How Ronnie Fieg Grew KITH From Store to Brand to Empire | Blueprint

[Music] from stockboy to store owner to brand mogul Ronnie [ __ ] mastered the limited edition sneaker drop and then replicated the same approach with his white-hot lifestyle brand kith this is his blueprint [Music] tell me about the significance of Queens in informing everything about how you think about the world growing up in Queens it's like the number one melting pot in the world right that's what shaped my childhood and influenced me to become Who I am you know it was it was the most important time in my life just hearing things for the first time seeing things for the first time in learning you know like just like being a sponge so my sister would work in the city and she would put me onto things I remember she used to wear like shearling jackets and Timberland hiking boots with the tags still out in the boots like that was the thing that was happening in the city and she'd get like laughed at in school just the way I would get laughed at later when I was bringing things in when I started working in the city at age 13 14 I started wearing like royal suede Wallabies and New Balances and Queens was like a little late to the game with that mm-hmm but Queens also had its own style that I would bring to the city whenever I would go out and like the Tommie polo nordica moment you know Karl Kani cross colors like all of that was very much in effect you have your Bar Mitzvah David's he shows up offers you the requisite envelope of cash and you turn it away instead asking for a job right why he was that dude growing up that like you know everybody in the family like just wanted to be he was like the coolest dude I knew and he was like my idol I saw this guy like owned his own stores did whatever he wanted to do I was intrigued by that at a really young age I thought that that was like something that I can do you know I used to see the store and like see how people were interacting there and the music and the culture and like things I would see there and it was way different than what I was seeing in Queens I mean I was really young but I wanted a job I wanted to start working there I wanted to see what life was like outside of like you know my neighborhood luckily he gave me the shot I learned the business from the bottom up so started in the stockroom I would have it no other way I got to learn about the product be one-on-one with product it was a hard job that I that I really love then I was really passionate about I was 13 years old taking the taking the subway after school on a Friday for just a couple hours that I could get in then go Saturday and Sunday by myself you know I back then it wasn't so safe on the subways you know what I'm saying so and there were some moments where things got kind of ugly but I wasn't willing to give that up that was what made me me I was learning more from what I was seeing in the space and what I was learning in school it made me realize that the world was a lot bigger than where I was at age 15 I was now helping every dope celebrity I was working on 8th Street and I don't know if you remember but a street between fifth and sixth Avenue was like the most influential block in America totally so like on the weekends Saturday and Sunday that have like all the cars would show up you know and they'd all park on 8th Street like someone even parked diagonally because they couldn't all fit and the cops would let it ride it was everyone at the time like Diddy when no one else had it liked it was no one's ever had it like Diddy but did his whole camp so like Mase was always on the Block big would always show up Jay was coming every Saturday you know Missy Elliott Busta Rhymes was there all the time it was the era before everybody really blew up well this is also before like influencer marketing yeah it was way before that so like they were going there for like their own personal shopping right yeah man and it was like everybody everybody had their own just our own tastes and their own like individual style back then as you rise up the ranks at David Z you to make your first foray into design you're able to secure a collaboration for a capsule collection with a six I opened the account the a six account for David and business was really good with a six through the on a Sukkah Tiger category Mike McLaughlin is a good friend still today ten years later offered me the ability to work on a shoe out of the archive he actually let me open up old catalogs and I saw a shoe that I once had when I was younger when I really wanted a pair of Reebok pumps my mom bought me a pair of July threes and it was really upsetting at first but I fell in love with them or till they had holes in the soles and then I wanted to go back and get another parent and they were discontinued so then when I saw them in the catalog you know I was like oh [ __ ] I want to bring those back so we meet 750 pairs how confident were you when you like put in the order for them that you were gonna sell out I'm not confident not confident I just knew that I really wanted to do it and then from there I would need to build it and build a following for the shoe not for myself because I was working for David at the time so I wasn't interested in promoting myself actually it was in print and complex I had a friend and complex convinced her to take a look I got printed there and then the party was with complex and on Fifth Avenue we sold 50 pairs out of the 756 and I was like I'm gonna lose my job over this because David wasn't happy that I did I did this without working with David on it because I knew that he wouldn't want to do it he wasn't uncomfortable with the athletic business because it was starting to pick up that was a big step you know what I'm saying into bringing back like retro joggers it was like it was non-existent as a boot guy basically he was I mean he's known for being the boot and brown shoe guy and then when business transitioned into a into athletics he was definitely you know he was definitely seeing it and wanting to support it for sure but like I didn't want to bring that to him because I didn't feel like you would support that it was a big ask it was 756 pairs but what I had on my side was a succes they just really liked me for what I was able to do on the business side for the business that we did with on asuka they were able to you know give me the leverage and give me the leeway of taking things back if it didn't sell but it still costs money it still impacts the brand or the retailer when you have to receive seven hundred fifty six pairs and put him in all the stores they'll cost money to do that you know so David wasn't happy with that one you saw them come in because that was the first time he heard about it is when he saw the shoes actually come in it was a do-or-die situation for me you know like I had to sell the pairs otherwise I potentially would have lost my job so I had to go out there and make sure that they sold so the first 50 pairs sold the next day like I sold like six or seven pairs in the store and I'm like alright it's over for me you know somebody came by the store and I had a conversation with him about everything I'm telling you and the next thing you know the next morning I got a call from my mom because my dad reads a Wall Street Journal and she saw the cover on the cover of the pursuit section that the picture of the shoe was like right next to the title pursuits so like there was a picture of one of the shoes and my mom was like bugging out in the phone I'll say what's up she's like we'll see Journal she was like bugging out that the shoe was there my name was mentioned that morning that the Wall Street Journal released there was like I got to the store and there was a line like around the block and then within two days all the shoes were gone all 756 pairs were gone Ronnie's run of successful collaborations demonstrated his knack for building creative partnerships but more important it created a platform for him to become his own boss I think the hardest part of the job for me and still the hardest thing that I do is just like build things or buy into things I think the consumer is gonna want six months after you start working on them either as a either from the buying side or from the production side you know like when we go and create apparel you have to understand what it's like to be a risk-taker but it be experienced enough to understand the cycles and know what's been gone long enough where people will want it if it comes back just because it'll be different enough when it does when I was working on the shoes that I was bringing back out of the archive people were like oh he's just like this is like an ID situation it's not like he's working I'm proud of what is he actually doing but bringing the product back and I was like I'm bringing the product back that's what I'm doing like I'm I'm offering you something that wasn't offered in the market beforehand and then I'd put my spin on it based on materials and colorways of what I would want for myself people had a hate love relationship with what I was doing in the beginning when I first started working on collaborative you know projects in a lot of those early collaborations and as you sort of entered onto my radar and Joe's radar a complex a lot of that stuff was branded as Ronnie five times Sebago times a six and then eventually after a couple years the brand kiss started popping up how did you think about the use of your own name as a brand and then the development of kit as an idea the reason why my name was entered is because what else was being sold at David Z I wanted to separate the product that I was working on from what else was being sold there because I wanted it to be special because that was my taste level that's what I was most passionate about so at this point do you have your own LLC or is this all through naming you're just an employee it's all through David okay and I'm an employee and yet all of a sudden it's building and it's becoming like a substantial business I was working on all the special projects for David Z and they were all labeled after my name so what was the tipping point that made you sort of go out on your own start kid I wanted to build product for people like me who are into like special projects and special product that we're limited you know so that they could be different and my passion for building just is growing out of control like I just want to build like I'm just like I'm only interested in building now is there a moment that you think you feel like you you sort of crossed over the threshold and you're like okay when the same atoh came out that was when I sort of entered into this next phase of my well the cimento was when I first opened kiff the salmon toe and the leatherback right which were both released that kif were part of a series of four shoes that I designed in the same time so when I closed when I left David Z I made a deal with David that those two were gonna leave with me okay and then I released the mint leaf July 3 at David Z and then I moved to Keith to open up Keith with both locations one got salmon toe and the other got leatherback I think that that was the beginning of a new era for me you leave David Z yeah and at that moment you've made enough noise that I would imagine there were doors opening then brands at retailers whether its foot action or Nike or Reebok yeah great point I had I had opportunities with two brands three brands and a retailer I had to make a hard choice you know and it was uh it was an easy one to make it was the most risk I've ever taken in my life and it was leaving a place that I worked for for 15 years how hard was that conversation with David as difficult as a conversation can get it was a necessary one and I just had it I had a bigger vision you know I had a different vision from him you know he was more about the business and I was more about creating so how did you know Sam Sam is a close family friend Sam owned atrium before that he owned Renaissance and it was near the shops near the D busy shops and he started you know he started project show the trade show and I would go and I would shop because he would have some brands that we would carry a David Z and I used to see him here and there we have some conversations great conversations and you know he saw me and recognized the talent and heard things good things from the industry and like wanted to take a chance with me and he was opening atrium in Brooklyn at the time and offered me to come and do the footwear portion of atrium in Brooklyn I said I said no to that I was unhappy where I was at the moment you know and I think a lot of people knew that I wanted to do more I just wanted more you know and I felt like I could I had a lot to offer Sam definitely heard that and knew that and you know we had a one-day we had a conversation a long conversation and you know and and we made a decision that I was gonna open up a new shop adjacent to atrium with our own entrance in both locations Brooklyn and Manhattan he's one of my favorite people on this planet he was the best man at my wedding he's a mentor to me he's been in the industry a very long time and he's a really smart guy you know and he invested in me early and that was the beginning of kiss Sam had offered you to run the footwear part of atrium in Brooklyn you meet with him you counter with I'd like to open my own store within your store with its own door yes that's a fairly aggressive ask the only way I was gonna leave what I was doing for starting my own business and not go anywhere else was if it was gonna happen exactly the way I wanted it to happen I told Sam what exactly what it is I wanted to do and you know he was he was into it you know and he believed in it you know so he invested in me it was hard it was really really really difficult I remember sleeping in the store for seven straight days no shower building in the store with the contractor that was tough you know it was tough in the beginning we were able to make magic happen you know and it was it was great and I think that really that what separates everything is passion if you're passionate enough about anything you can make anything happen literally anything happen when you open that store it's twofold right you're not only opening an entirely new property in terms of a storefront you're also launching a brand we launched a brand two years later or like a year and like eight months later how yeah well what prompted it I got a pair of washed camo scotch and soda pants for my birthday I didn't really wear scotch and soda as a brand but I liked this fabric and this pant it was like this washed camel was really really well done in terms of the fabric and it was this like twill army pen and I put it on and it was like it didn't fit right but I I knew I wanted to do something with the pant so I took it to my tailor and I was like I want you to elastic heat the cuff I want you to slim down the leg and really taper it out and I just made this custom pair and I started wearing that pan around and everybody kept asking me about the pen I was always wearing fresh kicks on obviously I always had like adult parrot kicks on and everyone was asking me about my pants so I was like all right like this is like a thing I went to the garment district I put together the same pant like I made a pattern out of the pant and then I went and I made a few we started with one color and I put 12 pairs in the store and it sold out in a day and I was like it's weird and I was like somebody has to be [ __ ] with me like it's a shoe store there's no apparel in the story except for this pant one pen right so I was like I'm gonna go to the store the next week I made 24 more pairs and then put them in the store and I was standing in the store and I can't I couldn't believe that like everybody was touching this pant and like wanting to try this pant I didn't even name the pant yet I went back and I made a hundred pairs put him in the store and I called it the Mercer pant they sold immediately same day so I was like this is a thing you know I'm gonna go and like make a thousand pairs of pants no and put him on the site and I remember between the site and the store they were gone immediately and I was like wow that's so strong nobody could sell pants online it was like very hard to sell pants online insanely tough to sell pants but they all wanted this twill jogger and like it didn't exist I was the only one that made this pant that people wanted you know and I just wanted it for myself that's why I made it and that pant was just like the one and it was like okay made me realize that people wanted more from Keith and kid was just a store at the time so it was like do I make it a brand like do I call it something else it was decision time for me and it was like I remember having a conversation with Sam and he was like go for it man just [ __ ] go for it so how long did it take from that first pair of Mercer pants to you having sort of organized seasons and that kind of thing we're still not organized seasons we still do things as we please you know because we don't have to cater to the way the wholesale calendar works we don't work on the calendar you know cuz we don't wholesale the brand keith is only available on your properties it's totally vertically integrated why because it was never even meant to happen so now that it did happen it's like this is still my baby and it's still meant to keep special and it's not some things aren't meant to scale some things aren't meant to scale how long did it take until kiss the brand became the number one selling brand in the kits stores it happened relatively quickly after we started making those pants then it expanded into other categories in apparel for the first time in a long time I feel like really accomplished with with what we've done because I look at the team and the team resembles that you know more than anything it's crazy because it was never planned and there's not a book for it there wasn't a formula it was really just being really passionate about what I wanted to do and then all of a sudden it was an avalanche of decision making you know I feel like at one point I was the driver like in the driver seat for the first like three four years and somehow I got like shifted to the passenger seat giving directions and now like I'm in the backseat because the brand is like bigger than me it's bigger than anyone at the brand it's bigger than all of us at this point for the employees that work at the brand and at this point it's just like I'm in the backseat trying to give the best directions possible and trying to contain it and containing it has been the hardest work so far though keith has exceeded Ronnie's expectations his focus is now on maintaining the brand's integrity in the face of an ever-expanding audience when you talk about wanting to keep the brand small or not scale it yeah necessarily how big is big enough you know you're obviously a very ambitious and competitive person so I would imagine you have a desire to dominate the marketplace the idea is not to compete the idea is to maximize the potential of what I'm doing with doing it tastefully and not hurting the brand in the process that's the goal everything that you see and there are a lot of projects that we work on a year but it's deciding what the right ones are for the brand at the time to that point I imagine that you have to say no a lot a lot more than I say yes how do you make those decisions you know I discuss everything with my team but I feel strongly about certain things that we do and really it's about what I can be passionate about the way the way my thought process works on on different projects is it goes a few ways one is it missing in my closet first and foremost to is can I tell a real story is it going to be authentic to me and are people gonna like want to hear want to learn want to absorb the information that is being put out and three is like is it gonna sit well in a timeline will it be a notch in the timeline is it gonna be something that will stick out with our 10 year anniversary like I think about 10 years you know we're hitting six now I'm already thinking about the 10 year book you know thinking back on what we've done you may not want to dominate the marketplace but you live in a marketplace with competitive peers many of whom it seems as though you've really embraced and shown a lot of love - for sure how do you navigate the natural competition of capitalism with that you know familial friendly relationship there's no there's no competition and I'm not saying that we're the best and we don't compete I'm saying that I don't see anything as competition I don't nothing stems from competition you know it all stems from wanting to do something maybe in the beginning I was looking left and right but at this point it's such crazy tunnel vision I support anything my friends do if I was like watching what people were doing and trying to compete with what people were doing then it would it would not be a fun it would not be fun for me it would be it would be a job what is the most important thing for a new member of the KISS team to know in terms of working for Ronnie five work ethic on a thousand and no matter what your job title will be you're gonna be wearing in many many hats expect many things to get thrown at you and you got to be resilient it's just a that time for the brand right now where it's like it's still not corporate in my office even though we have an amazing office now we're moving to a a pretty big office in in Soho which I'm really proud of but the team is like a very tight-knit crew even if we can afford to be bigger than we are I wouldn't want to be so you've gone from managing probably a team of five or ten when you first open the store to now a team of 200 what do you think your biggest strengths as a manager is and what do you think your biggest weakness is my biggest weakness is that I hate being a boss I've never enjoyed being a boss what because there are tough conversations that you have to have as a boss you know you always you know you consistently have to tell people what you need what you want and when they're not doing a good job you need to let that be known and when you have that many people that work for you it becomes tougher I think I'm a great leader though I think I I think people that work for the brand enjoy working for the brand and I always remind them that if it feels like a punch and punch out situation they shouldn't be there and I think a lot of people take their work home and yeah I'm only looking for passionate people in your six of the business you're in your mid-30s where do you feel like you are in the lifecycle of the brand I don't see a lifecycle for the brand it doesn't you know all these terms and like how things are usually explained are based off of the way things were done in the past the way things are usually done but there isn't anything usual about like what we do with just who we are like it's not a business built off of a business model of someone else's we're writing our own book literally it's like where are we in the lifecycle I don't know I feel like I just started where yeah where are you then in your own personal ambition my personal ambition is to be the best that I can possibly be I've never had a one-year five-year ten-year three-year like I don't look at it that way you know I just right now I have to work way in advance so I know like what I want to do a year from now because I have to know you know but I never think about how big will the brand be within the market three years from now and what will that do to the rest of the market and to my own it's it's I'm not trying to think that way I took it one day at a time to get here that's that's been the business model for me and like do we have the opportunities to go and become a global brand and be literally open in every city in the next year sure like every major city sure we have a lot of great opportunities you know and just because it's a great opportunity in many people's eyes it doesn't mean it's a great opportunity for me I'm going where I want to be where I think this brand should be where I think it's gonna be most impactful for the people that I'm looking to cater to you know and the growth the organic growth of the brand has been able to sustain the business and like all the bills that are coming with it so until there's a real strong hold on that side of things we're gonna continue doing what we do you talked about growing up you know your family not having money right getting a job at 13 but you now run your business from a place where money isn't the central preoccupation all right what does money mean for you I'm married now I just got married and you know eventually we're gonna have a kid and I have my parents that I will always take care of so for me it's like being able to support the people that I care about most and I'm not that like flashy guy I've gotten the balance between my mom and my dad where my mom was into materialistic goods and my dad was like really against it and just really taught me the value of a dollar don't spend just to spend and show and don't do things just to do things make sure everything has meaning to it I'm sure that people have come around and tried to keep the tires and talked about either investing or acquiring yes yes from you of course will that ever happen could that ever happen I have a folder where I drag those emails too you know for all for all the funds you know my goal is is for my you know my son or my daughter to you know to get involved and and and do what I do you know to see if they're potentially going to be as passionate about this as I am because I do believe that it could be a generational thing and that's that's the goal to keep it in the family [Music] [Music]

Channel: Complex

Views: 673,053

Rating: 4.9455833 out of 5

Keywords: sneakerhead, complex, complex originals, sneakers, news, entertainment, current affairs, young man, culture, cool, edgy, funny, complex tv, complex media, kith, ronnie fieg, atrium, queens, new york, asics, david z, Ford, sam ben-avraham, retail, empire, blueprint, new york city, nyc, interview, ronnie fieg interview, brand mogul, Noah Callahan-Bever

Id: zGWLlLP-TLs

Length: 28min 19sec (1699 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 05 2017