· Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S1: I'll say this. If I was easily influenced by what people expect me to do or what people want me to do, I would be in a very small box. Because we started off as streetwear, which is like... And actually, we actually didn't start off as streetwear. We started off with a cut-and-sew pant out of the Garment District in New York. And there's a long story about that. I could go on for two hours about that pant. But that pant was the entry into apparel. But we didn't start off with a T-shirt, a graphic T-shirt. We started off with a pant, and then that pant turned into a varsity jacket. And that happened because I created community around the store, right? And how did that happen? Because at the time, like I said before, I was collecting and I was big into the culture of product downtown in New York. But the stores that were offering this streetwear product and limited footwear, they were arrogant. You would walk into the spaces and they weren't very friendly. And I saw an issue with that because I came from David Z. that was becoming more of a mass retailer, and I always felt like, and I was consumer-facing at the time, I always felt like having the conversation with anyone who walked in, even if they weren't coming in for product, it's important for them to feel at home. So the concept of Kith, which means friends, part of the phrase kith and kin, friends and family, it means friends. I wanted people to feel like they could come to the space and enjoy their day, even if they weren't going to buy anything. So that's what fueled me to open the store in the first place. And then we built this great community based on that concept of those values of wanting to be very welcoming, just easily created a community because it was like something that they were looking for. They just didn't know it. So as I created a community, they just wanted to wear the name of the store on their chest. They wanted to represent the store. We weren't a brand yet. We were a store.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: Explain what the difference is then compared to now. What was the initial thing? You were just selling other people's product? Like, what was it? [00:00:00] S1: Now we're a brand before anything, right? So I think the difference today, the delta is huge between then and now. But I will say that I'll explain the difference to you even in a simpler term. Back when I first opened the store, my attorney asked me if I wanted to register the IP for product. And I was like, "Well, I'm not making any product. I'm working collaboratively with these footwear brands, but I'm not making any apparel, so I don't need to buy the mark." Right? And he's like, "Oh, you still have protection rights even if you use it on apparel. Like, you'll have some rights anyway." I was like, "Okay." Then four years later, there's this fucking crook out of Italy that went and registered my mark, the same mark, in Italy for apparel. And I've already become successful with apparel. I just didn't revisit buying the IP. [00:00:00] S0: Mm.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: Mm. [00:00:00] S1: Right? So all of a sudden, I then had to buy my IP and negotiate with this crook to buy the IP back and own it globally. And that was a very expensive lesson that I learned. But I didn't even consider myself, in the beginning, I wasn't considering myself a brand at all. Even for the first couple years of me making product, I was just like, "Yeah, that's just like cool shit I have on the side for the store." But very quickly it turned. And then when the Kith, the small 800-square-foot space in the back of Atrium then expanded into the full Atrium space because we were that successful, we took another 5,000 feet.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: All of a sudden, I had to quickly put a plan together around becoming a brand. I found one of my all-time favorite quotes when I was reading the book "Zero to One." The quote says, "The single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas." That is exactly what AppLovin has done with their advertising platform. AppLovin connects you with over a billion potential new customers in mobile games. AppLovin allows you to capture undivided attention. AppLovin ads are full-screen videos that are watched for an average of 35 seconds. That is retention that blows other ad platforms out of the water. And you can launch on AppLovin in minutes. You set the goal, and AppLovin achieves it. No complex setup, no expertise needed. And AppLovin scales quickly. They can put your ads in front of over a billion potential customers. Other businesses have seen immediate results, scaled to hundreds of thousands of dollars of spend per day, and increased their revenue by millions. So, you want to get started quickly before all of your competitors are on AppLovin, and you can do that by going to applovin.com. That's applovin.com. When you were 800 square feet, what are you selling in the store? [00:00:00] S1: Only footwear, and then apparel was like a wrap. [00:00:00] S0: Are these footwear that are only- [00:00:00] S1: No [00:00:00] S0: ... the collaborations you're doing? [00:00:00] S1: No.
· Ronnie Fieg, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: No. [00:00:00] S0: It's still the same thing when you were at David, small percentage collaboration? [00:00:00] S1: David was not a top-tier distributor of product. [00:00:00] S0: Okay. [00:00:00] S1: Right? Or retailer of product. David had main catalogs of product, and then I opened this store strictly to have the top tier of distribution from all of the brands I was carrying, because all these brands- [00:00:00] S0: What does that mean, top-tier distribution? [00:00:00] S1: I'll explain. [00:00:00] S0: Okay. [00:00:00] S1: So, for example, and the easiest one to explain would be Nike. Nike has what's called a tier zero, and then they even have quick strikes, which are below tier zero. So, tier zero would be the most limited product they make, quick strike would be the second layer to that, and then you have the mainline collection, which is a catalog that a Dick's Sporting Goods gets to buy into. [00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: Okay? The whole premise behind the Kith space was to have the best footwear wall in the world, and that was going to have top tier, and this is at a time where it wasn't this popular. Sneaker culture grew a ton since then, but top-tier distribution from all the brands. I didn't invent that. Sneaker boutiques were a thing, but I wanted to be the best of, and I had enough knowledge as a buyer and as a merchandiser and as a salesperson, I had enough knowledge of knowing how to do that and curate the best wall in the world.
· Ronnie Fieg, David Senra
[00:00:00] S1: Okay? The whole premise behind the Kith space was to have the best footwear wall in the world, and that was going to have top tier, and this is at a time where it wasn't this popular. Sneaker culture grew a ton since then, but top-tier distribution from all the brands. I didn't invent that. Sneaker boutiques were a thing, but I wanted to be the best of, and I had enough knowledge as a buyer and as a merchandiser and as a salesperson, I had enough knowledge of knowing how to do that and curate the best wall in the world. [00:00:00] S0: Okay, so you combine this industry knowledge with the fact that at this point, you're over 10 years deep into just being a- [00:00:00] S1: A collector. [00:00:00] S0: A collector. [00:00:00] S1: From '95. [00:00:00] S0: Exactly. So even longer. [00:00:00] S1: Right. [00:00:00] S0: So you then combine the two into the very first Kith store, which is, again, 800 square feet.