· 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.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: Yeah. [00:00:00] S1: And a typical creative director wouldn't be doing the buying or merchandising, and I do most of those things. So, I have my hands in everything product-wise, and then I design the spaces. I'm heavily involved in the full 360 degrees of the business, even down to the experience that people have when they walk in, the F&B portion of what we do with Get Treats and now Ronnie's. So, there's a lot that I do, so I can't really describe it, and it's hard for people to get a grasp on what it is that I do if you're not following it, because it's been like building blocks since the beginning. It's not like I've given up any responsibilities. I've just added on. [00:00:00] S0: You're kind of like... I met you outside, and your car is very interesting. And I stuck my head in, and I was like, "Oh, dude, this is nice." And you're like, "Welcome to my world." [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, it's like- [00:00:00] S0: You're kind of like building your own entire world. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah. And by the way, I'm head to toe in my product, socks and underwear. [00:00:00] S0: We don't have to see that, but I will take your word on it.
· David Senra, Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S0: We don't have to see that, but I will take your word on it. [00:00:00] S1: Yeah, just take my word for it. And I'm really living the product. I live and breathe the product that I create, and I'm building products for myself. And I think that people know that, so they know that there's a lot of love that goes into it. So if I'm building products for myself and I want to wear the product that we make, I also, up until very recently, was fitting four hours a week. I was the fit model for the product that we put out. So, the brand puts out more than 5,000 styles a year of product between men's, women's, and kids, and accessories and footwear. We built a universe of product, and it's been a really great evolution from the beginning. So if you ask me what it is that I do, I- [00:00:00] S0: The answer is everything. [00:00:00] S1: I'm a world builder. I built myself a world that I live in. [00:00:00] S0: But this is interesting. Why would it be important for you to be the fit model? Because literally, this is for me first.
· Ronnie Fieg
[00:00:00] S1: No, it's a great question because it actually creates efficiencies when we get a sample in and then I fit the product, and during the fitting, I make all the decisions that I need to make for that one product. So I fit the product, and then I'm deciding if the fabric is right for that body. I'm making alterations to the body. Sometimes I'll even drop it and then come up with ideas on what we need to do to evolve from that body or how a specific design can be better. So I'm giving direction live during a fitting. And the team is all there, so I have 20 people at a fitting, and you have your materials team, you have your merchandisers, you have your designers, and then you have the VP of product there and some assistants, and there we're making real decisions. So, we'll make the decisions on that product, and then we'll wait for the second sample to come in, and we got to fit that, too. I think a lot of these brands cut corners. I've spoken about this a few times with different people about how the industry cuts corners. And sometimes you walk into a store and you try something on, you have a shirt from that brand that fit well, but then you try it on and it doesn't fit well, and you're like, "Well, why'd that happen? I came back for the same style." And it's because brands will want to create another version of the same style but not fit it again. So they'll apply a different fabric to the same body, but they won't fit it again, and it drapes differently, it fits differently, and they cut corners. And even there are fashion houses that do that, where you'll walk into a very expensive store and try some product on, and it doesn't fit. It fits like shit. So I'm very meticulous to every detail only because my closet-