Ronnie Fieg | Building a Multi-Brand Streetwear Empire with Kith

Patrick Tanahan (0:20)

What's going on everyone, this is The Founder Hour Podcast. I'm your co-host, Pat, and on today's episode, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Ronnie Fieg. He's a footwear and clothing designer and the founder of Kith, a retail establishment and streetwear brand that he launched in 2010 with stores in New York, LA, Miami, London, and most recently Tokyo.

Over the last decade, Kith has absolutely taken over the streetwear game, collaborating with brands such as Calvin Klein, Versace, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, and many others, as well as launching their own collections of men's, women's, and kids' clothing. In this episode, we did a deep dive into Ronnie's humble beginnings growing up in Jamaica Queens, New York, falling in love with fashion and hip hop culture at a young age, how he got his start working in retail, how his very first collaboration with footwear brand Asics came about, launching Kith and the early days of building out the brand, his insane work ethic and mindset when it comes to the brand's evolution, and much more.

Ronnie Fieg (1:15)

Here we go.

Nerses Aposhian (1:15)

Here we go.

Ronnie Fieg (1:19)

Yeah, I mean, I grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and as a kid, I became friends with one of my very good friends, with one of my, actually one of my closest friends up until today, his name is Joey Coronado. And I've told the story a few times, but he was a Dominican kid, and in fourth grade, when I started public school, which was PS 178, not far from my house, he and I both had older sisters, they were six years older than us, and they were basically putting us up on the music and the fashion and those type of things that we got into in a very young age. And I felt like the cultural differences between myself and Joey, me being, my parents were immigrants from Israel, I have Israeli parents, and then Joey being Dominican, also his parents coming from Dominican Republic, I felt like we were the first generation to really experience the melting pot in Queens, from our backgrounds. And it was very inspiring and interesting at the same time to see so many cultures kind of come together. So I just, I fell in love with what Queens represented, which was like such a diverse group of people with all different cultures, and the group of friends that we had.

There were so many different cultures that were part of our class and part of our grade that we got to see and experience. Also, because when we'd go to our friend's houses, it was like we'd experience the food and the culture through the parents. We got to see all of that at such a young age.

So, there was a lot of that in Queens and then all of the fashion that came with that was incredible. So, picking up on sneakers at a really young age and then what Tommy Hilfiger and Polo and Nautica were all doing back then was really special. They were building worlds that we really just bought into.

Patrick Tanahan (3:56)

And for context, around what years is this?

Ronnie Fieg (4:00)

This is, so this is like 1990

You know, around 1990 Early 90s. Yeah, early 90s. Like, I would say 92 actually, 92 I was 10 years old, fourth grade. I think you're around 10, right?

So yeah, that was around the time. I started public school then.

You know, my parents couldn't afford to keep me in this school. I was going, this private school I was going to, it was called Solomon Check there, which was for like, you know, Israelis that, it was like basically their blueprint, you know, come to come to the States. And then it was like, where can you send your kid? Cause you know, my first language was Hebrew. So I didn't even speak, you know, English fluently, I would say until a little bit later in life. So, you know, fourth grade was really the beginning of my life, you know what I'm saying?

Patrick Tanahan (4:59)

Yeah, we're Armenian, it's not too different. You know, you come to LA, you go to Armenian school and then, you know, you go on with your life. But same thing happened with me too. You know, my mom pulled me out of Armenian school pretty early on, like second grade. And that's when I, you know, started to experience other cultures.

Ronnie Fieg (5:17)

Exactly, and that's, it's so important, right? It's like, that's where, you know, the music, the movies, the fashion, you know, Joey, Joey was like really into music and film from such a young age. You know, the first, like, you know, his father, he came from a little bit more of a wealthy family and his father had a really successful business. So Joey got these like toys early on. The view, the first like sharp view cam, I don't know if you remember what that is, like basically the first video recorder with a screen, with a screen on the video recorder, right? So like we were starting to make, you know, bullshit little films from a really young age. And every time his father would take him to the mall, he'd take me too and like keep me included and buy me things that he would buy his son.