Welcome to the Scoop: a weekly email series in which we quiz fashion insiders on the stories of the week. Every interview will appear in your inboxes every Friday and on this page the following Thursday.
The person I called on to inaugurate the series was Golden Goose CEO Silvio Campara. I’d vowed to stop writing about the Italian sneaker company after this interview around their 20th anniversary. But then on December 19 at 5pm CET, as I was preparing to turn off my laptop for Christmas, Golden Goose announced it had sold the company to Chinese investment firm HSG. So, now that we are all done feasting and ready to seize 2026, I had to check back in with Silvio to find out what it all really means.
Hi Silvio, thanks for being the first guest on the Scoop! You’ve had a very busy end to 2025. What’s the scoop on that?
That Friday when we announced the sale, I was so tired. You are one of my first interviews of the year and I want to tell the true story of this project. I have been working on this for a long time — remember, this is the fifth round for me. The deal is sizable, more than we’d imagined — especially for a brand our size. But speaking about finances oversimplifies it. The fact that HSG, who are based in the hub of innovation and technology that is China, paid the amount they did for one of the most analogue brands ever — a brand with distressed products focused on co-creation — that’s what I want to focus on. This deal wasn’t about just delivering good numbers for one year, which we did consistently, but making sure that we were clear on our company’s trajectory over the next ten.
What do those next 10 years look like then?
These days, people are so frustrated. They lack authentic time with others — real connections are scarce. Twenty years ago, luxury was defined by product, but these days you can find luxury products everywhere, even in airports. It’s time and experiences that are the real luxury.
More than half of the population get married by the time they are 45 years old, and they usually have one or two kids. And they have a problem: where do I go with my kids in our free time? I tell them, come to my store and you don’t have to buy sneakers — you can spend a beautiful afternoon here with your kids doing things with your hands, creating. That’s the future and it’s scalable because I’m already doing this in Mexico City, in Tokyo, in Dallas — in all my Haus stores. It’s proven to be 20% of my revenues. It’s big. So the next phase of Golden Goose is to allow for more experiences, based on art and craft.
I remember in the first interview we ever did, you said that if you give someone the opportunity to create, then you have a customer for life.
Exactly. I’m not a genius. I’m simply fast at catching social trends, as opposed to fashion trends. People right now need to prove to themselves that they are still useful. That still they still have value. Because this phone that you carry around with you every day, every day tells you that you are not enough. So having a moment where you can create something using your hands can give you back your sense of self-worth.
If you are growing the size of the stores, are you also looking to bring in other brands and companies for collaborations?