If you pay $500 or so for a pair of sneakers, what do you do when the soles wear out? Dispose of them, as you would any other sneakers, or seek to get them repaired, like you might for an expensive pair of dress shoes? The fashion retailer Golden Goose hopes to convince you to prefer the latter option, and to do so, it is leveraging insights from luxury retailing, sustainability concepts, and service offerings.

Although sneakers are not its only product, they account for a substantial portion of Golden Goose sales. Crafted by artisans, new products are hand sewn and stitched, and buyers can request customized designs, colors, patterns, and embellishments to be added. The production process—inspired by luxury shoe makers from the nearby Veneto region of Italy—takes considerable time, so in addition to paying around $500 per pair, consumers also must wait their turn for their sneakers to be ready.

But over time, shoes wear out. Thus, Golden Goose also encourages people to bring back sneakers to its atelier, where, for an additional fee, artisans called Dream Makers will carefully disassemble the shoes, replace the soles and insoles, restitch any tears, clean the fabric, and reattach the foxing around the sole. The repair service is careful not to clean the shoes too well though; Golden Goose embraces an aesthetic of “perfect imperfection” and highlights the beauty of natural wear. For people who don’t want to wait for that natural wear to occur, the shop offers a “Lived-In Treatment” for new shoes, at a cost of around $70.

Although the company prioritizes its connections to luxury in touting its production process and repair service, it also acknowledges that such efforts represent a step toward greater sustainability. Accordingly, it accepts shoes (and clothing) of any brand, which it will recycle in a partnership agreement with the company ReCircled. Acknowledging that such efforts are unlikely to have a substantial impact in the massive sneaker market—a drop in the bucket, so to speak—Golden Goose has established further, ambitious sustainability goals, some of which include a training initiative to help increase the number of cobblers available to keep repairing shoes.

All of these elements—handcrafted production by skilled artisans, sustainability efforts, expansive service offerings—are expensive to provide, which helps explain the cost of the shoes. But Golden Goose believes this business model also is promising, and it plans to expand beyond its Italian flagship store to open concept shops in Dubai and New York. The rationale, according to the brand’s founder, is that even if the company loses money in offering repairs, it keeps customers happy and gets them back in the store, or in his own words: “Someone who feels taken care of will always return, and repairs help keep my products in your life and in your memory.”

Discussion Questions:

1. Can such an artisan model be expanded by other brands? To other product lines? What factors would determine its success?
2. How much would you pay for a pair of sneakers if you knew they represented a luxury item that you could keep getting repaired over time?

Source: Laura Rysman, “Don’t Toss those Old Sneakers,” The New York Times, July 9, 2022