Campara: «The future of fashion must be built on empathy and new connections»

What is most striking, watching or listening to Silvio Campara, is his ability to suddenly change register, putting to the test the interlocutor who wants to follow his thoughts and reasoning, even if enriched by irrefutable numbers. The CEO of Golden Goose moves naturally from the personal anecdote to the global scenario, from marketing terms that are rightly untranslatable from English, such as acquisition and retention , referring to store customers, not to financial operations, to the use of an imaginative language that says a lot about his personality.

At the Sole 24 Ore Luxury Summit held at Magna Pars in Milan on Wednesday, May 7, Campara began his story with himself: "Growing up, I understood that the greatest fortune that has happened to me was to have been loved by my family, in every phase of my life, starting from the crucial ones of childhood. From a small town in Veneto, I went to study at Bocconi, I began my career as a manager and with Golden Goose, many satisfactions arrived, but my strength, my optimism, curiosity and empathy for others come from the fact of having been loved."

A confession that in the mouth of many others might seem corny or, worse, might resemble a captatio benevolentiae. Said by Silvio Campara, it explains a lot about the uniqueness of the path that Golden Goose is taking: 2024 closed with revenues growing by 13% to 655 million and an EBITDA of 227 (+14% on 2023). «We are potentially slaves, or at least dependent, on our smartphones and technology, which has certainly expanded the range of choices we can make. But I am clear about the difference between choosing to do something and deciding, listening to the heart and mind – added the CEO of Golden Goose –. It may seem excessively theoretical or philosophical as reasoning to apply to fashion, but I believe that this is not the case. The success of Golden (sic) is linked to the sensations and emotions that we arouse in customers. We do not impose anything, nor do we bombard minds and hearts with repetitive social campaigns. Instead, we offer the possibility of customizing almost every product, starting with sneakers, of course». To those who would argue that customization has become the mantra of every fashion and luxury brand for some years now, it would be enough to say that Golden Goose talks about “co-creation”, not about personalized sneakers or t-shirts.

To underline the link with every form of creativity and talent, well beyond fashion, Campara has also created the Haus of Dreamers project, an idea but also a physical place, a complex of buildings in Marghera, where the brand was born twenty years ago, inaugurated in 2024, on the occasion of the Art Biennale, and which hosts, in addition to offices and laboratories, spaces for artists, video makers, meetings and above all a "school for artisans" (but at Golden Goose they are called dreamers ).

On the eve of the Venice Architecture Biennale, Haus will host Marco Brambilla with Altered States, his first real exhibition in Italy, curated by Jérôme Sans, co-founder of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, who has chosen a series of existing works and others created specifically by Brambilla for Golden Goose. Haus will open to the public on Sunday 11 May on the occasion of Haus Week, with a program of performances, workshops and talks dedicated to art, culture, sneakers and sports, with the aim of giving back value to the local Venetian community and promoting intercultural dialogue, creativity and freedom of expression. An event open to all, by registering on haus.goldengoose.com.