How Golden Goose is bringing Gemini, Google’s AI, inside its stores

Golden Goose, the Venetian brand founded in 2000 and renowned for its artisanal sneakers with a “lived-in” aesthetic, is today one of Italy’s most recognizable luxury labels. In Milan, it recently opened a padel arena designed by Fabio Novembre. In the latest chapter of its evolution, Silvio Campara, CEO of Golden Goose, is bringing artificial intelligence into the brand’s stores—not as a tech gimmick or futuristic toy, but as a natural extension of the relationship between customer, creativity, and craftsmanship. The collaboration with Google—which introduces AI Gemini and Google Pixel devices into Golden Goose stores in Italy, France, Spain, and the United States—represents a pioneering effort to integrate digital tools into the customization process, creating a dialogue between algorithmic generation and artisanal expertise.

Campara often emphasizes a key point: “Technology should amplify, not replace, the human hand.” It is from this principle that the use of Gemini’s Gem in stores arises. Not a filter, not an effect—but, as he defines it, “a shared space of imagination between customer and model.” The Gem does more than generate images: it interprets the customer’s intent, suggests aesthetic directions, and makes ideas visible that would otherwise remain abstract.

“Customers no longer just want to choose a product; they want to understand its meaning, to participate in its creation,” the CEO explains. The Gem becomes an intermediary: translating a memory, a color, or a cultural reference into a visual foundation, from which the artisan begins their work. “AI doesn’t replace creativity—it amplifies it,” Campara says, seeing it as a way to “give people confidence in the creative process, because they can instantly visualize what they imagine.”

For Campara, the store is not just a commercial space but “a cultural place where things happen.” AI, in his words, “doesn’t change the store’s nature but opens up a new kind of conversation.” Customers no longer merely express a taste—they explore possibilities alongside a system that responds, proposes, and interprets cues.

Silvio Campara

“The store is about relationships,” Campara emphasizes. “AI makes this relationship deeper, more personal, closer to the customer’s sensibility.” Yet it never replaces the final step: that remains the domain of the Dream Makers, the artisans. “There’s always a moment when someone takes the shoe in hand and decides what is right for that customer. That will never change.”

Campara describes the process as “a bridge between vision and reality.” The digital aspect is not an aesthetic exercise but a way to narrow the gap between imagination and the final object. “Before, the customer had to trust our interpretation. Now they can see, revise, change their mind, and find a direction that truly feels their own.” For the CEO, this signals a broader shift: “We no longer speak of products but of culture. Of how people want to express themselves today. AI enters this scenario not as technology, but as a language.” Looking ahead, Campara is emphatic: “The future of fashion will not be defined by faster production or fleeting trends, but by the ability to create deep connections—turning technology into empathy, sustainability into aspiration, and passion into shared experience.”

Yet this innovation also raises questions: Golden Goose is only one of many fashion and luxury collaborations Google is launching, expanding AI’s role in brand and retail strategies while prompting reflection on the standardization of creative experience and big tech’s influence on contemporary aesthetics.

Golden Goose has found a way to introduce Gemini in a manner fully aligned with its identity, while staying true to the brand’s values and vision. In this sense, the collaboration with Google is not merely a technological initiative but “a piece of a larger vision,” which also includes the Milan padel arena and other projects aimed—Campara emphasizes—“at creating cultural and experiential value, not just products.”

All images: Courtesy Google Pixel and Golden Goose