EXCLUSIVE: Golden Goose Ventures Into Sport Arena With Branded Padel Pavilion
MILAN — In keeping with its community-driven approach, Golden Goose is venturing into the sports arena by teaming up on the opening of a branded padel pavilion in Milan.
A mash-up of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, the racket game has long enjoyed a cult following but went mainstream during the pandemic. While the U.S. may have been slower in adoption, the Mexico-born padel gained fans across the world.
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Called Atlante Arena and located in the futuristic, skyscrapers-filled CityLife neighborhood, the Golden Goose padel center was designed by Novembre Studio, the architectural firm helmed by famed designer Fabio Novembre, a longtime brand collaborator and friend.
Developed in tandem with entrepreneurs Demetrio Albertini and Lorenzo Alfieri, two among the Italian pioneers of this sport and the masterminds behind the City Padel Milano club, the center will boast six indoor, one pro indoor and two outdoor courts. The second floor with a lounge area will offer a panoramic view on the courts.
Golden Goose is to debut a dedicated line called Star comprising ready-to-wear, footwear and sport equipment aimed at padel players to be sold at a dedicated store inside the pavilion. Each product from the new line will be highly customizable in sync with Golden Goose’s personalization strategy and co-creation services.
Fostering the community mindset that Golden Goose intends to spread with this venture, the pavilion experience is to be enhanced by a strong digital component through WeSmash, an app for padel enthusiasts to connect on- and off-the-court.
The company said the center will also offer products and services geared at well-being, beauty and sustainability, in addition to leveraging its outdoor area for special events and gatherings.
The pavilion will open its doors in the fourth quarter of 2024, but Golden Goose has already conscripted key padel players including Juan Lebron, Ariana Sanchez and Gemma Triay to heighten awareness on the new center bowing in the city.
This is not the first sport-related activation for Golden Goose, which in 2021 teamed up with skateboarder and leader of the U.S. National Team Cory Juneau, who competed in the Olympic Games in Tokyo that year, the first to feature skateboarding, wearing a pair of one-of-a kind sneakers created for the occasion by the Italian footwear brand.
Known for its pledge to build a community, Golden Goose debuted the Haus of Dreamers events, based on the Haus creative global platform concept last May in Venice. At the end of August, it presented the fourth collection, Dreamed By, with K-pop artist Sunmi, which followed earlier linkups with Suki Waterhouse, Quannah Chasinghorse, Dr. Woo and Novembre. The brand’s cultural drive is to be further expanded with the opening of the Haus concept in Marghera, outside of Venice, which will bow in May next year, during the Art Biennale.
Earlier this year, Golden Goose expanded its footwear repair, remake, resell and recycling program Forward Stores, launched in 2022 and applicable to products from any brand, to its e-commerce platform, while in September it celebrated the reopening of its Paris flagship store on Rue des Saints-Pères, after a renovation that expanded the unit to 4,000 square feet, with 10 expansive windows and a repair bar.
The brand, which posted revenues of 421 million euros, up 19 percent, in the nine months ended Sept. 30, was established in 2000 and is best known for its successful Superstar sneakers and intentionally distressed styles. In 2020, the company was acquired by the private equity fund Permira from the Carlyle Europe Buyout fund. The price tag was pegged at 1.28 billion euros.
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