Golden Goose, an Italian luxury shoe brand that advertises itself as having “a low-key communication strategy and a highly selective placement in venues that share the brand’s philosophy,” has come under fire for a tattered shoe that its critics say glorifies poverty.
One of the stores selected by Golden Goose for product sales is the upmarket Nordstrom.
There, consumers can find the “Superstar Taped Sneaker” along with this description: “Crumply, hold-it-all-together tape details a distressed leather sneaker in a retro low profile with a signature sidewall star and a grungy rubber cupsole.”
Consumers have been happy to pay for distressed denim for years — but these faux-grunge shoes take the worn-out look to a new level.
And many people are steaming over it.
The hardest thing about the sneakers for critics? The cost — a whopping $530.
Many people expressed disgust and called out the brand on Twitter.
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“Poverty is real,” one wrote.
“I’ve been bullied for wearing thrifted clothes before thrifting was ‘cool,’ and now we have high-end brands capitalizing upon many people’s past and current poverty-related suffering.”
Why are sneakers so expensive in the first place?
“Rising sneaker prices can be attributed to a variety of factors: rising costs of labor in China, increased costs for raw material, inflation, and general price increases, yet it appears that the price increases have significantly outpaced these factors over the past decade,” Eric Myers, a Northeastern MBA graduate and director at engineering firm Integris Group, told Complex.
See some of the outrage in the Twitter comments shown below.
okay maybe i’m being dramatic but i remember seeing kids getting harassed and made fun of endlessly in school for having shoes that looked like this. this is extremely distasteful. https://t.co/h3RAKmiY5d
— brooke? (@broookedanielle) September 19, 2018
Poverty is real, I’ve been bullied for wearing thrifted clothes before thrifting was “cool”, and now we have high end brands capitalizing upon many people’s past and current poverty related suffering. Thank you Golden Goose. I hope the designer that came up with this is happy. https://t.co/iixNhxip7T
— 1-800-ARE-YOU-DYIN (@evelyn_art_) September 20, 2018
Golden Goose comes out with a pair of sneakers listed at $530 that are worn down and kept together by tape. Since when is it a trend to glorify the appearance of used sneakers and poverty? pic.twitter.com/1yLTuitIBX
— Bryan Heckman (@b_hecky) September 20, 2018
Nothing truly says you are a worthless wanker than spending 400 odd quid on shoes that mock poverty. https://t.co/dg94G5ePak
— Daniel Cuthbert (@dcuthbert) September 20, 2018
Watch someone unbox a pair of Golden Goose sneakers in the video below.
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