My conversation with
@RonnieFieg, founder, CEO and creative director of Kith.
At 13, Ronnie turned down an envelope of cash at his bar mitzvah and asked for a job instead. He started the next day in a sneaker stockroom and spent the next 15 years learning every part of the business before launching Kith in 2011.
Today, Kith puts out more than 5,000 styles a year across apparel, footwear, kids and accessories, and has lines outside its stores from New York to Seoul. It has no outside investors, doesn’t wholesale and doesn’t license. Until recently, Ronnie was still the fit model for the product.
Ronnie describes himself as a world builder, and this conversation is the best explanation I’ve heard of what that means.
0:00 You can’t work backwards from money
4:43 “Keep the envelope. I want a job.”
10:25 Why the CEO is also the fit model
18:43 The childhood shoe that launched his career
20:52 The Wall Street Journal, a line down the block and a visit from Adidas
26:48 Get rid of the crap
31:09 What luxury should actually mean
32:40 Why Kith doesn’t wholesale or license
38:24 Building the opposite of an arrogant sneaker shop
40:39 The Italian crook who registered Kith’s trademark
52:02 How a $20 deli experiment became Kith Treats
55:11 Serve your customers, don’t chase new ones
59:35 Always give people more than they pay for
1:02:41 Seeing 15 years of work laid out on the floor
1:12:00 Growing up before the algorithm
1:25:46 How a padel obsession created Kith Ivy
Includes paid partnerships.