- To the average consumer, Goop is probably best-known for stories balking at the brand’s support for products like jade vaginal “eggs” and water bottles with built-in crystals.
- Despite its critics, the brand that started as a newsletter for muffins and turkey ragù is now worth $250 million, proving that products pushing for healthier, happier experiences in one’s home, body, and travel comprise a wildly lucrative market.
- Here’s a look at how the controversial brand has developed over the years.
- Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.
The global wellness industry ballooned to $4.2 trillion in 2017, according to the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute.
Among the weight-loss programs and anti-aging products, a significant chunk of that industry likely has some connection to Goop, which is among the best-known names offering all-encompassing conversations and products on “aspirational” wellness.
On its way to becoming one of the largest names in the wellness and lifestyle brand business, Goop has had its fair share of experimentation, controversy, and haters. See how it went from a newsletter by Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow to an editorial and e-commerce platform for customers seeking a meticulously curated experience for personal products in food, skincare, and sex.
Gwyneth Paltrow was born into and grew up among Hollywood royalty.
After attending elite schools in New York City and deferring college to establish herself as a scene-stealing actress, Paltrow appeared in hit movies throughout the early 90s including the 1995 thriller “Se7en” and 1996’s “Emma.”
After starring in five high-profile releases in 1998, Paltrow won an Academy Award for "Shakespeare in Love," which also cemented her star status in Hollywood social circles.
It was while she was filming on sets where Paltrow laid the foundations for Goop, as she had a habit of asking extras and crew members for local recommendations.
According to Goop's own timeline, Paltrow began the tradition of asking crew members for local café and restaurant recommendations while filming "Jefferson in Paris" in the French capital.
Paltrow became increasingly open about her adventures in wellness, which were famously first noticed when she was pictured with cupping marks at the 2004 "Anchorman" movie premiere.
The marks caused quite a stir. One New York Post reporter who was inspired to try the method at the time wrote that the practice is to suck the evil "qi" (or energy) out of your body, but she was turned off by the "alien marks" left on her back.
In the years after Paltrow's show-stopping back flash, several celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Victoria Beckham, and Justin Bieber were reported to be into the practice.
In 2008, Goop debuted as a nutritional newsletter, with the first issue featuring recipes for banana nut muffins and turkey ragú.
The name "Goop" was born after branding legend Peter Arnell told Paltrow that all successful internet companies have double o's in their name.
Arnell has a controversial and widespread track record after he transformed logos for brands including Pepsi and Tropicana. His group made headlines when it took Goop.com on as a client in 2009.
Paltrow told the Wall Street Journal in 2018 that she thought the play on her initials "was stupid and funny."
By 2009, the free newsletter had around 150,000 subscribers. Paltrow has since said she remembers being in her kitchen in London shortly after the launch and being thrilled when $45 came in as a result of an advertising partnership.
The site earned both immediate fans and raised eyebrows after its debut.
Outlets and observers alike balked at the site's tips that included suggestions that readers "police your thoughts" and "eliminate white foods."
Despite the controversial recommendations, experts and media figures saw Goop's immediate success and growth through the next few years as a sign of a changing market for who can start businesses.
"Celebrities are increasingly moving from endorsing products to being the product," John Demsey, group president of Estée Lauder, told the New York Times of Goop in 2014. "This is only going to get more common."
Though Goop hadn't ventured into selling its own products, Paltrow's cookbooks that were published after its founding widened her scope as a wellness icon and gave critics several chances to take aim at her high-end eating habits.
Paltrow published "My Father's Daughter" in 2011, "It's All Good" in 2013 and "It's All Easy" in 2016. Each of the books was described as a different take on facets of Paltrow's home life that aimed to bring easy, healthy recipes to their readers.
However, they were widely ridiculed for overly particular recipes. The Atlantic called "It's All Good" the "Bible of Laughable Hollywood Neuroticism."
Her personal life quickly proved divisive for the brand as well after her now-famous "conscious uncoupling" announcement crashed the site.
Paltrow and her husband Coldplay frontman made headlines when they announced they had split in 2014 after more than a decade of marriage and two children.
"We are parents first and foremost, to two incredibly wonderful children and we ask for their and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time," the pair said in a statement. "We have always conducted our relationship privately, and we hope that as we consciously uncouple and co-parent, we will be able to continue in the same manner."
The phrase "consciously uncouple" sparked a firestorm of curiosity and jokes, but Goop responded with a 2,000-word article by husband-and-wife doctor and dentist team Dr. Habib Sadeghi and Dr. Sherry Sami to define the term that caught such high traffic it crashed the site.
After nearly six years of recommending products, Goop jumped into e-commerce in 2014 with its own branded vitamins, fashion, and housewares.
The site began the move from recommending their picks from other brands to selling its own takes on the fashion, vitamins, and household goods that make up the ideal Goop life.
The new direction came after the company brought in Lisa Gersh, former CEO and president of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a major empire of the celebrity-headed lifestyle space, to be its chief executive.
Since the products were an extension to the aspirational lifestyle brand as pictured on the site, they naturally came with relatively high price points, including a $725 pajama set.
Paltrow's visible leadership of the brand's content, including posh homewares and intricate recipes, quickly earned comparisons to celebrity-turned-lifestyle brand Martha Stewart.
Though Paltrow had widespread celebrity support for Goop's events and content by her friends since its inception, Stewart only offered a half-hearted show of acknowledgment when asked by Bloomberg TV about the five-year-old site in 2013, and even seemed to question Paltrow's authenticity.
"I haven't eaten at Gwyneth's house and I've never seen how she lives," Stewart said. "But if she is authentic, all the better. I mean, and I certainly hope she is. She really wants to be part of the lifestyle business."
Thought Stewart said Paltrow "must be doing something right" as a "charming, pretty person who has a feeling for lifestyle." She added, "I think I started this whole category of lifestyle."
However, in contrast to Stewart's ventures into selling her lifestyle, Goop gravitated towards expansion within a higher price point, even collaborating with high-profile luxury designers.
Capsule collections with designers including Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenburg, and Stella McCartney defied the path of celebrities bringing their wares to big-box retailers like Martha Stewart Living's Martha Stewart Everyday brand at KMart.
In a move to break into the beauty business, Goop debuted a nontoxic skin-care line with Juice Beauty in 2016.
The 78-piece collection included all certified organic ingredients made without silicones including primer, foundations, concealers, mascaras, lip colors, and cheek colors.
Months after the line launched, Goop announced a six-product skincare line with products ranging from $90 to $140. The roll-outs came after years of criticism over products like $100 t-shirts and a $6,000 cosmetic bag being recommended in the site's gift guides. However, Paltrow dismissed criticism over the beauty line's price points as a necessary price to pay for high-quality products.
"Our stuff is beautiful," Paltrow told The New York Times. "The ingredients are beautiful. You can't get that at a lower price point. You can't make these things mass-market."
Brick-and-mortar experiences in stores and pop-up shops brought Goop's aspirational lifestyle offline in Los Angeles and New York City.
After assorted pop-ups on both coasts, the brand's first shop opened in Los Angeles' Brentwood Country Market in December 2017, which was presented in a luxe interpretation of Paltrow's California home filled to the brim with products backed by the site.
2017 also marked the brand's first wellness summit, In Goop Health, which debuted in LA.
The summit's tickets ranged from $500 to $1,500 and gave attendees the chance to experience products and attend panels that included doctors and "healers."
IV drips, an oxygen bar, crystal therapy, and an aura photography station were among the most reported offerings from the summit.
Paltrow told the crowd that the summit was the culmination of her wellness journey that had begun with baking her late father a gluten and sugar-free zucchini loaf, which he compared to biting into The New York Times and "through my macrobiotic phase and through starting up riots because I had cupping marks on my back."
A short-lived partnership with Condé Nast marked the brand's venture into print with an eyebrow-raising debut cover.
Goop first debuted a mud-covered Paltrow on the cover of the first issue of its print magazine in September 2017, but the magazine closed after two issues and the partnership ended.
Paltrow later said that she wanted to publish interviews with non-traditional healers and practitioners, as they do on the Goop website and had to square off with the publisher over its mandatory fact-checking process, according to an interview with Paltrow in the New York Times Magazine.
The brand's shoppable and consumable empire continued to expand through 2018 as they went international, launched a furniture line, and released a podcast.
After years of controversy, 2018 was a landmark year for Goop as it had reportedly tripled its revenue in the two previous years and announced a Notting Hill, London outpost for its newest pop-up shop.
As the brand rolled out wellness products, some of the promoted messages proved controversial.
In September 2018, the company made headlines for settling a $145,000 lawsuit over claims that its vaginal eggs could balance hormones, admitting that some of its magazine's outlandish health advice may not work.
Goop settled that it will continue selling the eggs online with updated language describing the products, but the controversy continued to plague the brand's name among people who didn't closely follow the rest of their offerings.
The same month the company inspired mockery for selling $30 repellent against "psychic vampires."
Goop's social reach turned out tangible profits when the brand's Instagram announced the company's minimalist venture into swimwear in May 2019.
http://instagr.am/p/Bx49YmGnKYm
Goop was at the front of a wave of celebrity-backed business ventures.
Venture investors have poured millions into backing celebrity-led brands like Reese Witherspoon's Draper James, Jessica Alba's Honest Company, and Rihanna's Fenty that have turned into popular lifestyle brands dominating the houseware, beauty, and lingerie industries.
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