We select our suppliers very carefully, engaging with those that not only deliver products of the highest quality, technical excellence, and reliability, but that also - and above all - share our social, ethical, and environmental values and principles.
Ours is a story of innovation and research, deeply rooted in the heritage of Italian craftsmanship and in the solid, long-standing relationships we’ve built over time with our suppliers – true partners that stand out among small-sized enterprises and with whom we share a strong sense of trust and collaboration. This continuity contributes to the high technical and quality performance of our products and ensures the consistency we need to plan for long-term growth and development.
The production and packaging of our products involves around 150 suppliers, including raw material suppliers, garment manufacturers, and finished product suppliers, depending on the type of business (ready-to-wear, footwear, or accessories).
For our footwear collections, we rely on 16 shoe factories, all located in Italy. Based on our product designs and technical specifications, they manage the overall production process and source raw materials from our preferred suppliers – with the exception of certain materials provided directly by Golden. In 2024, we sourced these materials from 42 raw material suppliers, all based in Italy.
Meanwhile, our ready-to-wear collections involved 57 raw material suppliers – nearly all Italian – providing fabrics, production accessories (embroidery, buttons, zippers, belts, bands, etc.), and packaging, and 13 garment manufacturers entrusted with realizing our finished products, all located in Italy, where the deep-rooted manufacturing heritage guarantees high technical expertise and adequate production capacity.
As regards accessories – bags, belts, fragrances, and jewelry – in 2024 we worked with 12 Italian finished product suppliers and 7 raw material suppliers, most of whom were also based in Italy.
DIRECT SUPPLIERS' GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
Lombardy 7 Ready-to-wear & Accessories
Veneto 6 Footwear 5 Ready-to-wear & Accessories
Emilia Romagna 3 Ready-to-wear & Accessories
Tuscany 6 Footwear 4 Ready-to-wear & Accessories
Marche 3 Ready-to-wear & Accessories
Abruzzo 1 Footwear
Apulia 1 Company-owned production site 1 Footwear 2 Ready-to-wear & Accessories
Campania 1 Company-owned production site
SUPPLIERS BY TYPE
| Finished products | 28 |
| Raw materials | 72 |
SUPPLIERS BY GEOGRAPHIC AREA
| Italy | 95 |
| Europe | 3 |
| Extra EU | 2 |
Craftsmanship, manual work, and Italian tradition lie at the heart of the Golden Goose brand, combined with a strong commitment to preserving traditional artisanship.
With this in mind, in December 2022 we took our first step towards the vertical integration of our supply chain, acquiring one of our key footwear suppliers based in Casarano (Lecce, Italy) and welcoming its entire team – over 250 people – into our Family as of January 1, 2023, a move reflecting our commitment to supporting Italian artisanal excellence.
The genesis of each sneaker is rooted in the exchange, dialogue, and collaboration between the site’s team and Golden’s Design Department, guiding the design, modeling, prototyping, and rigorous testing of each item before full-scale production. At the core of this process are the artisanal and manual skills of the people who bring each unique pair of shoes to life.
The production site in Casarano implements an Integrated Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System, certified to international standards UNI ISO 45001 and UNI ISO 14001.
In 2023, we expanded this vision by acquiring the entire share capital of a second key footwear supplier located in Gricignano di Aversa (Caserta, Italy), effective from January 2024. The ambition behind our integration efforts is to create a hub of manufacturing excellence in Italy – advancing towards a responsible and certified production system to bolster our growth, strengthen key in-house manufacturing skills, and nurture the next generation of artisans.
By investing in shared knowledge and values, we are building a more conscious and connected supply chain. That is why, in 2024, we launched the Responsible Sourcing Academy – a training program for all our strategic suppliers to update them on the on the evolution of the regulations and best practices in an increasingly challenging market.Over 40 partners joined us to explore key topics: the impact of deforestation in sourcing raw materials, the power of product traceability through digital passports, and how to embed human rights due diligence across operations.
All our partners must adhere to our same rules of conduct, meaning they are all required to respect and comply with the values and principles of our Code of Ethics and Supplier Code of Conduct. These requirements constitute our Social Compliance Framework, a tool we designed inspired by the most relevant international standards for responsible business conduct. It allows us to share our expectations with suppliers while promoting fairness, sustainability, and transparency across the supply chain. We use this Framework to assess the compliance of both our direct and indirect suppliers during on-site audits that we conduct with the support of a third party. These audits allow us to evaluate their ethical and environmental performance, identify any critical issues, and support them in implementing the corrective measures required to continue doing business with us.
The external auditors conducting the on-site audits at our suppliers’ facilities help us assess compliance and continuous improvement across our supply chain. Audits may be planned or unplanned, and they follow a detailed checklist to verify:
respect for fundamental human and labor rights, especially in terms of forced labor, child labor, freedom of association, working hours, guaranteed minimum wages, and health and safety
overall compliance with our standards and with applicable environmental protection laws and regulations, with a particular focus on sustainable production, responsible waste and water management, and use of chemical products.
Between April 2022 and year-end 2024, we planned and completed 265 on-site audits (101 of which took place in 2024), covering nearly 100% of the footwear and ready-to-wear production volumes allocated. By the end of 2024, 85% of the suppliers audited had already taken the necessary steps to align with our Social Compliance Framework (scoring a level 3 or 4 on a 1-4 scale), while the remaining are currently implementing the corrective action plans needed.
To create engagement and awareness around ESG topics, we launched the Responsible Sourcing Academy, a training program for all our strategic suppliers, designed to keep them informed on evolving regulations and best practices in an increasingly complex and challenging market.
All our suppliers are required to respect and comply with the values and principles of our Code of Ethics and Supplier Code of Conduct, including those regarding the responsible procurement of raw materials of animal origin used in our production processes. This means ensuring that such materials are not obtained through cruel breeding or harvesting practices, as we reject any form of mistreatment or harm inflicted upon animals.
The only hides we accept must be a by-product of the meat industry, and never sourced from animals raised exclusively for their skins. We are also committed to never using any of the following in the manufacture of our products: furs; skins of endangered animals (as defined by the CITES1 Species List and the IUCN2 Red List); leather from fetal or newborn lambs; angora or other rabbit hair; and wool coming from mulesed animals.
1 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
2 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
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We are strongly committed to upholding internationally recognized human rights across all aspects of our operations, including our relationships with employees, suppliers, and all other stakeholders connected to our business. To this end, we joined the UN Global Compact and adopted an approach inspired by both the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We have several measures in place to prevent and mitigate human rights risks across our value chain, supported by specific corporate documents and policies. Among these is our Human Rights Policy, which outlines our commitment to respecting the human and labor rights of our employees and contract workers in all countries of operation.
We believe it is our responsibility to know where the raw materials used in our products come from – which means tracing them as far back as possible. Since leather is at the heart of our collections, it has been our top priority. An internal traceability analysis revealed that the slaughterhouses supplying our leather are located primarily in Africa and in Europe, with none in countries at risk of deforestation. Approximately 90% of our leather is sourced from Leather Working Group (LWG) certified suppliers, of which more than 50% are Gold-certified.
The analysis also showed that the overall cotton used in our products (primarily for our ready-to-wear collections) comes mainly from Türkiye, while most of the spinning suppliers providing our cotton-based fabrics are located in the Mediterranean area (Italy, Türkiye, and Morocco). Nearly all of them are Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified.
LEATHER AND COTTON ORIGIN BY COUNTRY
Americas 11% Cotton
Europe 32% Leather 12% Cotton
Africa 50% Leather
Middle East and Asia 10% Leather 77% Cotton
Oceania 8% Leather
LEATHER ORIGIN BY COUNTRY
| Africa | 50 |
| Europe | 32 |
| Oceania | 8 |
| Middle East and Asia | 10 |
COTTON ORIGIN BY COUNTRY
| Middle East and Asia | 77 |
| Europe | 12 |
| Americas | 11 |