Interview by Joe La Puma
For the past week or so, everyone has had their eyes glued to their TVs for the World Cup in Brazil. But sneakerheads have been paying attention to Brazil, too. That's because Ronnie Fieg made a trip to São Paulo to open a pop-up shop at Cartel for his "Kith Football Equipment" collection, which most notably contains two sneaker collaborations with ASICS: a Gel Lyte III and a GT-II.
But the collection also includes a collaboration with Beats by Dre, clothing, and a handful of accessories. To find out more about "KFE," we talked to Fieg and he divulged behind-the-scenes information on everything he's been working on for this pop-up shop—and why it went down in the first place. Here are 5 Things You Need to Know About Ronnie Fieg's "KFE" Collection.
RELATED: Interview: Ronnie Fieg Talks the Kith Football Equipment Collection
Interview by Joe La Puma
For the past week or so, everyone has had their eyes glued to their TVs for the World Cup in Brazil. But sneakerheads have been paying attention to Brazil, too. That's because Ronnie Fieg made a trip to São Paulo to open a pop-up shop at Cartel for his "Kith Football Equipment" collection, which most notably contains two sneaker collaborations with ASICS: a Gel Lyte III and a GT-II.
But the collection also includes a collaboration with Beats by Dre, clothing, and a handful of accessories. To find out more about "KFE," we talked to Fieg and he divulged behind-the-scenes information on everything he's been working on for this pop-up shop—and why it went down in the first place. Here are 5 Things You Need to Know About Ronnie Fieg's "KFE" Collection.
RELATED: Interview: Ronnie Fieg Talks the Kith Football Equipment Collection
Each sneaker in the collection almost had different details.
"The first two samples of the Gel Lyte III and GT-II had star-perforated patterns—on the heel counter of the Gel Lyte III and on the tongue and heel counter of the GT-II. I decided to go against it, because it takes away from how premium the uppers are," Fieg said.
The video for the collection featured real soccer players.
"The video shoot was comprised of soccer players who play for the Chinatown Soccer Club in Manhattan. We took eight players and added a female model to each team," Fieg said. "So we had five-on-five and played a real soccer game at Pier 5 in Brooklyn. We shot the video the day before we left for Brazil. It was a foggy but amazing setting. You could see the skyline through the fog."
There will be accessories for the collection, too, but...
"There’s a collaborative Kith x Beats bag that will be seeded. It will have the water bottles, soccer balls, soccer jerseys, water gun, jerseys, shorts, and duffel bag. There are a 100 for the U.S. and a 100 for Brazil," Fieg said. "If you see the Beats branding on any of the pieces, you’ll know that’s a close family and friend. All of the pieces for sale are extremely rare, too. There are only 150 pieces made per item, and there’s only 100 pieces made of each Beats item, the headphones and the Pill."
There's reason besides the World Cup that brought Fieg and his crew to Brazil.
"Everything meshed together incidentally: my birthday, my best friend Teddy’s [Santis of Aimé Leon Dore] birthday, and Teddy’s getting married—so it’s kind of like a bachelor party. The launch of my pop-up shop in Brazil with 20 of my closest friends (besides Sky Gellatly and Victor Cruz) was super special," Fieg said. "The first inception of this project was to bring everyone together like we did in Miami and Paris. It’s, like, where can we go next and take over a city? And how special can it be? And the World Cup, my birthday, Teddy’s birthday, and the bachelor party all came together. The stars are aligning in my personal and professional lives. "
Here's the release information for the sneakers.
The "KFE" collection will release in the U.S. on June 28. The Gel Lyte IIIs will be $185, the GT-IIs will be $165, and they'll both be available only at Kith.
