The poverty divide is an ever-growing and heartbreaking facet of our present-day world. The digital divide, current political situation and every growing greed in the human race have created an inescapable pit trapping families and individuals in a vicious cycle of poverty. It is our responsibility to recognize our own privilege and take the callousness out of our actions and work to close this gap, and those efforts can start from the very clothes and shoes we wear. The fashion industry is both a social and political climate of expression and our participation in it can make for either a wonderful or absolutely horrendous impact on society. It is our job to point out the social wrongs in fashion and check ourselves as humans when brands are insensitive to social issues. Golden Goose is one of those brands, that deserves our attention. We must fight willful ignorance with understanding and empathy.
Golden Goose Deluxe Brand is an Italian high fashion sneaker brand based in Venice, Italy that was created in 2000 by two young Venetian designers. Recently, the brand came out with Beige Scotch Superstar Sneakers that took the internet by storm.
These artificially beat-up sneakers from Italian brand Golden Goose cost $530. https://t.co/mvtPkPTVNZ
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) September 21, 2018
These shoes are described as having a distressed suede upper, smudged rubber midsole, treaded gum rubber outsole and tape trim at toe and heel. The shoes are priced at $530 USD and have been purposely created to fit a grunge aesthetic. Golden Goose claims the shoes were “vintage-inspired iterations of the rock and roll-inspired Superstar sneaker,” meant to follow the personal edgy aesthetic that most rock and roll stars followed when the Superstar sneakers originally debuted. Much of Golden Goose’s products follow this distressed feel, but their Beige Scotch sneakers are by far the farthest expression of an inherent and blatant callousness towards those who are impoverished. The shoes have been created to purposely look broken and worn-in, and even to the extent of physically having to be “held” together by duct tape.
What is the grunge aesthetic?
The grunge aesthetic originated in the mid-1980s with alternative and punk rock at a time where grunge ran against the flashy fashion of the time. Now, grunge isn’t necessarily wrong. You can wear holes in your clothes or your shoes, and that definitely doesn’t make you a terrible person. It isn’t wrong to use and get your money’s worth from a product. I even know some people who purposely ruin their new shoes, so they look worn in and have more character (in their opinion). That’s your choice. Whether that’s necessary or not is up to you. To rebel against the mainstream also isn’t immoral, in fact, it can create positive change. But problems arise when this style turns from personal choice to blatant privilege.
How can fashion turn into blatant disrespect?
There is a thin line between personal fashion and a blatant abuse of privilege. There is no denying that shoes aren’t cheap, a new pair of Converse can cost more than $50. Most people can’t afford to buy shoes this expensive, let alone ones for over $500. For a vast group of people, they wear shoes to their breaking point because they either can’t afford replacements or don’t see a need to buy a new pair of shoes. It is disgustingly disrespectful to design or buy a pair of shoes that are capitalizing on a style representative of someone who simply can’t afford to replace their broken shoes. Golden Goose is by no means the first company to do this. Their product simply crossed the line. So much so that it caused a lot of consumers to take a hard look at their own buying practices.
So, how did these shoes appropriate poverty?
By creating a high fashion pair of shoes that are fashionably dirty and distressed in order to make a statement only furthers the gap between rich and poor. To create a pair of shoes that are representative of a lower class and make them so expensive that they couldn’t even be worn by this class is a disgusting misuse of resource and power. This misuse of privilege discounts those who were bullied for having old shoes or who have worked countless hours to be able to afford a nice pair of shoes. It can be argued that these shoes fit within a certain aesthetic, but I argue that this aesthetic has warped into exactly what it was created to combat.
How did Golden Goose react to criticism?
As of now, the shoes have been removed from the brand’s site and the tweet about the shoes that went viral has also been removed. Yet, the shoes are still listed for sale online, such as at SSENSE.com. Golden Goose’s statement for US stated they are “actually proud to highlight [their] pioneering role in the booming of the distressed look, one of the current biggest trends in fashion.” Furthermore, they claim that the “the duct-tape reinforcements appearing on the [Distressed Superstar Sneakers] style pay homage to the West Coast’s skater culture — professional skaters, who inspired the brand’s shoe collections from the beginning, use to repair their shoes with the same kind of tape.”
It is up to you as a consumer to decide if you find these shoes disrespectful or rather an expression of a certain aesthetic. But keep in mind that you even have this choice in the first place while many do not.