Building the Streetwear Empire Kith | Ronnie Fieg

David Senra

Ronnie Fieg recounts his journey from a 13-year-old stock boy at David Z to the architect of the global Kith empire. He details how an early

Key takeaways

• Ronnie Fieg began his career at 13 by choosing a job at David Z over cash at his bar mitzvah.
• Fieg emphasizes designing products for himself first to ensure authenticity and quality.

Main topics

• Entrepreneurial passion
• Streetwear brand evolution

Notable quotes

What luxury should mean is how much people love what they're buying.

Conclusion

An inspiring deep dive into how obsession with detail and the refusal

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) I wish we just recorded the conversation we were just having, but I love what you just said. So you're like, hey, my favorite entrepreneurs cannot work backwards for money. Say more about this. Speaker 1 (0:11) Yeah, it's true. Like even some of the biggest companies in the world, like take Apple and Steve Jobs, who's like one of your favorite, I guess like favorite icons ever, if not your favorite, right? One of them, yeah. Okay. But when you see the product he was making, you can actually tell that there was passion behind trying to make product that was going to change his own life, right? And I felt like, Even then, when the iPod really changed the trajectory of the company, you could feel the passion through the product. And that legacy lives on. Like even with the Duo that we're seeing now, you could see that legacy live on. Is it on par with what Steve Jobs may have designed? We will never know. But ultimately, he created an ethos that I believe really transcended and that feeling that penetrated everyone's lives, really. affected us in so many ways. I don't apply that to my business. It's just naturally there because when I grew up, I became passionate about my world at such a young age. And I think that that's the most important element of anyone's or any entrepreneur's success. If you listen to most of them, they'll, you know, explain how their passion started so young in their, you know, when they were so early in their lives. Whereas, you know, in my case, it started when I was when I was 13 and I started working in a stockroom. But even before then, I always wanted to dress fly in school and my parents couldn't afford to buy me the things I wanted. So back then I went to work strictly for the purpose of like being able to buy my own shit and just dress the way I wanted to dress. And that's how it started. And I think the passion for that grew. And as I learned about product. it just grew more and more. But getting my foot in the door and knowing what I wanted to do from such an early age gave me the, I think, gave me the upper hand. Speaker 2 (1:58) But how does like a 12 or 13 year old kid get interested in like fashion? Is this coming from like hip hop culture? Like what was going on in your life where it's like, man, I want to Speaker 1 (2:05) come to school dressed in fly. So I'll tell you. So growing up, up until fourth grade, my parents sent me to a private school, to a yeshiva. And in fourth grade, they couldn't afford to send me there anymore. Actually, my grandfather was helping my mom send me to a private school. And then in fourth grade, they couldn't do it anymore. So they pulled me out and then they put me in the public school closest to my house. So I grew up in Jamaica, Queens. So I went to PS 178. And when I attended 178, it was like a culture shock for me because it was so many different cultures. It was like the biggest melting pot ever. And you know, Queens is the biggest melting pot in the world. So we got to see, or I got to see. from day one, so many different cultures in the way people were dressing and the styles. And really there was like a small crew of kids. It was like six or seven of them that befriended me right away. And these kids, like that was back when, you know, Polo, Tommy and Nautica were like, we're really big. We're around the Speaker 2 (3:05) same age. I remember this. Speaker 1 (3:06) Yeah. So it was, are you 82? What year are you? 84. That era of like, and then. going into middle school, it became even more important. So more important in the way that you were dressing, you know? So I found myself, you know, really wanting, you know, I used to have to borrow my friend's clothes. Like, dude, I had knockoff Tommy Hilfiger. I literally Speaker 2 (3:26) bought it at the swap shop in South Florida. We had no money. And then it got called out at school. You don't want to hear an embarrassing story. I didn't even know. You know how these hustlers in South Florida are. They took old Wendy's uniforms. Like the fast food place. You would give them like a collared shirt. And I go to the swap shop because we have no money. And you have these street vendors. And I'm like, oh, this is Tommy. I didn't understand what was going on. And I wore it to school. And they're like. Dude, that's a Wendy shirt. A Wendy shirt. I remember being like 12 and like devastated that I'm wearing a fucking fast food costume. Not costume. What's Speaker 1 (4:02) it Speaker 2 (4:02) called? A fast food uniform with a fake Tommy Hilfiger screen printed on it. Speaker 1 (4:07) That's insane. I don't know. I don't think things have gotten, you know, that far. Dude, I Speaker 2 (4:12) haven't thought about that in 20 years. I can't believe that. Speaker 1 (4:14) That's really crazy. There were a ton of fakes going around. And even though like. Back then, you know, a $65 or $85 shirt was like— This was $10. I should have known by the price. Yeah, you should have known by that. I could have told you back then. You needed me as a friend. You know, I would have kept you safe. But in school, that's what really—that style, like what we were seeing around us, that was, you know, that's what we really wanted to be. And my older sister, she was working and making money buying product for herself. And then some of the kids in school, you know, they had the money. or their parents had the money to buy them the product they wanted. And that's really what fueled, you know, my kind of like passion for wanting to work. Just like I wanted to make money so I could buy my own product, you know, and buy my own clothing. So at 13, at my bar mitzvah, you know, my mom's first cousin, my second cousin, who was David Z, he owned shoe stores in the city. He offered me an envelope of cash because he knew that my parents were paying off. from my bar mitzvah party with the money I was getting as gifts. So he offered me, like, I was going to the bathroom during the party and he gave, offered me like an envelope of cash and I told him, keep the envelope. I want a job. I was 13, you know? And he was like, are you sure? Like, there was some money in that thing. So I was like, yeah, no, I'm sure. I want a job. And I started the next day and I started working in the stock room in a warehouse on Broadway. where David Z had a bunch of stores and I worked there throughout the summer. And then after that, I worked in the stock room in 8th Street, which was like probably the most important part of my upbringing and also like the most influential part of my life because that's where I got to see. Like it was really the epicenter of culture, 8th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. Like during the weekend, they would shut down the block. There would be like, basically like block parties every weekend there and the cops would let it rock. And then the cars were parking like diagonally because there were so many cars. And that's where people would come to get, you know, whether they were coming to get their fitted or Grace Papaya was on the corner or Fat Beats where DJs would come and get their vinyl. Sam Goody was across the street. And then you had a bunch of different shoe stores and also apparel shops. where people were buying their iceberg apparel or they were buying, back then, brown shoes and boots were running the streets of New York. So like today, when you see like the obsession over kids in their Jordans or, you know, kids buying sneakers the way they are today, they were buying boots, like hiking boots back then. And that's when New York City was colder and it was snowing a lot more. And, you know, for a good part of the year, you needed to have boots. And David Z was the number one location for those products. So you're talking about brands like a solo and Technica and Red Wing. And we had polo, like the polo cookie boots and the hiking boots, the RLX boots and Timberlands, um, Trizetta, Dolomite, like all Bear AKU, like all these Gore-Tex, uh, hiker boots, hiking boots were just everywhere. in New York City, in that culture, it was like, it was still a subculture, but it got so big. Like people were driving from like different states to come buy these products because they were Italian brands making product in Italy. And it wasn't mass, you know, it wasn't massively distributed. But when do you go from like Speaker 2 (7:37) admiring what other people are making to saying, hey, I'm going to do my versions of this? That Speaker 1 (7:42) came, that came later. So that like, I worked as a stock boy, like receiving product, getting one-on-one time with the product, then becoming a salesperson. then becoming an assistant manager, then becoming a manager, assistant buyer, and then buyer slash manager. So Speaker 2 (7:58) this is just you learning the business, not Speaker 1 (7:59) thinking like, let me ask you a question. Maybe like I should start here. If somebody doesn't know who you are, you say, hey, what do you do? How do you describe yourself? I do a lot more than design. So I'm the CEO, creative director, and CMO, I would say, of the company. So CEO, CMO, and... and creative director. And I think the creative director portion of my role has evolved over time, but I am ideating and part of every design of every product that we put out. So it's hard for me to describe what it is that I do because I do a lot. And a typical creative director wouldn't be doing the buying or merchandising. And I do most of those things. So I have my hands in everything, in everything product-wise. And then I designed the spaces. Speaker 2 (8:50) I'm Speaker 1 (8:50) heavily involved in the full like 360, 360 degrees of the business. The, you know, even down to the experience that people have when they walk in, the F &B portion of what we do with Geth Treats and now Ronnie's. So there's a lot that I do. So I can't really describe it. And it's hard for people to get a grasp on what it is that I do if you're not following it, because it's been like building blocks since the beginning. It's not like I've given up any responsibilities. I've just added on. You're kind of like, Speaker 2 (9:17) I met you outside and your car is very interesting. And I like stuck my head in. I was like, oh, dude, this is nice. And you're like, welcome to my world. Speaker 1 (9:26) Yeah, it's kind of like building your own entire world. Yeah. And by the way, like I'm head to toe in my product, socks and underwear. We don't have to see Speaker 2 (9:34) that, but Speaker 1 (9:35) we'll take your word on it. Speaker 2 (9:36) Yeah, just take my word for it. Speaker 1 (9:37) And I'm really living the product. I live and breathe the product that I create. And I'm building products for myself. And I think that people know that. So they know that there's a lot of love that goes into it. So if I'm building products for myself and I want to wear the product that we make, you know, I also, up until very recently, was fitting four hours a week. I was the fit model for the product that we put out. So the brand puts out like more than 5,000 styles a year. of product between men's, women's, and kids, and accessories, and footwear. We built a universe of product. And it's been a really great evolution from the beginning. So if you ask me what it is that I do, I'm a Speaker 2 (10:18) world Speaker 1 (10:19) builder. I built myself a world that I live in. But Speaker 2 (10:25) this is interesting. Why would it be important for you to be the fit model? Speaker 1 (10:28) Because literally, this is... For me, first. No, it's a great question because it actually creates efficiencies when we get a sample in and then I fit the product. And during the fitting, I make all the decisions that I need to make for that one product. So I fit the product and then I'm deciding if the fabric is right for that body. I'm making alterations to the body. Sometimes I'll even drop it and then come up with ideas on what we need to do to evolve from that body or how a specific design can be better. So I'm giving direction. in, you know, live during the fitting. And if my, you know, the team is all there. So I have like 20 people at a fitting and you have your material, your materials team, you have your merchandisers, you have your designers, and then you have like the VP of product there and some assistants. And there we're making like real decisions. So we'll make the decisions on that product and then we'll wait for the second sample to come in and we got to fit that too. I think a lot of these brands cut corners. I've spoken about this a few times with different people about how the industry cuts corners. And sometimes you walk into a store and you try something on, you have a shirt from that brand that fit well, but then you try it on and it doesn't fit well. And you're like, well, why'd that happen? I came back for the same style. And it's because brands will want to create another version of the same style, but not fit it again. So they'll apply a different fabric to the same body, but they won't fit it again. And it drapes differently. It fits differently. And they cut corners. And even, you know, there are fashion houses that do that, where you'll walk into a very expensive store and, you know, try some product on it. It doesn't fit. It fits like shit. So I'm very meticulous to every detail only because my closet, every season, I wipe it out and then it gets replaced with a new season. So if I'm going to be wearing the product, it better fit properly, you know, as I'm like the representative of the brand. Speaker 2 (12:25) I want to tell you about the presenting sponsor of this podcast, Ramp. I have been reading a lot about SpaceX lately. SpaceX is one of the most valuable businesses in the world. And one of the main themes in the history of SpaceX is constantly attacking and questioning your costs. Ramp helps many of the most innovative businesses in the world do exactly that. The median company running on Ramp. cuts their expenses by 5%. And one thing SpaceX has demonstrated is that a religious dedication to controlling costs can help actually increase revenue because you can pursue opportunities you couldn't otherwise. And we see that in the ramp data too. The median company running on ramp also grows their revenue by 16%. So when you're running your business on ramp and your competitors are not, you have a massive competitive advantage that compounds over time. Ramp is the only platform designed to make your finance team faster and happier. Many of the top founders and CEOs I know run their business on Ramp. I run my business on Ramp and you should too. Go to ramp.com to learn how they can help your business save time, save money, and grow revenue. That is ramp.com. Speaker 1 (13:29) So I love how you've Speaker 2 (13:30) used the word like love. Like several times, we started the conversation. We were like, hey, you know, the people I admire the most, entrepreneurs that came before us, maybe some even operating today, it's just like, they're doing it for like out of, they're not doing it for money. They make money because they love it so much. And Speaker 1 (13:42) they Speaker 2 (13:42) wind up, if you love it so much, you wind up building great products. And it turns out if you maintain control and build a great product, you're going to wind up with the money anyways. So the love of this, let's go back to like the story you're saying. I'm kind of learning like the, almost like the mechanics of the business as a kid. Yeah. Right. This is before you're like. I'm learning how the business exists or a part of the business exists before you kind of put your own spin on it. So when you're like, hey, I actually have my own ideas. So me and you both know Jeff Zalaznik, who was on this show. And he told a very similar story. He was just like, man, I was obsessed. I was like eating at every single restaurant. I was like the weird kid that come home after middle school and watch PBS cooking shows. And then he's like, then I'm like eating all these restaurants and I'm creating media about this. And he's like. you know what, I got my own goddamn ideas on how this should be done. Right. Speaker 1 (14:30) When was that turning point in your life? I was so fucking obsessed with footwear, you know? So like when Kith opened, and we'll go back, I'll go back to your question in a second. When Kith first opened in 2011, we were a multi-brand footwear shop. And then I had projects with brands where I was working on my own versions of some of these iconic footwear silhouettes for the store. And then from there, it expanded to be a lot more. But I'm going to rewind back because... I was a footwear guy, you know, and strictly footwear until 2012, 2013, right? So I was basically buying, you know, upwards of $30 million at retail a year from so many different footwear brands. I was the sneaker guy. before I became the shoe and boot guy, when I started working, I was wearing like, you know, Nikes were my thing before I started working in this brown shoe and boot retailer. And then I helped David because the trend of brown shoes and boots as the weather actually got warmer and the, you know, the seasons kind of extended and the winter kind of like shrunk to like three months, you know, instead of the four or five months that we were used to, because it was getting cold in October back then. And then it was cold up until April. And now it's a bit different from that. So athletic footwear started to really become a trend in New York City and kind of take over that business of the brown shoe and boot world. So I helped David transition from brown shoes and boots to athletic footwear. And he knew that I was like obsessed with sneakers. So I was going to these trade shows and... helping open new accounts, new footwear accounts, and then starting as an assistant buyer, being put on some of these accounts. And we built an incredible business with Anasuka Tiger, which is Asics. And it wasn't sports style yet. It was just Anasuka for what we were carrying. But the sales rep knew that I was a sneakerhead and knew that I was collecting product because I was collecting sneakers since like 95, right? When I turned 13, that was the first pair of shoes that I bought twice. It was a... Flight 95 Jason Kidd's, I don't know if you remember this, with the carbon fiber in the midsole. And it was kind of looked like a spaceship. And it was the first like iteration of that kind of shoe was a basketball shoe. But Speaker 2 (16:48) were you buying to flip? No, back then there was no flipping. Okay. I was buying a Speaker 1 (16:52) second pair because I loved them so much. Got it. You know, and the Air Max 95, the Neon 95s were like. the design language was just something we'd never seen before. I like, I was just gravitated to it, towards it, you know? Come 2006, when I helped build Anasuka Tiger to a multimillion dollar business for David, they knew that I was heavy into footwear collecting. They knew I was a sneaker kid. So they opened up the archive for me and they were like, hey, you know, do you want to look through some of these styles and work on it? And I was like, what do you mean by work on it? Oh, you can create your own version of the shoe. And I was like, oh, so David was already doing this with boots back in the day, but they weren't branded like David Z on the boots, but they were considered SMU, which is called a special makeup. Speaker 2 (17:39) So Speaker 1 (17:39) he was doing it with Timberland. In fact, like in 1997, David had an idea of making a gray construction Timberland boot. And Timberland never made a gray boot in their history. It was mostly like. for performance purposes in browns and blacks, you know, if you were either wearing it for construction or wearing it to hunt, like they were really into the performance aspect of the brand. So David's idea of making a gray construction boot was like. I was like, holy shit, what is that? Like people saw that and were instantly like, we sold like 10,000 pairs of that boot in a couple of years. Like it just with no internet, right? So like people coming into the store and, you know, that was a product that we had. And I saw that as a salesperson on the floor. I saw how people gravitated towards something they couldn't find anywhere else. So when Asics offered me the opportunity to work on a shoe and I'm looking through the catalog, I found a shoe. How old are you when this is happening? This is in 2006. So I was 23. Okay. Right. I'm looking at the catalog and I see a shoe that my mom bought me when I really wanted a pair of Reebok pumps. She left me outside the store. I was crying. I was eight years old. And she brought me a pair of Asics Gel-Lite 3s for 50 bucks or something. instead of buying me a pair of pumps that were like 110 or 120. I wanted the pumps too. The thing that... That just wasn't happening, right? Yeah, no. The D Browns Speaker 2 (19:06) or Speaker 1 (19:06) the Victory pumps, they were incredible. Speaker 1 (19:10) I had to wear these Gelli 3s and I fell in love with them. And when I saw it in the catalog, I was like, I knew that that's the shoe that I wanted to work on. And also in the world, and I was collecting and Speaker 2 (19:20) at that time. So when Speaker 1 (19:21) they're opening the archive, they're meaning, Speaker 2 (19:22) hey, these are past models. We're not doing it. They're not manufacturing. They're not creating anymore. Correct. Okay. Yeah. And so they opened up Speaker 1 (19:28) old catalogs. Interesting. Speaker 2 (19:31) Yeah. From 1990. Speaker 1 (19:32) That's even better because you just mentioned how important it is to have product that's differentiated you can't get anywhere else. That's exactly why I decided to work on that shoe. And I didn't know if people would gravitate towards that model. So it was 252 pairs were the minimum and we needed to commit to a thousand pairs for the style to be made. And I worked on three colorways of the style, 252 pairs of each. And then they took the other 250. and then offered it to a store in Amsterdam called Pata. And that's how the silhouette came back in 1990. We created that shoe and it took off. Well, even back then though, when you're like, Speaker 2 (20:12) okay, they offered me a silhouette, I can come and spend on this. Was your North Star just like, hey, I'm just going to make the shoe Speaker 1 (20:17) look like what I would want to wear? Correct. So same to this day? A hundred percent. Like a hundred, it's always, I'm always creating product for myself. That's the red thread through all the product. at least the men's product and even the kids' product of what I want to put my girls in. And now with the women's product, it's like my wife, my mom, my sister, you know, three different generations. And I know what my wife wants to wear. I know what my mom wants to wear. I Speaker 2 (20:44) know Speaker 1 (20:44) what my sister wants. And I'm really designing for the people either, if it's not for myself, it's for somebody that's the muse, you know? Speaker 2 (20:51) And Speaker 1 (20:52) I think that on the footwear side, if you look through this book, That was in 07, my first shoe released. And I had a slow start for the first day. I had an event. We sold 50 pairs. Then the next day it released in the store. We sold a few pairs. But one of the pairs that sold was to an editor that came by from the Wall Street Journal and asked me a shit ton of questions about the shoe. I didn't know he was an editor. So I'm giving him all the information I just gave you. And then he wrote about it. And then the next day I came in and there were, my mom's calling me as I'm biking to work and was telling me like, that it's on the cover of the Wall Street Journal. Speaker 2 (21:29) Like the Speaker 1 (21:30) shoe, my specific, Speaker 2 (21:32) because it Speaker 1 (21:32) was an article about like limited shoes. And then there was a picture of the shoe that I worked on in the pursuit section on the top, like right next to the word pursuits. It was like right there. There was a line down the block and the shoe sold out instantly. And on the same day, the CEO of North America for Adidas was moving into his office across the street and saw the line and walked downstairs and was like, what's going on over here? And I was working in the store. Right? So like, because I'm doing, I'm buying and, you know, I'm working on this project, but I'm still managing the store. Yeah. Speaker 2 (22:03) Right? Speaker 1 (22:03) Like the flagship store, which was 556 Broadway between Prince and Spring. So the guy walks in. Speaker 1 (22:09) the CEO of North America. And he's like, hey, what's going on here? So I'm telling him what's