Italian luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose came under fire after it debuted a pair of $530 sneakers that are styled to look dingy and worn-out with duct tape accents that’s described on Nordstrom’s website as “crumply, hold-it-all-together tape.”
The design is a riff on the “distressed” fashion trend, but some shoppers think that the intentional wear and tear of a pair of brand-new sneakers is in poor taste, especially when seen in the context of those whose shoes look like that because of economic depression as opposed to a style trend.
Some disgruntled shoppers took to social media to sound off on what they thought was a tone deaf fashion statement.
Twitter user Christine Sydelko’s tweet criticizing the footwear style was liked nearly 50,000 times as of Thursday afternoon.
However, this isn’t the first time that the brand has been critiqued for its distressed styling; two years ago, Golden Goose was criticized for a similar style that featured ripped laces and stylized “duct tape.” At that time, the company gave the following statement to US Magazine: “[Our] company is proud to highlight its pioneering role in the booming of the distressed look, one of the current biggest trends in fashion,” the Venetian label said in a statement to Us magazine. “The duct tape reinforcements appearing on the [Superstar sneaker] style pay homage to the West Coast’s skater culture — professional skaters, who have inspired the brand’s shoe collections from the beginning, repair their shoes with the same kind of tape.”
Some other Twitter users also reiterated that the brand had been designing shoes like this for years.
Golden Goose did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment on this story.
