· Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S1: 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. 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 explain how their passion started so young, so early in their lives. Whereas, in my case, it started 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 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, I think, gave me the upper hand.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: But how does a 12 or 13-year-old kid get interested in fashion? Is this coming from hip-hop culture? What was going on in your life where it's like, "Man, I want to come to school dressed and fly." [00:00:00] S1: 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 a culture shock for me because it was so many different cultures. It was the biggest melting pot ever. And 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 a small crew of kids, there was six or seven of them, that befriended me right away. And these kids, that was back when Polo, Tommy, and Nautica were like- [00:00:00] S0: I remember this [00:00:00] S1: ... were really big. [00:00:00] S0: We're around the same age. I remember this. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. Are you '82? What year are you? [00:00:00] S0: '84. [00:00:00] S1: 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. So I found myself really wanting... I used to have to borrow my friend's clothes.
· Ronnie Fieg, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: 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. So I found myself really wanting... I used to have to borrow my friend's clothes. [00:00:00] S0: Dude, I had knockoff Tommy Hilfiger. I literally bought it at the swap shop in South Florida- [00:00:00] S1: That was a good thing [00:00:00] S0: ... because we had no money. [00:00:00] S1: It was a good thing. [00:00:00] S0: And then I got called out at school. You 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 Wendy's- [00:00:00] S1: Oh my God [00:00:00] S0: ... the fast food place? [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. [00:00:00] S0: You would give them like a- [00:00:00] S1: A collared shirt [00:00:00] S0: ... a collared shirt, right? And I go to the swap shop because we have no money, and you have these street vendors, right? 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's shirt." [00:00:00] S1: A Wendy's shirt. [00:00:00] S0: I remember being 12 and devastated that I'm wearing a fucking fast food costume. Not costume, what's it called? A fast food uniform with a fake Tommy Hilfiger screen printed on it. [00:00:00] S1: That's insane. I don't know. I don't think things have gotten that far. [00:00:00] S0: Dude, I haven't thought about that in 20 years. I can't believe that.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: Dude, I haven't thought about that in 20 years. I can't believe that. [00:00:00] S1: That's really crazy. There were a ton of fakes going around. And even though back then, a 65 or 85 dollar shirt was like- [00:00:00] S0: This was 10 dollars. I should have known by the price. [00:00:00] S1: Oh, yeah, you should have known by that. I could have told you back then. You needed me as a friend. I would have kept you safe. But in school, that's what really... What we were seeing around us, 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, they had the money, or their parents had the money to buy them the product they wanted. And that's really what fueled my kind of passion for wanting to work. Just like, I wanted to make money so I could buy my own product and buy my own clothing. So at 13, at my bar mitzvah, 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 for my bar mitzvah party with the money I was getting as gifts. [00:00:00] S0: No.
· Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S1: So he offered me... I was going to the bathroom during the party, and he offered me an envelope of cash, and I told him, "Keep the envelope. I want a job." I was 13. And he was like, "Are you sure?" 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 stockroom 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 stockroom in 8th Street, which was probably the most important part of my upbringing and also the most influential part of my life, because that's where I got to see... It was really the epicenter of culture, 8th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. 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 diagonally because there were so many cars. And that's where people would come to get, whether they were coming to get their fitted or Grace Papaya was on the corner, or Phat Beatz 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 the obsession over kids and their Jordans or 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 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 Asolo and Tecnica and Red Wing, and we had Polo, like the Polo cookie boots and the hiking boots, the RLX boots and Timberlands, Trezeta, Dolomite, like all Bear AKU, like all these Gore-Tex hiker boots. Hiking boots were just everywhere in New York City in that culture. It was still a subculture, but it got so big. Like, people were driving from different states to come buy these products because they were Italian brands making product in Italy, and it wasn't massively distributed.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: But when do you go from admiring what other people are making to saying, "Hey, I'm going to do my versions of this?" [00:00:00] S1: That came later. So, I worked as a stock boy, 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/general manager. [00:00:00] S0: So this is just you learning the business, not thinking like... Let me ask you a question. Maybe I should start here. If somebody doesn't know who you are- [00:00:00] S1: Yeah [00:00:00] S0: ... and say, "Hey, what do you do?" How do you describe yourself? [00:00:00] S1: 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 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- [00:00:00] S0: Yeah [00:00:00] S1: ... because I do a lot. [00:00:00] S0: Yeah.