EPISODE · Apr 14, 2026 · 1H 6M
#519 Ronnie Fieg (Kith) | He turned a shoe store into a global lifestyle empire
from TheBoldWay · host Adrien Garcia
👉 Mon sponsor du mois | Squarespace Tester Gratuitement📧 Ma newsletter | S'abonner🖥️ Ma chaîne YouTube | S'abonner— Thank you to Ronnie for coming to see us here on TheBoldWay.Ronnie Fieg is the man behind Kith, one of the most influential lifestyle brands on the planet right now. 23 stores worldwide, collaborations with BMW, New Balance, Clarks, Wilson, and Bose, creative direction for the New York Knicks, a restaurant, a private membership club in Tribeca... And all of it started with a 13-year-old kid selling shoes out of a stockroom in New York City.In this episode, we talk about the leap of faith: at 28, Ronnie walks away from a $250,000-a-year salary to open his first store, sleeping seven nights straight on a couch inside the shop before it even opened. We get into his philosophy on product, why he was his own fit model for years, and what the vast majority of brands are fundamentally getting wrong. And we talk about what it really means to be both CEO and creative director of a fast-accelerating global machine, with zero management training and zero experience running a company.This is an episode about obsession, taste, fatherhood, and what it actually costs to build something that lasts.Timeline01:46 : Who is Ronnie Fieg? Kith explained, his creative roles, and the scope of the empire today09:20 : The origins — 15 years at David Z, falling in love with product at 13, and the 10,000-hour rule15:00 : The birth of Kith — leaving $250k behind, sleeping in the store, convincing New Balance on a napkin sketch22:00 : Brand philosophy — the high-low lesson from Colette and what community actually builds29:45 : What makes a great product — fitting, construction, attention to detail, and where competitors cut corners36:00 : Dreaming small and big at the same time — how his creativity evolves with age, fatherhood, and a widening audience spectrum40:20 : The inner drive — a God-given engine, curiosity as a learning tool, and how he enters any new industry from zero51:30 : CEO vs. creative director — the reality behind the glamour and the million-dollar decisions nobody talks about57:00 : Global expansion, the universality of Kith product, AI, and why New York will always be the heartbeat of the globe1:02:20 : What he's most proud of, his message to French listeners, and closing wordsVous souhaitez sponsoriser TheBoldWay Podcast ou nous proposer un partenariat ?Contactez mon label Orso Media via ce formulaire ou [email protected]: TheBoldWay ou The Bold Way, anciennement connu sous le nom de Entreprendre dans la mode ou EDLM , est un podcast produit et réalisé par Adrien Garcia. Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
What this episode covers
👉 Mon sponsor du mois | Squarespace Tester Gratuitement📧 Ma newsletter | S'abonner🖥️ Ma chaîne YouTube | S'abonner— Thank you to Ronnie for coming to see us here on TheBoldWay. Ronnie Fieg is the man behind Kith, one of the most influential lifestyle brands on the planet right now. 23 stores worldwide, collaborations with BMW, New Balance, Clarks, Wilson, and Bose, creative direction for the New York Knicks, a restaurant, a private membership club in Tribeca... And all of it started with a 13-year-old kid selling shoes out of a stockroom in New York City. In this episode, we talk about the leap of faith: at 28, Ronnie walks away from a $250,000-a-year salary to open his first store, sleeping seven nights straight on a couch inside the shop before it even opened. We get into his philosophy on product, why he was his own fit model for years, and what the vast majority of brands are fundamentally getting wrong. And we talk about what it really means to be both CEO and creative director of a fast-accelerating global machine, with zero management training and zero experience running a company. This is an episode about obsession, taste, fatherhood, and what it actually costs to build something that lasts. Timeline 01:46 : Who is Ronnie Fieg? Kith explained, his creative roles, and the scope of the empire today 09:20 : The origins — 15 years at David Z, falling in love with product at 13, and the 10,000-hour rule 15:00 : The birth of Kith — leaving $250k behind, sleeping in the store, convincing New Balance on a napkin sketch 22:00 : Brand philosophy — the high-low lesson from Colette and what community actually builds 29:45 : What makes a great product — fitting, construction, attention to detail, and where competitors cut corners 36:00 : Dreaming small and big at the same time — how his creativity evolves with age, fatherhood, and a widening audience spectrum 40:20 : The inner drive — a God-given engine, curiosity as a learning tool, and how he enters any new industry from zero 51:30 : CEO vs. creative director — the reality behind the glamour and the million-dollar decisions nobody talks about 57:00 : Global expansion, the universality of Kith product, AI, and why New York will always be the heartbeat of the globe 1:02:20 : What he's most proud of, his message to French listeners, and closing words Vous souhaitez sponsoriser TheBoldWay Podcast ou nous proposer un partenariat ?Contactez mon label Orso Media via ce formulaire ou [email protected] Nb: TheBoldWay ou The Bold Way, anciennement connu sous le nom de Entreprendre dans la mode ou EDLM , est un podcast produit et réalisé par Adrien Garcia. Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
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#519 Ronnie Fieg (Kith) | He turned a shoe store into a global lifestyle empire
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