been documenting their problems finding general Louis Vuitton stock since early November. The bag that’s been affected for the longest—its thread goes back over a year—is the Pochette Metis, which is currently one of the brand’s most popular designs. Both monogram versions and three of the five colors of the bag’s leather model are currently sold out. Megs has been trying to get her hands on one in monogram for weeks and has had no luck so far, but between her experience and those of our forum members, we’ve been able to compile some tips, tricks, and best practices for getting your hands on the hard-to-find LV bag of your dreams.

Louis Vuitton NéoNoé
via Fashionphile

First, you’ll know a bag is sold out online because when you select it, it’ll say “call for availability,” where the button to place it in your cart would normally be. That’s prompting shoppers to contact the brand’s central customer service number, which can double-check website stock numbers for any customer. In order for that customer service line to help you find the bag in a store and arrange for a charge-send purchase, though, you’ll have to have made a purchase with Louis Vuitton in the past year. My understanding is that this purchase requirement wasn’t always the case, so that restriction suggests many shoppers are seeking help finding bags to have shipped from stores, and LV wants to ensure there will still be bags left for shoppers to buy when they come into their local boutique. Some items on the Louis Vuitton website will say “out of stock” instead of “call for availability,” and in those cases, it’s probably best to start shopping for something else.

When Megs contacted Louis Vuitton’s global customer service line to inquire about the Pochette Metis, she was advised that there weren’t any currently available to be shipped from stores in the US and that her best bet would be to check in with the Louis Vuitton site in the evenings when a handful of bags (seriously, like two or three) are occasionally released for purchase as they become available. When you see one, you have to act quickly.

Louis Vuitton Neverfull Shop

If you live near a Louis Vuitton store, your luck may be a bit better, especially if you have an existing relationship with a sales associate. In-store shoppers are given first dibs on bags that arrive in-store stock, and store associates are the ones who decide who gets on-call lists and how that stock is allocated. As with any hard-to-get piece in fashion, it always pays to be a kind and loyal customer.

As with all sought-after luxury goods, though, the most expedient route to getting your hands on a sold-out Louis Vuitton bag is probably to buy from a third party and pay over retail. Websites like Fashionphile and The RealReal have immediate availability of Louis Vuitton’s most popular bags, but in a clear testament to how sought-after many of them are right now, the options in like-new condition will run you well over retail prices.

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Cherry

Louis Vuitton is just a name.

Louis Vuitton name only.

A company that excels at making products at low prices and selling them at high prices. Are we stupid to buy after knowing that?

kimbrulait

Oh the naivete in these comments. Good. Throw a tantrum, certainly LVMH has hired people to read blogs and provide back comments that people think Vuitton is just a name with cheap products – and to take their tantrums seriously…

Stock online does not equal stock in stores.
I have purchased two perpetually out of stock items between 10/21 and 3/22. Sometimes low stock is hard to find. Yesterday I heard an associate found a ‘one item left’ piece in the private viewing room that had not yet been fully tidied. You never know. When the store is busy the low stock may be in someone’s hand in front of a mirror trying to make a decision.

I currently live in Los Angeles, along the coast, so I can attest first hand to the dilemma of having a constant backlog of ships for all of 2021 and the improving in 2022. The shipping backlog is real. And a real concern – especially for a company like Louis Vuitton which does hand stitch and assemble a lot of products. I know this because when I did a masters degree specialized in luxury goods, in Paris, where we learned about the differences in leather quality, sourcing, processing, creation of leather good and LV canvas for example. I also did the Go To Market plan for an ultra luxury handwoven textile company based in St Germain des Pres and the founder a protege who was a person who stitched bags at Louis Vuitton and would tell us about how well every part of assembly was inspected.

There is also this funny thing in economics called supply and demand. As one can imagine, when people couldn’t wine and dine and go on luxury vacations as they would typically, their spending habits shifted not just for themselves but for gifting.

And on top of all that with the dilemma of a pandemic and distancing… ALL THE PEOPLE that are involved in the process of the creation of an item – lets say a SPEEDY bag were required to distance. Do you think the person sewing the SPEEDY could be doing so with the same speed and accuracy with a face mask? Everyone had to be spread out, everyone, everything slowed down as a result to get inventory to the ecommerce warehouse and to get inventory to stores. And there were increased security issues all around! And there was an increase of demand inside the shops, slowing down the processes as well.

Frankly, I wish the situation would remain. Let the impatient and unappreciative to elsewhere. Let the names of luxury remain strong and exclusive.

Joyce clifford

Is Louis Vuitton trying to make their sales high rocketed with this tactic out of stock and not available?????? There are a lot of other great desingners like Gucci and yves st Laurent. We bought all these for Christmas! Good bye Louis Vuitton you piss yur customers off. Hope your sales plummet! 👎👎👎👎

Trex

Those restrictions have been lifted. You can now order over the phone with no previous sales history. My SA informed me actually today.

LV shopper24

The LV bags sold in the U.S. is highly priced as compared to the ones sold in Europe due to the import tax added to the unit price. If you find yourself traveling to Europe, visit a LV store and you will find the selection is different from the U.S. LV boutiques. Also, if you find a style you like and purchase it in Europe, you get part of the VAT refunded to your original form of payment after filling out some paperwork and dropping it off at the airport on your return trip to the U.S. The prices here in the U.S. increase once or twice a year. I agree that it has been difficult to find monogram bags lately. I think it’s a marketing strategy. In one of my recent visits to a U.S. store, I was told that they do not imprint “Made in France” on the bags any longer, or “Made in Spain,” for that matter. All you will see is PARIS under the Louis Vuitton logo. Whenever I buy my LV pieces, I tend to check the tag first and if it was not made in France, I would not buy it. Call me a snob but for that much money, I want to see that “Made in France” imprint on the LV merchandise.

Karolynn

I buy all of the limited edition bags and they all say made in France. I just purchased one 2 months ago.

Ali R.

I bought the flower chain Capucines MM in October. I still don’t have it. They said first there were two in the “warehouse” but now they tell me it’s coming from France.
My first huge bag purchase and I’m getting buyers remorse waiting so long.

Kris

I have an old LV but needs to be fixed. Piping coming loose. Does anyone know the best options?

Kate

Leather surgeons in the USA. I think they are in Pennsylvania

Jo Wilson

Did you buy it at the Vuttion store? If you did it should be life time secured call a store near you and ask a clerk if they will send it to a warehouse for repairs. Even it you bought if from a third party and it has the Signature tag inside the nearest store should be able to help you.

Frankie

I work for LV . And I don’t know why people are under the impression a lifetime of service for their bags are fProvided. You don’t buy a car and expect to gain free service. So why the heck would you even think it makes sense to get free service on a bag . A bag!!!! That is nonsense. Please don’t disappoint and pass rumors of such. If it’s been under a year. We will repair it for no cost. But, if Your bag is showing damage(s) and it’s been over one year , then you can see a list of services we offer for a cost reasonable cost. Piping repair anywhere from $200 And up. Each store , too, sadly quotes different prices. Then we ship them out for the repair in France. It takes about 6weeks to 5 months to get your bag back.

Jerri Roberts

Thank you so very much for those facts! I appreciate your knowledge, and for passing it on! 😊❤️🙏

Julia Williams

Louis Vuitton has really gone down in quality over the years. Their products feel cheap now.
I have 5 bags purchased over the years and the difference is unbelievable.
These bags are crap now! Don’t waste your money. I had a friend that worked for Louis Vuitton and she says this is true, but the company refuses to acknowledge.

Kate

Well people think this Frankie because certain places do that. Coach is great like that

Edy

Hello, please tell me when I need look on website that I catch pochette monogram? ??

Donna Warder

You just have to keep on checking on the website. Don’t ask Frankie. He’s a little short-tempered.

Sparky

Opening a factory in TEXAS??!! Hmmm… I wonder if those shoppers who want on their purchases made in France and are offended by luxury products manufactured in China will react to that. (No offense to Texas)

Sparky

Opening a factory in TEXAS??!! Hmmm… I wonder if those shoppers who want on their purchases made in France and are offended by luxury products manufactured in China will react to that. (No offense to Texas)

Kate

I noticed the Europeans weren’t happy about the Texas location.

Jerri R

I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that some of the preliminary manufacturing is done in China, and only finally assembled in Texas. Or Paris for that matter.

Jerri Roberts

If CHINA IS EVER A PART OF MAKING LV’s, THEN I’M NEVER BUYING FROM THEM AGAIN! PERIOD!

Sparky

Frankly I don’t know how they can produce such massive quantities without having China somewhere in the production line. I suspect they do a lot of cutting there, especially the coated canvas parts for the cheaper products. They must produce millions of Speedys, Neverfulls, key pouches, pouchettes, wallets, etc. Nothing even remotely ‘rare” about them.

Tia

Last summer I purchased the Louis Vuitton speedy 30 in Damier ebene. I tried to purchase at the store and they did not have any, and then online and the online staff said they didn’t know when there would be any made in the next 6 months so I ended up having to go out of state to purchase the bag and the store clerk said they are not making as many any more because they are focusing on the new high end handbags. She said they will become scare and harder to purchase.

Nana

Price gone up so crazily.
Quality gone down so dramatically.

psny15

i cringe when I see someone carrying a monogram bag, while I was never a big fan of the brand or bags – the new stuff is just bad

They have become an aspirational brand but their price points keep increasing

Diane

I am happy I do t feel that way when I see someone carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. You are just jealous.

kal

It’s their money why does that bother or matter to you?

DJ

I am traumatized by purchasing at a store because an associate in Las Vegas told me the wallet was new. I went home, found stitching was crooked so took it back to the local store and the associate told me the patent leather was chipping and she would have never sold it to me. She was fortunately polite and ordered a new once from the warehouse. It arrived and had the plastic on the metal and cleaning cloth in envelope inside the wallet. Clearly, that first one at the store had been returned!

Tiffany

I had the same problem LV sold me a used bag smell like cigarettes, scratches on the top which the salesperson said was glue and kept trying to scratch it out, then she didn’t want to return the bag

Em Kee

I was in a long line at LV store in Las Vegas. Saw a man passed by with a big red Ferragamo bag for returns. So I went to Ferra instead since there was no line. I eventually bought a bag. Upon checking back at the hotel I noticed that there were no protective plastics on the metals. I immediately called SA and told you gave me a returned item. I told hom either give me a new one or I will return it to you the next day. And voila! he gave me a new one with all the plastics the next day!

Jerri R

The scarcity, on top of the all-too-frequent quality issues, is really turning me off to LV. Hardly anything they churn out these days is to die for.

EconomicallySavy

I love this blog. I have been asking the same question. I am beginning to be turned off with LV and going for other bags More recently. It’s super convenient to shop online and LV makes it difficult. For instance, I was on a waiting list for one year and come to find out that after calling the customer service, I was told I was never added to the list and that I can only visit a store to be added to the waiting list (which I might add is not easy to do considering the closest store is an hour away). So when I got the opportunity to, I marched to the store to be added to the list because I really wanted the bag so bad. Come to find out, the bag was available in the store and had been there for quite some time. The entire experience really had me rethinking shopping LV. I am not sure if it’s a marketing strategy to make it seem like LV is more hot commodity but the experience has really made me start rethinking shopping LV in the future.

M Naima

Add to this the fact that LV is doing away with the Wait List. It will be first come, first served from now on.

EconomicallySavy

Wow. Not sure if that’s a smart marketing strategy but what do I know…lol.

Passerine

I’m looking at the Pochette Metis and it’s not grabbing me in its current size. But would like to see a Grand Metis, an enlarged version big enough to hold a laptop etc. It looks like it could make a very cool work bag in that size.
@ PB team: while you’re into re-run season (nothing wrong with that!), why not repeat the Moynat column from a year ago? I think this great brand is gaining traction…

Black

Why is it suddenly so expensive to buy Louis Vuitton bags? Plus quality is just getting worth as well as their custom service!!!

Gemmabella

Do you ever see the Dionysus line from Gucci anywhere these days ?

Ive been quite inactive online this whole summer and now that I am back, I have not seen them around much, in fact, I can’t recall seeing one even once?

Jo Wilson

Louis Vuitton makes a certain number of bags then they distribute them to their stores and put the pattern in a vault til the demand for that bag is sought after again which in fashion use to be every 20 years now that number varies and since we are in the 21st century they are making new statement bags to see if they will become signature bags. Thus every bag you buy has a real leather tag that has a number and their signature. When buying one of the originals to make sure your bag is real make sure this tag is inside the bag and look close at the piping, threading, the LV logo on bag and most of all besides the tag check the inside of the bag for a quick smell for the smell of leather.

Amy Elise

This is so true! My SA told me that the Monogram will be less produced. You can already see the re-sale marketing has all kinds of LV monogram going up in price.

Martha

Came across this blog because was looking for answers why Lv has suddenly become scarce. I seriously cant justify the prices of LV. The price for a monogram now has skyrocketed. To add to it, resellers selling it for double the prices. I mean for the same quality of monogram you can get it at coach for cheaps. I honestly am more impressed with quality of Celine, Saint Laurent.

Jordyn M

I’ve noticed that LV’s inventory is VERY low! Almost everything on their site is unavailable. I refuse to pay double on eBay or any other platforms. They can sit on that money. Lol

I’m considering moving away from LV. It’s gotten ridiculous.

Karl

Louis Vuitton never feels like luxury. I feel like prices have gotten insane but aside from Hermes or Chanel or exotic leather the brands owned by multicorporations have turned fashion into a factory. Atleast with Hermes and Chanel products seem scarce as different, countries , stores sell some different things. It’s always a surprise walking in. The others Gucci,LV etc seem like a franchise fast food.

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