Who Is Kith's Ronnie Fieg?

Regarded by many as one of the busiest people in the industry, Ronnie Fieg didn't become the Ronnie Fieg by sitting still. With passion in his heart and hustle in his soul, the Queens native's story began at the age of 13 when he began working as a stock boy for David Z - a New York City shoe store founded by his second cousin, David Zaken.

In the early '90s, the sneaker game was in its very early stages. Your average Joe wouldn't have been prepared to casually whip out $200 for a pair of sneakers, but Ronnie knew the ins and outs of the trade. Slowly but surely, he climbed his way to the top of the ladder as a junior buyer then as a buyer opening up athletic footwear accounts.

By 2007, Fieg was 25 and had been promoted to Head Buyer where he managed David Z's special make-ups including product collabs. That May, he teamed up with ASICS to release three different versions of the GEL-Lyte 3. Each had a run of just 252 pairs, with one being exclusive to DZ stores, another on their website, and the third launching at a party with Complex.

It became quite clear early on that this partnership was unlike anything else of the time. In an era where the trainer industry was still taking its first steps, one of the models made its way to the front cover of The Wall Street Journal leading it to literally sell out in one day. While limited sneakers such as Kanye West's Yeezy go out of stock within seconds now, a shoe doing this within 24 hours was pretty much unheard of back then.

This partnership represented the first time Fieg had managed a collaboration of this magnitude, and it certainly wouldn't be his last as his relationship with the Japanese footwear brand would continue throughout his storied career.

Three years later, Fieg left David Z to open his own store. With the help of Sam Ben-Avraham, they both invested half a million bucks into two locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, thus giving birth to the brand we now know as Kith.

Even to this day, not many streetwear fans know why Fieg decided to call his shop Kith. Not a particularly easy word to pronounce especially if you're from London or you're Mike Tyson, it's derived from the old Scottish term "kith and kin", which literally translates to "friends and family" - a nod to Ronnie's love for his inner circle. This was also emphasised through his slogan, "Just Us".

In their first year, Kith started stocking massive brands such as adidas, Nike, PUMA, and Timberland. It was also a space that showcased Ronnie's own collabs, including three ASICS icons: the "Mint Leaf", the "Salmon Toes", and the legendary "Rose Gold". Soon after, the store unveiled an in-house apparel line, which was inspired by his love of taking clothing and modifying it himself.

Speaking to Business Of Fashion about his first collection, Fieg recalled, "More people were asking me about my pants than my shoes, so I knew there was something there." The first release of 12 pants sold out in a weekend, the second of 24 sold out in a day, and the third of 100 sold out in an instant, officially cementing his place in the world of streetwear and fashion.

In 2015, after just five years in business, the American icon completely overhauled the Brooklyn space. With 750 cast white Air Jordan 2s hanging from the ceiling and interior design by contemporary artist Daniel Arsham and Snarkitecture's Alex Mustonen. Fieg also introduced Kith Treats - a bar that offered over twenty varieties of breakfast cereal with assorted toppings and milk selections, as well as ice cream.

Around a year later, Kith opened up a Miami flagship and also teamed up with Nike for a co-branded six month pop-up shop. The brand also made its runway debut at New York Fashion Week with Kithland. Featuring over 75 men's and women's looks between three collections, he also showcased a ton of collaborations as well, including those with Off-White and A Bathing Ape.

While many regard Fieg as the king of collabs, he told W Magazine that he's "almost sick of hearing the word collaboration". He then expanded on his point, stating that "almost everything is a collaboration. But for me, it's about what hits home, and the Kith brand has a legacy. What the brand stands for is a lot more than we can make ourselves.", an ethos that has always played a part in his label all the way from the start.

In 2018, Fieg opened up a brick and mortar space in Los Angeles. He was also crowned as one of Fast Company's Most Creative People for "serving streetwear gold", and brought back the iconic Got Milk? moustache campaign that launched back in 1993. Starring Hollywood A-listers such as Seth Rogen and Chrissy Teigen, the ensuing capsule collection now sells for almost 200% over the original retail value.

Around this period of time, the line between streetwear and high fashion was becoming blurrier and blurrier by the minute. Just a few months prior, James Jebbia's Supreme had teamed up with none other than Louis Vuitton for a full collection that brought both fashionistas and hypebeasts to their knees. Virgil Abloh had also just been crowned the Parisian fashion house's new Menswear designer in March. So two months later, Fieg set runways all over the world alight with not one, but two high fashion partnerships.

A move that signified the beginning of what was coined "high streetwear", the Kith founder united with Tommy Hilfiger for a full capsule that took the industry by storm. Comprising of a total of fifty pieces, each one was taken from Hilfiger's archive and reworked for a modern audience. The highlight of the range was, hands down, the Hilfiger Athletic Skew Basketball sneaker, which made a triumphant return for the first time since 1996.

Literally one day after it was unveiled, Fieg took to Instagram to tease a collection with none other than Versace. Inspired by his early memories of his mother not being able to afford pieces from the Medusa brand despite "idolising" them, the collection was made in close connection to Donatella Versace herself and was produced in their factories in Italy.

Once a teenager working on the shop floor of his cousin's sneaker store, Ronnie Fieg is now one of the most hyped fashion designers in the entire world. With major collaborations and projects being unveiled pretty much every week, his course for world domination isn't about to stop anytime soon.

That being said, he'll always keep it humble, forever thanking his kith and kin for getting him through thick and thin.

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