Don’t be fooled when Good Good Good is quiet. “This when we are the busiest”, says Daniel Sher, founder and director of the Cape Town-based fashion label. Two years since the brand’s last collection, they have launched a collection called Roots on their new website.

Daniel Sher, founder of Good Good Good fashion brand, and the brick-and-mortar store, Duck Duck Goose, in the Roots collection  

Roots offers a refined perspective on the brand’s original mission to create premium functional everyday garments. Daniel and his team have justified the time it’s taken to release something new by strengthening their foundations for the future. During this period of silence, the team reckoned with the loss and rebuild of their website, which crashed in early 2023. Having grown a keen base of followers and customers expanding beyond the borders of their home city, the relaunch of the brand’s digital home means that they can reclaim the connection with both its domestic and international communities.

The team utilised their time out of the online spotlight to conduct research and development with their loyal and growing local consumer base. They used their sibling business and brick-and-mortar flagship store, Duck Duck Goose, as a laboratory, testing new products and manufacturing techniques, disguised by duck-related motifs.

Cape Town-based artist, graphic designer and illustrator Ziyaad Samsodien 

The narrative behind the new collection Roots is centred around Daniel’s coming of age in the garment manufacturing industry. In 2015 working alongside his wife Paige, he rented a small portion of her parents’ clothing manufacturing factory in Maitland where his in-laws had been manufacturing clothing for South Africa’s biggest department stores for 20-odd years. Here, the couple produced clothes for their own labels as well as for brands including Thebe Magugu, Rich Mnisi, and Wanda Lephoto.

Daniel Sher’s work and life partner, Paige and her father and mentor Basil Smith, both wearing Roots collection

Two years ago Daniel completed the biggest production order of his career for the LVMH brand Dior collaboration with Thebe Magugu. Working with LVMH gave Daniel an education in the precision with which luxury brands construct even their most basic garments. The notes about the T-shirt samples that flew between offices offered him new and valuable insight into the construction of a garment that he had been producing for a decade. Once the order was delivered – without any returns or complaints – Daniel felt that the team was ready to fend for itself and leave the parent factory. He established his own clothing factory, Together MFG situated in Cape Town’s old industrial district.

Amber Isabelle wears the newly developed and refined T-shirts and trousers from the Roots collection 

Their store on Bree Street had been open for 18 months by this time, and Good Good Good T-shirts were filling the streets of Cape Town. Daniel noticed the patterns of his garments’ wear and feel on other people. While the clothes were satisfying customers’ needs efficiently, Daniel saw a handful of wilting necklines, the 480gsm fleece hoodies too heavy even for the chilliest conditions in Cape Town, and his childrenswear that fitted awkwardly on his friends’ kids.

With his newfound LVMH-level of insight and candid everyday research, Daniel and his manufacturing team went back to the drawing board, revisiting the brand’s roots and reinforcing the basics.

With a brand new collection available on a sparkling new webstore, the brand has confidently emerged from a two-year hiatus. The collection is fronted by a refined selection of basic T-shirts in four different silhouettes, alongside reworked fleece hoodies and sweatpants that assert the brand’s prowess in the realm of everyday basics.

Xhanti Zwelendaba wears the reworked fleece hoodies and sweatpants from Roots

Crisp contemporary shirting features for the first time. A playful all-over-print set is reminiscent of the brand’s early collaboration with artist David Brits. Knowing that the moms and dads in the school carpark envy what his boys are wearing from the new range of childrenswear, Daniel now sleeps soundly at night. Finally, a contemporary pair of trousers and a highly functional utility jacket display the technical advancement that has taken place at Together MFG.

The Roots childrenswear makes Daniel proud 

Over the past two years, Good Good Good has channelled its appetite for vibrancy through the store Duck Duck Goose, which has recognition as a brand for its tongue-and-cheek graphic T-shirts and collaborations with Shelflife, Baseline Skate Shop and Spotify. Duck Duck Goose and Good Good Good serve different purposes, the former as a multi-brand store and cultural space and the latter as Sher’s sole platform for creative expression.

Daniel and Good Good Good’s roots run deep in the South African fashion and manufacturing industry, in convoluted and intertwining shapes. Sometimes, they have to pause and circle back to where they came from before continuing their growth. Wherever they go, Good Good Good remains rooted in its dedication to the improvement of its practice, and in its community.

Daniel Sher in a playful all-over-print set. Playful is synonymous with Duck Duck Goose and Good Good Good 

• goodgoodgood.co.za is now live, and the team will celebrate the release of Roots by taking over Cape Town listening bar One Park for the night on Saturday, 8 June
• Josquin du Toit works for Duck Duck Duck and this is a partnership post