Editorial

Feel Good as Golde: The Wellness Brand Making It Possible To Have Your Avocado Toast and Matcha Latte Too

Golde prioritizes self care and wants you to too.

Self care is no longer a token buzzword, it’s an everyday priority. And wellness is no longer a lavish indulgence reserved for the wealthy. Golde, a black owned wellness company founded by Trinity Mouzon Wofford and her partner Issey Kobori in 2017, has invited the lot of us who can’t afford yoga retreats to start each day with turmeric lattes and end them with a certified organic spirulina power-ed Clean Greens purifying face mask.

If you’ve Googled matcha in the past year, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Golde. With 25,000 TikTok followers and 121,000 Instagram followers, if Golde isn’t already in your medicine cabinet, it’s at least in your peripheral. Pops of green, pinks and yellows in modern geometric patterns decorate the packaging, making it impossible to pass without stopping to gawk at the design. But it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Wofford and Kobori have harnessed the power of superfoods for high quality wellness that’s within reach.

The appeal of Golde’s products are expansive and have built a diverse community. Their mushroom based Shroom Shield supplement extends beyond the mycology crowd. From the fashion forward Harper’s Bazaar to the business minded Fast Company, Golde’s - and ultimately Wofford and Kobori’s success - has been chronicled. Chef and TV host Sophie Roe credits Golde’s Clean Greens Face Mask as defense against breakouts to The Cut.

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Best sellers include Pure Matcha, Coconut Collagen Boost, and the latte essential Superwhisk. The 100% natural and vegan products are created to fit into everyone and anyone’s routine seamlessly so that pursuing wellness can feel good.

With the holidays approaching, Wofford tells co-op that Golde is “embracing having a Super Holiday.” Through the whirlwind of shopping, cookie baking and cookie eating, adding superfoods to the routine affords you a moment to de-stress, slow down, feel good and prioritize your own self care through the chaos.

We chatted with Wofford about the fine, and practically disappearing, line between wellness and beauty, engaging with customers, and her go to superfood.

The Brands

Chatting with Trinity Mouzon Wofford

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co-op: First off, how did Golde come to be? What's the founding story?

Trinity Mouzon Wofford: Growing up, I watched my mom deal with a pretty severe autoimmune condition. The first time she really saw a difference in how she felt was when she switched over to this more holistically-minded physician. It helped her a lot, but the treatments weren’t covered by insurance and were way too expensive. That was how I became aware of the power of wellness, and the importance of accessibility within that context.

Golde was inspired by my experiences as a consumer in wellness, and feeling really caught between that “crunchy granola” stuff I grew up with in Upstate New York, and this next wave of offerings that felt ultra-prestige and totally out of reach. I was passionate about making superfoods and wellness a little more easy, approachable, and fun.

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co-op: What has been the creative process behind formulating new product ideas and launches? How do you decide what superfoods to use per product?

TMW: We always start with customer data — we talk to our customers a lot via surveys, social DMs, etc. on what they’re excited about and what they want to see more of from us. From there, we ideate within the team and go through a stage we like to call “kitchen magic,” where we’re essentially playing with all of these different superfood ingredients and trying to arrive at a concept that excites us. From there, we’ll partner with a professional formulator to help us bring the final product to life.

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co-op: Before starting Golde what did you find was lacking in the modern wellness space? How have you incorporated and stayed true to your values in an ever evolving and expanding market?

TMW: Before we launched Golde, the wellness industry was really catering to a more elevated consumer who could afford to consider self-care a luxury splurge. We wanted to bring superfoods to the everyday person who just wants to feel their best. Overall when it comes to accessibility, the main pillars we continue to look at are price, distribution, and product messaging.

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We ideate within the team and go through a stage we like to call “kitchen magic,” where we’re essentially playing with all of these different superfood ingredients and trying to arrive at a concept that excites us.

co-op: What has been your go to superfood lately? How did you find superfoods to not only be used for the enhancement of dietary wellness, but also used in beauty products?

TMW: I do a latte at 3pm every weekday with our Pure Matcha and Coconut Collagen Boost. The CCB is a vegan-friendly creamer, so it makes an instant plant-based latte without any milk. On the skincare side, I love our Clean Greens mask as a total reset for my skin. It’s formulated with natural ingredients like chlorella and mango juice to clear breakouts and soothe irritation. I actually learned about the effectiveness of those products via my own acne journey. I was dealing with crazy breakouts that healed once I started putting superfoods on my skin. It’s incredible what simple, natural ingredients can do for both your inner wellness and your skin health.

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co-op: Golde is an intersection of beauty and wellness. Have you always connected the two spaces? How do you see these two spaces joining forces in the future? What does the correlation between wellness and beauty mean to you?

TMW: We’ve definitely always seen the two as being connected. Beauty and wellness are both fundamentally extensions of self-care — they’re the everyday rituals that help you to look and feel your best.

co-op: How do you see the beauty and wellness spaces growing together?

TMW: I think that as time goes on, we really won’t see the two categories as being separate at all. We’re seeing more beauty brands launch their own wellness SKUs and vice versa. The connection is here to stay, and consumers are thinking about their wellness inside and out in a totally new way.

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Beauty and wellness are both fundamentally extensions of self-care — they’re the everyday rituals that help you to look and feel your best.

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co-op: What does self care and wellness mean to you? How has it changed over the past year and a half?

TMW: There’s never been a more important time to embrace self-care and wellness. We’ve all been through a lot in the past year or so, and having those little feel-good rituals during times of turbulence can be the glue that keeps things together.

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