Kith is the popular fashion brand founded by Ronnie Fieg in 2011. The name comes from the expression ‘kith and kin’. There are locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Miami, and Los Angeles. Kith is also located inside two shops: Bergdorf Goodman and Hirshleifers. The first store was established in Brooklyn. Fieg tapped artist Daniel Arsham and his studio Snarkitecture to design each store. The stores are stocked with streetwear, sneakers, and jewelry. In Soho and Brooklyn, a custom suspended installation of 700 pairs of all white Air Jordan II replicas greets your eyes as you enter the store. The Air Jordan II was the second shoe created for Michael Jordan by Nike in 1986. Floor-to-ceiling stainless steel and glass displays line the corridors of the store, allowing visitors to browse the displays and clearly view the products on the shelves.
Every week, Kith drops a new series of clothing in stores and online. The Kith Monday program has included an Ishiahara Test Classic Logo Tee, slash classic logo, a collaboration with Iceberg for a Mickey Fantasia line, a monarch classic logo, and more. This past Monday on April 19, Kith released a Geo Colors Tee in red, purple, and yellow. The colors were not too bland, but still, it was not to my liking. I like Kith’s physical space rather than most of the clothing it produces.
Fieg’s reimagining of the traditional retail store as an experimental gallery space may have to do with his meteoric rise and Kith’s expansion around the world. Fieg teamed up with Daniel Arsham to install the Arsham/Fieg Gallery, a dedicated art space where artists hold solo exhibitions and invite people to view them while inside the store. Fieg also founded a snack bar in 2015 called Kith Treats, which offers several cereal and ice cream concoctions created by artist Daniel Arsham, creative Don C, Viceland TV host and rapper Action Bronson, BMX rider Nigel Sylvester, designer Virgil Abloh, street artist Futura, Director of Content Strategy at Complex Media Joe La Puma, and Ronnie Fieg himself. There are 24 different types of cereal that can be mixed with soft serve.
The label’s motto “Just Us” is an accurate depiction of the close-knit community that has formed around Kith. Kith’s unexpected collaborations with brands as varied as Champion, Adidas Football, Coca-Cola, Bergdorf Goodman, and Disney have surprised many and yet remain appealing. The power of Kith to compel people to stand in line for hours for many of these drops and spend a respectable amount of money for streetwear may attest to the fact that Kith is creating a narrative of its own that is different from what other have brands have tried in the past. I dare make the comparison for purchasing and wearing Kith to collecting artwork. Even if you may not agree, that is the reality for this new generation.
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