Kith

Kith was founded in 2011 in New York by Ronnie Fieg, a former buyer and lead designer at the New York footwear retailer David Z. Fieg had built a reputation through the late 2000s for tightly controlled limited-edition footwear collaborations (the ASICS Gel-Lyte III 'Salmon Toe,' a 2010 release widely regarded as one of the most influential sneaker collaborations of the 2010s) before launching Kith as a full footwear-and-apparel retail concept on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue. The Kith vocabulary settled around several distinguishing things: in-house Kith ready-to-wear apparel (anchored to elevated American basics — heavyweight cotton crewnecks, washed denim, technical outerwear), a continuous run of high-profile collaborations (Nike Air Force 1, ASICS Gel-Lyte III, BMW, Versace, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Coca-Cola, the New York Knicks), the Kith Treats cereal-bar concept (a multi-location cereal-and-soft-serve café embedded within Kith retail spaces), and the Kith Sport partnerships with the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The Madison Avenue flagship (opened 2019) is the brand's architectural showpiece. The brand is independent and held by Fieg with significant minority backing from US private investors. Kith operates flagships in New York (Brooklyn, Madison Avenue, Soho, Williamsburg), Los Angeles (Beverly Hills), Miami, Toronto, Paris (Faubourg Saint-Honoré), London (Mayfair), Hawaii, Aspen, Manhasset, plus international wholesale through Nordstrom, SSENSE, MR PORTER, and selected luxury department stores. Few US streetwear brands of the 2010s have built such a complete retail-and-brand vocabulary.