How Does "Golden Goose" Become A Luxury Myth?

A pair of worn shoes that look a little undisguised can be sold to RMB 3000 yuan, or even tens of thousands of people. In some people's eyes, this is crazy. Especially in the field of sports shoes, such as Nike, Adidas and other brands such as Valentino, it is already a red sea. How can you sell such expensive and small shoes?

But Golden Goose Deluxe Brand has opened an alternative path in the high price dirty shoes.

"Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is the first brand to upgrade sneakers from street wear to luxury goods, changing the fashion industry's view of such products," said its chief executive, Roberta Benaglia.

The brand communications department has strict rules, and stresses that it can not write only the first two words, because the meaning of "Deluxe Brand" is of vital importance -- the essence of its success.

For consumers who love Golden Goose Deluxe Brand, their "dirty shoes" are not just expensive versions of "Converse", but each pair is a unique, handmade luxury product.

Specially used old shoes have adopted the high-end soft leather of Italy, which has been given the texture and comfort through the traditional technology, and the traditional retro effect has been brought by hand washing, coloring and waxing.

"Dirty and beautiful, with a sense of superiority," wrote a sports shoe enthusiast at the tiger forum. "Wear yourself to feel that you are a rich and cool rock star."

Sarah Rutson, vice president of global sourcing at Net-a-Porter, told Yahoo Style: "this special sneaker comes out of a lot of small white shoes because of its unique retro effect.

Each pair is hand brushing and waxing to achieve moderate wear and wear.

In the past two seasons, we have seen so many new and shining white shoes. The new style of this new way looks like your favorite pair of old shoes.

It makes everything look more valuable and more comfortable.

This brand, which looks like the recent popularity, was actually founded by Alessandro Gallo and Francesca Rinaldo 17 years ago in Venice, Italy. Two designers who did not have academic training have created the prototype of Golden Goose Deluxe Brand by virtue of their interest in street wear and inspiration from travel.

What many people don't know is that the brand has been a brand of the whole category since its birth. Today, the shoe with 75% achievements has been designed in 2007.

"Our goal in retail development is, of course, to provide Golden Goose Deluxe Brand lifestyle for end users, so that end-users can understand and appreciate our lifestyle proposals through all categories," Roberta Benaglia told BoF: "in fact, sales of other products in our single retail store are higher than those in wholesalers."

In order to enhance the footwear category and highlight its product mix including clothing, accessories, children's shoes and so on, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand chose a guest show at the Florence Pitti Uomo men's Wear Exhibition.

Benaglia says they are waiting for the best time to do activities.

"This year is the 10th anniversary of the birth of our logo shoes.

According to the idea of "Out of the Crowd", we have organized a unique activity, which is different from the traditional fashion show, but a live performance with visual impact, "she said.

At the scene of the show, accompanied by the sound of music, the skateboard boy wears a golden Hoodie and runs through the huge concrete cylinder. It is like a millennial subculture picture. The well decorated single product show and the model in the spacesuit show that this is an extraordinary luxury brand.

"One of the reasons for our success now is that even if the brand is still expanding dramatically, it is still complex and mature, not a brand built for everyone, but an exclusive brand for a specific customer," Benaglia said.

In 2016, the brand's revenue exceeded 100 million euros, while its revenue in 2015 was 76 million euros, an increase of about 30%. It is predicted that there will be a similar growth rate in 2017.

"We believe that the concept of luxury today is changing in different ways, not" expensive "but" exclusive ", Benaglia said.

Compared with other luxury brands that are worrying about how to catch young consumers, Benaglia tells BoF that she is more willing to describe Golden Goose Deluxe Brand as an intergenerational modern brand.

"Our modernity is also welcomed by mature consumers and young consumers. It is also suitable for the millennial generation and also for mature consumers.

Compared with other luxury brands, we maintain the classic luxury value, such as the value of outdated products, the existence of iconic products (our sneakers), but at the same time mixed the concept of luxury and street, "she said." the new generation, especially the new generation of China, is more open, more accustomed to travel, and is influenced by the global market trend.

Therefore, they immediately understand that we are a real brand with real value: made in Venice and inspired by travelers.

Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is from Italy's Venice to California Venice's brand, and our series is often a journey from this coast to that coast.

"For the past generations, they did not immediately realize the positioning of retro style in the luxury sector.

For us, restoring ancient times is a kind of value. For the classic outdated love and the spirit of not wasting, it is a real experience of life after retro.

Our sneakers have changed people's view of sportswear through the exclusive hand-made products. Through the research and innovation of luxury goods, we have promoted the value of the brand: we are a lifestyle brand, because we are a history of existence, emotion and fashion in finding a unique way of expression.

Therefore, this new concept of luxury is easier to understand for the younger generation.

As Benaglia said, because of its unique positioning, coupled with the promotion of popular culture and the love of young people, the brand quickly opened the market.

At present, she believes that the brand is still in the process of growth.

"In Europe, Korea and Japan, we are in the consolidation stage, and the brand has built up the market for a long time.

In the United States, whether wholesale or retail, we are in the process of large-scale expansion, which has increased by 100% in the past two quarters.

For us, China is a new market, "she said.

Last year, it opened two single brand stores in Taigu and Shanghai Hang Lung Plaza in Beijing. "No doubt, in China, we are in an exciting start-up stage."

Although its brand has just started in China, Chinese young consumers are not familiar with Golden Goose Deluxe Brand.

In early 2016, the popular Korean drama "the descendants of the sun" gave the actor a big close-up of Song Zhongji's "dirty sneakers". After that, the man frequently wore Golden Goose Deluxe Brand, plus the blessing of other Chinese and foreign stars, which instantly triggered a star boom.

Source: BOF

"Our brand has a precise positioning in the luxury world of Korea. Its brand has strong sales in Korea, and is popular among Korean celebrities and celebrities. Its influence has provided a strong impetus for the development of other Asian markets.

The high-end positioning strategy in Japan and South Korea has really helped Golden Goose Deluxe Brand open the Chinese market, laying the foundation and the first batch of customers, so that we have successfully opened two stores here, "Benaglia said.

Unlike many brands, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand has always placed the Asian market in a priority position.

"We started from Japan and Korea, because they can influence and promote the growth of the Asia Pacific market.

Considering that travel is one of the basic values of brand, the influence from Asia, especially Japan, has always been the source of brand inspiration.

Starting from the brand, we have realized that Japan is the starting point for opening and developing the Asian market.

The expansion in Korea began five years ago.

This is a young and dynamic market with the highest growth rate. It is the third largest market after Italy and the United States. "

In wholesale channels, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand has been emphasizing continuity.

Its wholesale partners grew from 500 in 2012 to 750 today, mainly to cover areas that they had not yet entered.

"We attach great importance to maintaining a close and close relationship with wholesalers. We regard them as partners rather than customers, which is consistent.

Our success is not due to strong media publicity and advertising, but because of the word of mouth marketing strategy from our wholesale partners, which makes us famous. They are also happy with the brand's achievements, "Benaglia said." in the luxury world, retail development has always been an important measure to create brand awareness and enhance its values.

From 2012 to today, in the past five years, the growth rate of our retail expansion and wholesale business is consistent. "

At the same time, Golden Goose Deluxe Brand also realized the importance of online channels very early. It has been working closely with Net-a-Porter, Farfetch, Ssense and other luxury electric providers for a long time. With its own e-commerce platform, online business has contributed 20% of the total turnover.

"But we think that in any case, having a physical store is still of strategic importance, because even though consumers are more accustomed to the digital world, they often use online tools to search and compare prices, but most of the time, consumers will not give up the real experience of boutiques, and touch and wear products, especially for luxury brands," Benaglia told the company.

Now, Benaglia is committed to linking consumers' online and offline experiences.

"The store is the best place for us to explain the brand story, value and series of contents," she told BoF. "We do retail in the way of" global Glocal ", and each store has different commodity combinations.

In this way, through travel, the same customer can buy different products in different stores such as Seoul, Milan, Paris and New York so that they can provide customers with different shopping experiences.

"Of course, we need investment from the company to create every store in this way of customization, but we believe this strategy is very important for today's luxury brands," she said.

As we have said, behind the rapid spread of the sales network in recent years is inseparable from investment, and Golden Goose Deluxe Brand has always been a hot asset in the eyes of capital because of its niche and unique ambitions and potential of global expansion.

Over the past four years, the brand has been changed hands many times: in 2013, Italy private equity fund DGPA SGR first acquired 75% stake in 45 million euros; in 2015, this share was taken over by Ergon Capital Partners, a Belgian private-equity firm. This month, it was rumoured that the Carlyle Group LP would buy the brand at a price of 400 million euros, and the source said that the specific deal will be announced at the end of March.

Carlyle Group had a number of investment fashion brands, including the Italy brand Moncler, TwinSet Simona Barbieri, Holland underwear brand Hunkem ller International B.V and Chinese brand song, which is the main player in the down jacket industry. It is reported that Carlyle Group plans to help expand the global retail channel and enhance the power of e-commerce.

"Golden Goose Deluxe Brand performs well, so the expectation of Ergon Capital Partners is to shorten the investment cycle so as to get a return on investment in a relatively short period of time," said Roberta Benaglia, the chief executive officer of Style capital, a private equity fund holding a few brands of shares. She did not comment specifically on the Carlyle Group's pactions and whether the private placement that pays attention to short-term returns can really do the luxury brands that need further planning. However, she said: Ergon Ergon has always been a smart investor, because it took over the company from the perspective of management and organization, maintained its sustainability, and there was no change in the company. The management team was the same, and the founders were still in charge of the design and creative business.

"It is the team that has been operating from 20 million euros in 2012 to 100 million euros today," she said.

"Today, the market sees us as a luxury street style leading brand, because we have not only molded the brand's" leisure "in this category but also in the shoe market, becoming a symbol of leisure and elegance and luxurious leisure," Benaglia said. "Perhaps today some luxury brands are overexposed in the field of communication and retail, and the risk is to become an expensive commodity.

Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is temperate, never overexposed and very picky about sales channels.

This is what we mean by luxury today.