The empathy of experience according to Golden Goose

That of Golden Goose is a story in the making, a journey that began in Venice back in the year 2000, travelling as far as the skate parks of California and the skyscrapers of Tokyo. Today this story is worth an impressive €500 million, and although the Venetian company is led by a team of dreamers, as the company's CEO Silvio Campara explains, what has enabled it to achieve such an impressive goal is as far from elusive as it gets. Forming the tenacious fabric of Golden Goose, Campara explains, are three great pillars - «the product, the places, and the people» - and a fundamentally «people-obsessed» ideal, allowing the brand to establish a dialogue with its customers, coming into the field alongside consumers and inserting itself between the product and them as the key to sharing a message that ranges from the idea of emotion to that of craftsmanship and art. And while for the other big names in the fashion industry deciding to eliminate the word 'luxury' from their vocabulary might seem like madness, for dreamers like Campara and his team it is the only way to ensure that emotions remain a staple for the brand and for those who continue to rely on Golden Goose. As the CEO himself explains during our interview, «What's more timeless than a feeling?»

 The iconic star

Golden Goose Forward Cobblers

Golden Goose Forward Cobblers

Golden Goose Forward Cobblers

Golden Goose Forward Cobblers

Golden Goose Forward Cobblers

«From the very beginning,» Campara says in regards to Golden Goose's exceptional expansion in recent years, «the aim has never been about diluting the message, but rather trying to bring it to as large an audience as possible through people, places and above all the product.» These are, according to Golden Goose's philosophy, the three institutions that never fail to take root in each of the brand's projects, a structure that succeeds in being realised even in the digital sphere thanks to the exclusivity of the products available online, and the possibility of personalisation - in the world of Golden Goose by the name of co-creation - on the site as in the boutique. For Campara, what makes the shopping experience special for every consumer is the brand's genuine and authentic approach. «Golden was born from a very simple thought: the human being is not perfect. He spends his whole life improving himself, experiencing every failure and every joy as a building block to deepen himself,» explains the CEO. It is the star, in the brand's universe, that sums up this aspect of one's life; an image that in the brand finds form in an incomplete, broken portrait, a symbol of imperfection. «The simplicity of the forms, the empathy given by being ruined,» Campara adds, «makes that object often become something you want to live that most intimate moment with.»

The first Love Brand  

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

Golden Goose Forward Store

Golden Goose Forward Store

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

Golden Goose Forward Store

Golden Goose Forward Store

Golden Goose Forward Store

Golden Goose Forward Store

Golden Goose Forward Tailors

«The dream element is crucial,» Campara explains, emphasising the company's latest major achievements. «If you ask me, how did you go from seventeen employees, ten years ago, to being 1546 employees today, and all in unison? The message tends to be on everyone's skin, it's not a pre-packaged message, it's so universal, so powerful, so profound, that it even gives people room to make it their own.» Scrapping the alienating veneer of glamour, an indispensable constant in the world of luxury, Golden Goose prefers to invest in the quality of its products rather than in mindless marketing, in the relationship with its consumers, rather than in a unilateral sharing of a prefabricated imagery. This is why those who decide to buy a pair of Golden Goose often decide to return in search of a new pair of trainers to add to the collection. Assuming the role of Love Brand not only during the production and sale of the product - to create a pair of sneakers, the company's craftsmen take an average of four and a half hours - but also in the period following the purchase, Golden Goose extends its repair service even to the garments that do not bear the Venetian brand's signature, being the first, back in 2018, to launch the co-creation initiative within its shops. «In each of the experiences you live in Golden there is always a person with you, you have a dream-maker to repair your trainer. That's not sustainability, that's love,» Campara reiterates, emphasising that in addition to doing good for the Planet, repairing clothes and accessories also leads to saving the memories of those who wore them in important moments of their lives. «We were the first brand in history to include the consumer within the creative process,» Campara adds. «Today we are overjoyed to see how so many are actually getting there, but the fact that we were the first gave us a huge advantage from a consumer perspective,» the CEO adds. «While luxury has a 4% incidence on the new generation, Golden Goose has 23%, precisely because the theme of personalisation is now a founding element.»

The artists chosen by Golden Goose 

SUNMI

Suki Waterhouse

Quannah Chasinghorse

Fabio Novembre

While the brand's stylistic codes follow the fil rouge of imperfection, from the abrasions and stains printed on sneaker soles to the vintage workmanship of fabrics, present in every collection, the projects that Golden Goose realises outside its shops start from a careful choice of artists and faces that represent the company, in all continents. The launch of the new Golden Goose stores, which offer co-creation and co-action activities in collaboration with expert artisans, has already arrived in New York, Dubai and Miami, and will soon debut in other destinations. A project that focuses on sustainability and the preservation of craftsmanship, while The Forward Agenda continues its whirlwind journey around the world in the brand's homeland, a new venture, also not unambitious, has come to life. «We always take inspiration from people,» explains Campara as he tells us about the birth of HAUS of Dreamers, a project launched in recent months in Venice with the aim of collaborating with creatives on collections that are meant to spark dialogue between people. «What we are doing in Venice is nothing more than the old Greek academies, putting people with talent together and giving them the chance to express it. Making the ordinary extraordinary I think is super modern.» The five artists chosen by Golden Goose - Fabio Novembre, SUNMI, Suki Waterhouse, Quannah Chasinghorse, and Dr. Woo - embody, according to Campara, the definition of a dreamer, which is Golden Goose's ultimate mission. «We tried to choose people who felt that this was also their mission, and who shared our passions in the same way.»

Emotion as the driving force 

The brand has always been inspired by the world of skateboarding to which it has been organically linked since its inception. The From Venice to Venice event in 2021 reconfirmed their union through the unforgettable performance of Olympic champion Cory Juneau and a select group from the local skate community who performed on the waters of the Venice Lagoon. In 2022, the brand celebrated a new chapter of the From Venice to Venice journey in California. The iconic Pink Motel served as the stage for the immersive experience to discover the Golden Goose universe. A place that embodies American iconography and acted as a bridge between the brand and the local communities of Los Angeles. The legendary pool at the Pink Motel was transformed into a skate bowl that hosted a performance by Cory Juneau and a selection of athletes from the Los Angeles skate scene. «Golden has always kept skateboarding as the natural destination and inspiration for its community, because Golden is exactly the same,» explains Campara. With the same eagerness to learn and improve as a skater who is about to challenge his friend, Golden Goose confronts the greats of the fashion industry, its customers, and those who would like to become part of its world not for competition, but for inspiration. And this is the metaphor that best encapsulates the philosophy of a brand that, born in Venice a little over twenty years ago, has been able to let itself be guided by the people who have believed in it, welcoming with open arms anyone who over the years has noticed in Golden Goose that light that makes it to all intents and purposes an aspirational brand. «We simply want to give voice to people's feelings,» Campara concludes, «in a society where you only feel the pressure of judgement, being able to give a tool to release positivity and love I find a beautiful message.»