Duck Duck Goose Birthday Celebration

DS: Hello, I’m Daniel Sher. I’m a Cape Town-based, Johannesburg-born fashion designer and entrepreneur. I’m the founder and creative director of Duck Duck Goose and its flagship brand, Good Good Good. I’ve got 13 years of experience in the clothing manufacturing and design industry, having joined my wife's family business before starting my own manufacturing facility called Together MFG.

DS: I was having dinner with friends during level 4 lockdown in early 2020 and we were eating duck. Koos Groenewald, one of the designers of the store’s identity, talked about how he’s suggested the Duck Duck Goose name to so many of the restaurants for whom he has created brand identities. At the time, I was looking for a name for the store because I wanted it to be a multi-brand store, and not exclusively a Good Good Good flagship. I loved the sound of the name. It worked with the playful nature that Good Good Good is known for – I mean, Duck Duck Goose is literally a playground game. Philosophically, we view each of our in-store, independently owned, South African brands as our golden ducklings. The golden “geese” are the brands and products that visitors to our store choose to interact with. The mosaic floor at 120 Bree Street illustrates this quite well, spelling out “duck, duck, duck, duck, goose” in small tiles around the shop, with “goose” placed in gold in front of the changing room.

DS: It was different in that we had grown a lot as a business at that point. After two and a half years of nonstop foot traffic, regular parties in the store, and general wear and tear, the space needed some TLC. Everything was cleaned and repaired where necessary. We were also able to return with a more nuanced and considered approach to what we wanted our store experience to be like. For example, we cut out our record shelf, because we realised that it wasn’t really us. Although music is engrained in the culture and story of 120 Bree Street, we’re not a record store. Since we’ve been back we’ve been far more focused on clothing, and especially our vast range of premium T-shirts. While we were away from Bree Street, though, Duck Duck Goose took on new forms that we had been planning for some time. We attended two Decorex events as the Duck Duck Goose T-Shirt Café, a travelling capsule version of the store. One of these events was Decorex Joburg, where we also popped up at Father Coffee and hosted a party with the Duck Duck Goose Soundsystem, the travelling musical wing of our business. We hosted a similar party at One Park in Cape Town. So, the store has transformed in a way that has made it more fluid and moveable, which was an idea that we didn’t have the time to test out while we were running two shops in 120 Bree Street and our Watershed location.

DS: Our aim for the store was to create an experience that is warm, homely and unexpectedly thoughtful. In my past experience, as it is for many, luxury stores can be rather intimidating and unwelcoming, which makes it difficult to comfortably interact with the beautiful products in the space. We wanted to turn that on its head and make South African luxury fashion as accessible as possible to interact with for local and international visitors alike. Through deep consideration for the store’s design, lighting, and staff, we’ve tried to make walking into our store feel like receiving a warm hug. We want people to feel like they don’t have to spend money in order to spend time at the store, and that they can continue to spend time at the store even if they’re just browsing and trying on the products. I think that we have succeeded in making the shop feel like a safe, inner city home and meeting point for people that frequently visit it because of this.

DS: We mostly like to buy stuff from brands that we love and admire. It either needs to be a product that myself and my team members could see ourselves wearing, or it needs to be a product that we would like to see other people wear. Importantly, our brands are owned by designers we deeply admire and respect. They’re great storytellers and tell their own stories in their own authentic way. We’re not trying to be South African versions of Euro-American brands. To us, each of our in-store brands are representatives of the enormous commitment and determination it takes for South African brands to succeed on an international level. They are the carriers of the ambitious South African dream for commercial success in fashion and other design, despite the major lack of access to resources and government support for our talent. Our aim is to empower the South African brands within our store to reach global audiences and customers.

DS: It means a lot to me personally. I wanted to open a store in the exact location of where Duck Duck Goose is now for five years before it became available. Since 2014, while I was doing my accounting articles at Ernst and Young, I used to visit Max Bagels every lunch break and became friends with the founders Matthew Freemantle and Andrew Kai. It was the first place in a new city where I felt at home. I had asked Matthew to keep an ear to the ground about any spots opening up around Max Bagels, and finally, in 2020, a spot opened up right next to them and I pounced on it. Now we’re neighbours. Full circle.

Since then, Bree Street has become far more of a bustling cultural hub, which feels great to be a part of. It feels like one of the most important streets in the city at the moment, and a street in which the local creative community can congregate and hang out. We’ve had a front row seat to seeing it all happen.

DS: It’s always a good time. The date of initial opening, 15 December, was completely random and unplanned, but because of it there is always a public holiday on the day after our birthday parties. It ensures that we can go all out in our celebration every year and that no one has an excuse to go home early. Being at the end of the year and during tourist season, though, we always have a lot of other things going on around the store and the factory. This has meant that our birthday parties have always been extremely fun, yet disorganised mixed bags. At our first birthday party, we had Matthew Freemantle signing poetry books, music (of course), and toasties. Our second birthday party saw Daniel hosting karaoke at the shop with Vodka Stoneys lubricating the crowd on the sidewalk. So, we never really know what’s going to happen. Anything can happen, but it will always be a good time.

DS: Firstly, it allows us to celebrate each milestone with a physical product to memorialise it with. It’s quite cool to look back at a birthday T-shirt design and think about where we were at when we made it. It also allows our customers to own a piece of our history

DS: If the quality of cotton is good, if the quality of fit is good, if it’s comfortable and durable, maintains its colour, doesn’t shrink if the washcare instructions are followed, if it’s finished well on the inside and outside and the labels are topstitched into the garment well, it’s a good T-shirt. And then, if you’re going to make a good graphic T-shirt, the message and the artwork have to be tasteful, remarkable and relevant, placed well and applied to the cotton in a suitable way. When done right, a good T-shirt is a direct form of communication. It’s the best when it’s got humorous imagery that burns into the back of your brain and has a great cultural message.

DS: Baseline and Shelflife have been around for 25 and 17 years respectively. That’s incredible. The two stores started by servicing niche communities in the country and have found ways to survive the local retail landscape which can be arduous at the best of times. Both stores have also managed to stay true to their initial visions and build unique and loyal communities around their ideas and projects. If that doesn’t mean they’re pillars of the industry, I don’t know what would.

DS: I think that we are as concerned with preserving our initial vision for our store to be a home for South African luxury design as Shelflife has been for their vision to be a home for the sneakerhead and graffiti communities. Both stores are focused on bringing people together based on similarities in sensibilities and interests, and on exposing more people to rich cultural worlds. We are also big proponents of local and international collaborations, which is something that Shelflife has championed in its 17-year lifespan. While Duck Duck Goose has not ventured outside of South Africa yet, we aspire to follow in the footsteps of Shelflife and to impress and broaden our community overseas.

DS: For us, this collaboration is important, because we have earned the chance to team up with a giant of the South African retail game. More generally, collaborations like this one also symbolise togetherness in fashion and culturally adjacent communities. While our stores sell different products, the overlap between our communities is big. Through this collaboration, hopefully we can bring people together and encourage more unity amongst those who share similar interests. At the end of the day, one of our core aims is to broaden our community.

DS: We’re starting off with a civilised gathering at our store from 4pm-6pm. There might be some Chicken Sando’s cooked by Homeboys, however we haven’t reached out to them yet and they have no idea about this plan of ours. The birthday T-Shirts will be available for purchase (business as usual son). The Duck Duck Goose and Good Good Good alumni will be in attendance. The LED sign is probably going to be working. It’s going to be very zhuzh. At 6pm we are taking the jol to One Park. We had a really good turnout and experience the last time we hosted a party there. This time, it’s for our birthday, so I’m sure the vibes will be even more zhuzhaluj. One Park will be serving Vodka Stoneys (a 120 Bree Street classic) and Chicken Teriyaki (boiiiiiii) all night. Full Inbox (me) is playing before JakobSnake takes over. He really wanted to play back-to-back with me, but I said no. I’ll stick around for his set though.

Probably Full Inbox’s three-hour set.

1. What’s your go-to drink on a night out?
   Wine at Leo’s, cocktails at One Park and bezzas at Arthur’s and on Basil Smith’s balcony.
   
   
2. What is your favourite place to get food at the moment?
   New York Bagels.
   
   
3. What’s your favourite song to dance to?
   At the moment my son and I can’t stop dancing to the Knee Deep Mix of Afro Medusa’s song Pasilda.
   
   
4. What do you think makes the best party?
   Good people, good sound, a unique setting and good selectors.
   
   
5. What item of clothing is your favourite of all time?
   The Vivo Barefoot Primus Lite, Trek and the Magna Forest. Ash from Vivo Barefoot, I am ready for a collab and ambassadorship.
   
   
6. What do you do when you aren’t working at Duck Duck Goose?
   Hang out with my wife, kids and our friends & family. This year I’ve been learning to play the trumpet. I enjoy DJing at friends’ birthday parties. Reading books and reading other things that interest me. Watching TV. Playing padel! Going to pilates.
   
   
7. Can you draw a duck?
Unfortunately not, I’m too busy preparing for the birthday event and finishing my answers to this interview.