Acclaimed Black-owned luxe bag repair house in Coral Springs. Go behind the scenes
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Chris Moore spends hours in his Coral Springs workshop caring for the finest details of beloved handbags from across the country — deconstructing pieces, matching textile colors and textures, polishing and replacing hardware, and other tasks.
That expertise comes from decades of experience learning under his father, Donald Moore, at Artbag, one of the most highly acclaimed repair houses in the nation — a house that also made history as one of the first and only Black-owned small businesses on New York City’s Madison Avenue.
The self-declared non-perfectionist works with care and precision, often on items that have passed through families for generations.
Now working out of a storefront at 927 N. University Dr. in Coral Springs, where he and his family moved to in 2022, Chris Moore is matter-of-fact with customers, explaining which repairs are possible and walking owners through each step in the process.
Costs can range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on the materials and time required.
“I’m not here for a money grab,” he told the Coral Springs News. “You can’t stay in business this long as a money grab — the store, since 1932, and solely under our ownership since 1993. That’s a long time.”
How Chris Moore got into the bag business
Despite growing up surrounded by designer handbags — his father was a part-owner of Artbag for most of his life and built custom creations at home in his spare time — Moore said he long planned to build a series of Domino’s Pizza franchises.
Moore comes from a long line of entrepreneurs. His great-grandfather was the first Black man to open a grocery store in the family’s longtime home of North Carolina, and also worked as a preacher, ran a rooming house and worked on his farm.
Moore’s grandfather went on to own a farming contractor business, which tilled and serviced properties — typically those owned by wealthy white families, Chris Moore said.
Moore graduated from college with his advertising degree in 1993 — the same year his father became Artbag’s sole owner. Deciding between a career in pizza and all the labor it would entail, or a customer-facing position at his father’s company, Moore said he decided on the path of least resistance — or so he thought.
“I’m like, ‘This is a cake job,’” he said. “What I know now is, it’s not.”
In addition to handling the complexities of New York City’s luxury retail market, Artbag was the only Black-owned business on Madison Avenue.
“There are some individuals where you can just tell they were uneasy working with a person of color,” he said. “But we always had the shield of our workmanship and craftsmanship.”
Over the years, it’s gotten better, Moore told the Coral Springs News. He spent over two decades learning all the intricacies of the trade — and adapting to the changes brought on by the Internet and social media.
In 2018, he took over managing Artbag, allowing his father to step back.
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Moore is still frustrated by the ways history continues to repeat itself, though.
His most recent example, he said, happened while he was watching “Death by Lightning,” a Netflix historical drama about President James Garfield, who served as president for just 200 days in 1881 before being assassinated.
“He said in one of his speeches something along the lines of that our Black compatriots will receive equal compensation and services as of their white counterparts,” Moore said. “This is in 18 something another, and we’re still having a ... conversation [about it] in 2026, which shows that however far we’ve gotten, we haven’t gotten very far.”
But, other changes have allowed Moore — and other Black entrepreneurs — to change things for the better, lowering barriers for entry into business that his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents faced.
“There are more Black people starting businesses now than ever before. You’ll find this on Instagram, believe it or not, there are individuals who are trying to help other individuals. The term is to get on, to create your business,” he said.
“Being on Madison Avenue is not what it used to be. It’s still prestigious, but for the many services that you can do online and businesses, you don’t need to be on Madison.”
How — and why — the Moores brought the bag business to Coral Springs
The flexibility allowed Moore, his wife and his father to move to Coral Springs in 2022. They had long vacationed in Fort Lauderdale and wanted a change of pace following the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Florida was also where much of their clientele vacationed or kept winter homes, allowing the Moores the opportunity to continue running Artbag.
“I said, ‘Well, let’s get something between Miami and Boca.’ And then we looked on the map and saw Coral Springs, right here, right in the middle,” he said.
The move cut his commute — and his blood pressure medication needs — in half, Moore told the Coral Springs News. He now works five days a week, rather than six, and emphasized balance as a key to sustainability.
While he finds fulfillment in doing quality work, he also looks forward to retiring. He hopes to learn how to golf and continue trying new restaurants and going to concerts.
The future of the business, Moore said, remains in the future for now.
“I’ve come to find out that you only live once, he said. “You never know when your time is coming.”
