Golden Goose Dupe Sneakers (That I CAN'T Stop Wearing!)

     Another plot twist of 2020? It's the year I fell back in love with wearing sneakers- for non-athletic purposes that is! For the past several years, wearing sneakers solely for fashion hasn't really been my thing. If I wasn't working out or doing something with a lot of walking, I wouldn't have been wearing them. I definitely think it's the rise in popularity for Golden Goose sneakers over the past year that's had me reconsidering wearing sneakers more often again. 

    I'm not sure if you've ever looked into buying Golden Goose sneakers, but they aren't cheap. (I'm honestly not sure there's a more overpriced shoe currently out there- I mean that!) The good news? I've found the most affordable pair of white star sneakers that are so great they deserved their own blog post today! Dare I say I think these are even cuter than Golden Goose? Plus they're on sale right now!!

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Photos by H. Marie Photography 

Top c/o // Skirt // Bag {old, similar here} // Sneakers c/o

     I like the cute star designs found on most Golden Goose sneakers, but I've never understood why someone would want to pay a lot of money for a pair of sneakers that are made to look dirty and scuffed up. When I was looking for a dupe pair of star sneakers to call my own, I specifically looked for ones that weren't dirty looking- haha!

    I finally found the perfect dupe shoe for me: these white sparkly star sneakers! They fit true to size, are a true bright white in color, and I love the sparkles on the star and back. I've worn them several times over the past couple months and they haven't really gotten dirty yet which is also a huge plus! They are under $40 to begin with which is very affordable, but they're on sale right now for an even further discount!! And even better than their cute design or affordability... they are the most comfortable sneakers I've ever had! Seriously!! They require no breaking in period, and the soles are incredibly cushioned. I don't think I could love a pair of sneakers more.

    The one thing with them that some might see as a downside is they are from Shein. If you're not familiar with Shein, it's an online fast-fashion retailer that has skyrocketed in popularity in the last few years. I've been shopping with them since college, and have worked with them for a few years on various blog and Instagram collaborations. While fast fashion itself has it's own negatives associated with it, Shein specifically has been in hot water lately due to a culturally insensitive item that they were selling. Once it came to light, they didn't really offer a great publicly apology about it. (You can catch up on the whole story here.)

    Now that it's been a few weeks since that all happened publicly, I wanted to share some thoughts on how I'll be shopping at Shein going forward. Before this situation happened, I was already starting to think about how much fast fashion I still wanted to support in my closet and on my blog. While I do think fast fashion can be fun (and can be great for trends that'll only last a season or two), overall I do know that the negatives seems to outweigh the positives with it overall. Because of the super low prices, you can also be inclined to be way more things than you actually need or will wear, which is wasteful. 

    I'm not going to say that I'll never shop at Shein again- I do genuinely like a lot of the things I've gotten from them over the years! On many things I've gotten, I often find the quality to be fantastic and to hold up for much longer than I expected with the low prices. I'm often surprised at how great my finds are (like the sneakers in today's post!). But I've also had lots of items be fails from Shein as well- things I end up tossing after one or two uses. Going forward, I want to be shopping at fast fashion retailers a lot less than I have in the past, and be very strategic about the things I do buy that cheaply. I don't want to be as wasteful or frivolous! 

    Anyways- this is a long way of saying despite that these sneakers are a fast fashion item I 100% still recommend them based on their value, comfortability and style! But I also understand if any of you are uncomfortable still shopping at Shein after their recent incident. So I wanted to be transparent!

    Here are my sneakers and some other similar ones:

    God Bless,

     xoxo Annaliese