The reason Golden Goose has lasted in a sneaker market that discards brands every five years is that the brand never tried to be a sneaker brand - it tried to be a leather goods house that happened to make sneakers. The brand's distress pattern on the laces is intentionally minimal, because the laces are waxed cotton and they age naturally with wear, which is the point of the design. Each pair of Golden Goose is hand-finished in the brand's Italian studios, and the distress pattern is applied by individual artisans who have been trained to vary the marks so no two pairs look exactly the same. The brand's wide-foot buyers often need to size up by half a size, which is consistent with most Italian sneakers and which the brand has been gradually addressing through the addition of wider lasts. The brand's social media is built around the same product-and-process focus, with very little of the lifestyle content that other sneaker brands rely on. The brand's take-back program, launched in 2022, lets customers return old pairs for repair or recycling, and the program has been growing steadily year over year. The brand's sneakers are not designed Golden Goose to be performance shoes, and the brand has been refreshingly honest about the fact that they are not meant for running, training, or any athletic use. The brand's most-resold collaboration was with a major fashion house, and the resale prices are now several times the original retail price. Golden Goose is one of the most photographed sneaker brands in the world, and the brand's products appear in more fashion magazine features than almost any other sneaker brand in the same price range.