‘We don’t look at the trend in fashion’

Golden Goose, the Italian fashion brand worn by the likes of Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, and Reese Witherspoon, is determined to set its own stride by focusing on the consumer and not fashion trends.

CEO Silvio Campara told Yahoo Finance that he’s “consumer obsessed,” which allows the brand — known for its deliberately scuffed $500 sneakers — to hone in on the customer and scale from there.

“What’s magical is that we never placed this product to these celebrities,” Campara said. The shoe is intended to make “everyone feel special,” he added. “These celebrities wearing these has been just a great amplifier to a message that is simple and is not limited just for our small community …i t’s really open to a wider community.”

Campara admits that in the early days of the brand, which launched in 2000, there was some question about the unique design.

“At the beginning, people were a little bit skeptical, like, why do I have to spend $500 for a pair of dirty shoes?” but the intention to get people talking worked.

More than 22 years later the brand, acquired by Permira Holdings LLP for €1.3 billion euros in 2020, is entering a “new frontier” of the consumer industry Campara calls it.

“We don’t really look at the trend in fashion. We really look in trend in consumer and there’s something that is for sure. The KPIs [Key performance indicator] that consumers look at are not EBITDA, are no cash conversion, no revenues, but are really like NPS [net promoter score] customer acquisition. It’s really the ability that the company and the brand has to retain and conversate with these communities.”

Despite inflation running hot once again, this luxury brand isn’t seeing a slowdown.

“I can tell you that from the American point of view, we didn’t see any recession last year,” Campara said.

In the first half of fiscal year 2022, U.S. sales increased by 85% on a yearly basis, bringing in €98.5 million euros ($95.7M) compared to €53.3 million euros ($51.8Ms) in the same period last year.

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Campara is confident in the brand’s focus — the consumer — and says the brand will always stand out in all the noise.

“In general, the company … has been performing incredibly good … Why? Because again, we don’t really look at the trend in fashion. We really look in trend in consumer.”

Brooke DiPalma is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter at @BrookeDiPalma or email her at bdipalma@yahoofinance.com.

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