MILAN — Fashion enthusiasts with a passion for padel can now join the Golden Goose Arena in Milan.

The much anticipated multicourt padel center is opening its doors on Tuesday, a few months later than originally planned. It signals fashion’s ongoing fixation for sports culture, with sponsorships alone estimated to generate $115 billion in 2025 and $160 billion by 2030, according to consultancy PwC.

This is Golden Goose’s latest project and is very much in sync with its community-driven approach and follows the appointment of padel aces Marta Ortega, Juan Lebrón, and Arturo Coello as global brand ambassadors over the past year.

Located in the skyscrapers-filled CityLife neighborhood, the Golden Goose Arena was designed by Novembre Studio, the architectural firm helmed by famed designer Fabio Novembre, a longtime brand collaborator and friend. Its futuristic shape is defined by a vessel-like structure decked in mirror-finish thermoregulatory polycarbonate, with the brand’s signature half-star, red logo standing out on top.

The arena is the result of a partnership between the Italian brand and City Padel Milano, a sport association founded by entrepreneurs Demetrio Albertini and Lorenzo Alfieri, two among the Italian pioneers of this sport.

“The Golden Goose Arena is the emblem of the shift ‘from looking good to feeling good.’ It’s a place which combines sport, passion, community and well-being, and where true luxury lies in shared moments,” said Golden Goose’s chief executive officer Silvio Campara. “It’s a place where people connect, play and share experiences that go beyond the game,” he said.

The 30,138-square-foot pavilion — powered by renewable energy and sustainable mobility solutions provider Atlante — is surrounded by 7,857 square feet of outdoor space. It boasts six indoor courts, a pro indoor court equipped with camera tracking and LED scoreboard, and two outdoor courts. Fostering the community mindset, the game experience is enhanced by a partnership with WeSmash, an app for padel enthusiasts to connect on- and off-the-court.

The first floor houses a lounge area with a panoramic view on the ground floor, where indoor courts are located alongside changing rooms, a café offering the experience of an Italian cafeteria enriched by a healthy snack menu, as well as a Golden Goose store. The arena is further complemented by an outdoor lounge area and Ritual Spaces, a relaxing area offering tech-powered wellness experiences with premium self-care products.

To mark the official opening, Golden Goose is debuting a dedicated activewear line as part of its Star collection, made up of high performance ready-to-wear, footwear and sport accessories, as well as sport equipment such as bags, rackets and balls developed in collaboration with sector leader Babolat. Aimed at padel players, each piece in the collection is highly customizable and, therefore, in sync with Golden Goose’s personalization strategy and co-creation services.

The Italian brand is also debuting Star Experience, a membership-like program which offers priority court and class bookings, as well as access to the private lounge and Ritual Spaces, in addition to a dedicated welcome kit.

A mash-up of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, padel 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 racket game gained fans across the world.

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.

He has since been named a global ambassador for the brand, followed by other athletes including Italian Polish tennis player Jasmine Paolini, Australian skateboarder Keegan Palmer, Belgian tennis player Zizou Bergs, in addition to Ortega, Lebrón and Coello.

Golden Goose was established in 2000 and is best known for its successful Superstar sneakers. In 2020, the company was acquired by the private equity fund Permira from the Carlyle Europe Buyout fund. As reported, at the end of January, Blue Pool Capital, a Hong Kong-based investment firm and family office established by Joe Tsai, cofounder and chairman of the Alibaba Group, acquired a 12 percent stake in Golden Goose.

The sale to Blue Pool Capital was a new development after Golden Goose delayed its initial public offering in June 2024, an 11th-hour switch that was due to European market volatility. Speculations are mounting around the future of Permira’s position in the Italian luxury brand although the company has declined to comment.

In the first half of 2025, Golden Goose posted 13 percent revenue growth to 342.1 million euros, driven by strong direct-to-consumer sales, retail expansion and innovative store concepts. As of June 30, the brand’s retail footprint comprised 225 directly operated stores, including the newly opened, third Forward concept store in the U.S., at the NorthPark shopping center in Dallas, hinged on the brand’s sustainability-minded repair and remake services. The company also launched a new experiential store concept in New York’s Meatpacking District focused on co-creation.

The brand has championed a community-driven approach, for example hosting Haus of Dreamers’ all-encompassing cultural events in Paris, Los Angeles and Marghera, Italy, where the company is based. The label’s hometown was also the stage for “Altered States,” a project curated by Jérôme Sans and featuring an immersive installation by artist Marco Brambilla to kick off 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture and reinstate its link to art and culture.