Why buy Golden Goose sneakers
Tomoko Ogura, former fashion director of New York’s Barneys department store (she worked there, by the way, for twelve years!) and current brand director Vince describes Golden Goose as follows: “Alessandro and Francesca were able to convey to the consumer a special aesthetic that allows customers to look stylish without feeling like they’re dressed up too much – the brand is cool, light and timeless. Every season, the design duo comes up with something completely new, which is a reason to buy a new pair.”
From 2013 to May 2015 Golden Goose Deluxe Brand was part of the portfolio of the Italian investment fund DGPA SGR. They write that the purchase cost the fund 45 million euros. In principle (and I have said this more than once), it is absolutely normal for the fashion industry when investors consider fashion only as an opportunity to make money (or save existing ones), so quite a lot of brands belong to foundations (the same Valentino, for example, belongs to the Qatari foundation Mayhoola for Investments, controlled by the royal family of Qatar, and Valentino, after all, is included in the category of fashion elephants, while Golden Goose is a fashion dog). DGPA SGR also own the sunglass kingpin Luxottica (hello Ray-Ban!), Trussardi and Cerutti. In 2015, a 75% stake in Golden Goose was bought by the Brussels-based Ergon Capital Partners III fund, the remaining 25% are in the hands of the owner-designers, who determine the direction of the brand’s development. The interest of funds is in the Golden Goose
is explained by the rapid growth of the company and its expansion into the international fashion market – for example, most of the sales are now made outside of Italy, but this would not have happened without the love of Italians – the nation is known for having internal litmus on “fashionable-not fashionable” and the ability to generate trends.
In 2014, the revenue of the Golden Goose Deluxe Brand amounted to 47 million euros (in the context of the fashion market, this is negligible, so I called them dogs against the backdrop of elephants for good reason), but the annual increase in this indicator exceeds 40% – hardly in all industries there are many similar players. In 2015, Golden Goose’s profit exceeded 70 million euros. Today they are represented in more than 600 multi-brands worldwide, including top online stores and department stores, plus seven mono-brands in Milan, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Beirut and Tokyo.
Superstar sneakers, the most important model of the Golden Goose, cost plus or minus three hundred euros on average, and it can be rightly noted that the sold out story is not new to them. Someone may say that Golden Goose is Converse for the rich, someone prefers refined Common Projects, which are in the same price segment, and some people still deny that sneakers can be worn with a classic suit – a fact the fact remains that in the world of fashionable “athletic” shoes that are worn outside the gym, the Golden Goose Deluxe Brand feel more than confident. And in the context of the fashion for everything unfashionable – hypertrophied shoulders, silhouettes a la grandma and Donald Trump, artificially (and skillfully!) aged sneakers are “yes”, while naturally worn out sneakers are “no”.
Golden Goose Deluxe Brand can be misunderstood, not worn or bought – in any case, the rest are doing it very well. But one cannot help but admire the subtlety of the flair of Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo, who picked up the mood that hovered around and took the risk (without a specialized education – hello to all parents who send creative children to economic or legal to be stable) to create something really cool contrary to the canons and what fashion elephants do. Fashion is becoming simpler and more understandable (or vice versa – more incomprehensible?), And I’m sure that some twenty years ago no one could even imagine that, at first glance, old and worn-out sneakers would cost more than new and clean ones. We will tell our grandchildren about this.