Golden Goose Case Study: A Look Into the Brand and Its Strategies

Golden Goose Case Study: A Look Into the Brand and Its Strategies

Golden Goose: An Introduction

Golden Goose is an Italian luxury fashion brand founded in 2000. The brand was started in Venice, Italy and its products, especially its sneakers, have a vintage feel. Golden Goose stores have a customization option, where customers can collaborate with the employees to create their perfect shoe. Golden Goose prioritizes the voice and opinions of its customers in every aspect of the brand, including the ability customers have to customize and the brand’s sustainability and innovation efforts. 

Golden Goose History

Golden Goose was created by Francesca Rinaldo and Alessandro Gallo. At the heart of Golden Goose, is their Italian heritage. For example, all of their shoes are hand finished by Italian artisans and made with high-quality leather. 

Although Golden Goose was created in a small Italian city and it is built around Italian culture, it was inspired by the entire world.

Memories and ideas from places all around the world went into making Golden Goose the brand that it is today. Because of the ideology of being inspired around the world, the brand values manual touch and creativity when it comes to its products. The brand sees it as crucial to preserve tradition while adding innovation to it. “Perfect imperfection” is at the core of the company, which is really portrayed in the style and details of its products.

Golden Goose’s symbol is the incomplete star that is placed on all of their shoes. This symbol highlights their “perfect imperfection” slogan. The brand was one of the first to utilize the scuffed look on shoes. Although they have a “worn” look to them, which is meant to represent that the shoe has experienced a well-loved journey, they are made of the best quality products and processes. 

Golden Goose Products

Golden Goose offers a variety of products but their most popular and prominent are their sneakers. The products offered by the brand are as follows: 

  • Sneakers
  • Clothing
    • Shirts
    • Dresses and Jumpsuits
    • Knitwear and Sweatshirts
    • Jeans and Pants
    • Coats and Jackets
    • Skirts
    • Leather Jackets
    • Beachwear
  • Bags
  • Shoes & boots
  • Accessories
    • Sunglasses
    • Jewelry
    • Belts
    • Hats
    • Socks
    • Silks and Scarves
    • Laces
    • Small Leather Goods
  • The 20th Anniversary book

Golden Goose has other shoes that are not sneakers, such as sandals, boots, loafers, and slides. Their Poolstar model is the brand’s line of slides which contains rubber and fuzzy slides. In terms of their sneakers and bags, both products have many different collections. Each collection is a different style and within it there are many color variations of the specific style. 

Golden Goose Co-Creation Experience

Inside Golden Goose flagship stores, customers will find the LAB. This is an area within the store in which a customer can customize any shoe or bag that they have selected in the store. The LAB has “Sneakers Makers” which will work with the customers to discover customizations that the customer is interested in. 

There are shoes and design idea scrapbooks for customers to gain inspiration if they are not totally sure what to do with the shoe. Some of the options available in the lab are to increase the scuffed look of a shoe, change the shoe laces, remove anything you do not like, add crystals, studs, charms, phrases, words, or designs. The cost of customization is a standard customization price added onto the regular shoe price. Included in the Co-Creation Experience is 6 charms and one extra pair of shoelaces, but the rest of the options are unlimited. 

These are the cities in which Golden Goose has stores that offer the Co-Creation Experience: 

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcellona
  • Capri
  • Florence
  • Forte Dei Marmi
  • Frankfurt
  • Istanbul
  • Lisbon
  • London
  • Madrid
  • Milan
  • Munich
  • Paris
  • Rome
  • Turin Rinascente
  • Venice

Golden Goose Collections

The way Golden Goose creates their sneakers and bags is through different collections. 

For sneakers the collections are: 

  • Yatay
  • Super-Star
  • Super-Star Sabot
  • Mid Star
  • Ball Star
  • Hi Star
  • Sky-Star
  • Francy
  • V-Star
  • Stardan
  • Purestar
  • Slide
  • Dad-Star
  • Running Sole
  • Space-Star
  • Yeah
  • Starter

The difference between these collections is the style and design characteristics of the shoe. For example, the Hi Star has more of a regular casual wear design with a platform sole and the Francy is a high-top shoe. Each of the collections has many different color combinations for the design. 

For bags the collections are: 

  • Star Bag
  • Mini Star Bag
  • Pasadena Bag
  • California Bag
  • Rodeo Bag

Similar to the shoe collections, the bag collections also each have a specific style of bag, and within each collection, there are many different color combinations. For the California Bag Collection specifically, there are also different sizes within the collection, some are wider and shorter while others are slimmer and taller. 

Golden Goose Collection Stories

On Golden Goose’s website, they highlight the stories behind their various product collections. These stories highlight why they created the specific design and what use the product is meant for. It also discusses the various colors and styles within each collection and where the inspiration for them came from. This aspect of the brand’s website gives the customers a more personal connection to the products because they can truly know how the product was invented by the creators/designers. The stories point out all the small details of the products and the value they add to them which helps the customer gain a sense of appreciation for all the aspects of the product. 

Path Forward

Golden Goose has a very standard approach to its future. The two main aspects they are focusing on are becoming more sustainable and continuing to be an innovative brand within the fashion industry. Their main vision is “We want to deliver a brighter future for the next generations while remaining faithful to our heritage” (source).

Golden Goose is committed to listening to and working with its consumers to move forward and make necessary and beneficial changes. The brand is also very self-aware and states “We don’t claim to have all the answers straight away. What matters is to move forward, towards changes – that’s how we make our dreams come true”(source). This shows that the brand is open to learning and adapting as needed in order to make positive changes in the world. 

We Innovate

The first pillar of Golden Goose’s Path Forward is to be innovative in the technologies and materials they use to create their products.

The company merged with Coronet, an Italian R&D supplier, to move forward with its commitment to sustainability, innovation, and scalability. Coronet focuses on researching and producing animal-free, bio-based, and recycled material. Golden Goose has partnered with them to improve the sustainability of their materials. The brand also uses advanced technologies and bio-based compounds to create products that have low impacts on the environment and that will last a very long time.

Coronet and Golden Goose have collaborated on the Yatay collection. This collection utilizes vegan, animal-free, and bio-based materials and is handcrafted in Italy. The first product of this collection is the Yatay Model 1B Sneaker. 

We Care

The second pillar of Golden Goose’s path forward is to increase the available services in their stores to be able to lengthen the life cycle of their products. Customers can now go into Golden Goose stores and get their sneakers and clothes repaired so they can continue to be used for longer. Customers can also remake old or new products by using the store’s services of distressing or embroidering the product, this is helpful to change up a piece of clothing when a customer no longer wants to wear the original. Golden Goose stores also offer a resell option, where customers can bring in their old shoes and they will be placed on display in a specific area of the store to be purchased by others. Finally, there are recycling baskets in stores where customers can dispose of any old products that they no longer want. Golden Goose is partnering with Reircled to ensure the disposed of products will get recycled correctly and put back to use. These services are extremely helpful for customers with busy lives that may not always have the time or resources to properly dispose of products, fix their products, or reinvent them. 

We Craft & We Share

The last two pillars are We Craft and We Share. We Craft is the dedication to creating handmade products, committing to responsible manufacturing, and tracing transparency. We Share is the promise to enable people’s stories in order to make everyone a part of the change. 

Some Sustainability and Diversity & Inclusion Data

In 2021 Golden Goose released their first ever sustainability report, here is some of the data they released:

  • 61% of leather traced
  • 36% increase in employees since 2020
  • 59% of new hires under the age of 30
  • 63% of management positions held by women
  • 225 hours of volunteering in Italy
  • BREEAM certification achieved by headquarters in Milan, Italy

Golden Goose Wrapped Up 

Golden Goose has been a company that found a way to be very innovative while still sticking to its roots. The Italian company was one of the first to make a “scuffed up” look still considered a luxury and they also make sneakers that are considered dressy and professional. The company holds a very high value on its customer’s opinions and ideas. This is highlighted by their “Co-Creation Experience” and how their sustainability efforts heavily weigh the collaboration of their consumers. The company is a fairly new brand, but is very innovative and plans to continue to advance with its “Path Forward” strategy.

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Golden Goose Case Study: A Look Into the Brand and Its Strategies In this post, we're looking into Golden Goose and into the strategies of the popular sneaker brand.
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