Kith Creates Fishing-related Collection With Columbia
Ronnie Fieg doesn’t profess to be an angler — but that didn’t stop the Kith founder from creating a fishing-inspired collection for his next collaboration.
On Friday, Kith and Columbia Sportswear will unveil a co-branded line of apparel, footwear and accessories inspired by Columbia’s PFG collection. PFG, which stands for Performance Fishing Gear, has produced the outdoor-focused line of performance products for decades but this is the first time it has partnered with Kith.
More from WWD
“They make the best fishing gear in the world,” Fieg said of Columbia.
Over the years, Kith and Columbia have collaborated six other times, he said, but always on the core collection. This new project came about because of Mikol Stambaugh, Kith’s vice president of product, who is an avid fisherman. “He convinced me to work on a fishing collection,” Fieg said.
Although he’d rather toss a baseball than throw in a line, Fieg started to do his research. When he was speaking to his colleagues in Japan — Kith has a flagship in Tokyo — they showed him fishing gear that was fashionable in that country, and a lightbulb went off. “I started to look at different apparel pieces and I really liked what I saw,” he said. “I thought it transcended into fashion a bit, which made me very interested.”
With that as a backdrop, Fieg approached Columbia and started a conversation. “They were very interested because fishing is a huge category for them — they lead in the marketplace, which is incredible,” he said.
He started out as he would with any project, using the PFG DNA as an anchor and then evolving the pieces from there. “We found some incredible styles that we thought our spin could really twist,” he said.
He was careful to ensure the performance aspects of the line would be retained, but the line features “our colorways, fits and designs,” he said. “It ended up being a basically whole new view on what our interpretation of fishing looks like.”
Key pieces include the Cool Creek Vest, made from a breathable mesh with self-draining zip pockets; the Madison Jacket, one of PFG’s core pieces reimagined in Columbia’s proprietary Omni-Tech waterproof breathable lightweight material; the Bib Pant, which also features Omni-Tech and an adjustable Y-harness suspender system; the Terminal Deflector Long Sleeve, which now features allover Kith logos in an ombré color, and a Quarter Zip with matching shorts in cotton fleece that showcases artwork of sunset on a lake.
The collection is offered in the seasonal Kith color palette of earth tones intended to mimic the natural environment.
In addition to the apparel, the collection includes fishing-related accessories such as the Backcast Cachalot, a sun protection hat, a fingerless Terminal Tackle Glove and a Transit Bag with an adjustable strap, pockets and a large main compartment.
Footwear is part of the collection for the first time, Fieg said. The shoe offering encompasses two styles, the Newton Ridge waterproof boot and the Breaksider Sandal. Fieg described the Newton Ridge as “like ‘90s heritage hiking boots, which I love,” and the Breaksider as a “water sandal.”
Fieg tapped Oakley to product two sunglass models — the Frogskins and the M2 Frame XL — as part of the drop. Fieg said the lenses on the sunglasses are designed to allow fishermen to better see through the water and guard against sun glare. Each model is laser-etched with Kith branding on the corner of the lens.
“I feel like it’s a very well-rounded collection,” he said. “They make the performance stuff, and we produce the lifestyle stuff.”
Fieg, who was at the Ocean Club in Nassau in the Bahamas to shoot the campaign video featuring Stambaugh along with his brother and father, admitted that although he’s proud of the collection, it hasn’t convinced him to take up the sport of fishing.
“I came here three days ago because I was going to be on the boat for the campaign, but the water was too rough. And my Jewish self is not good on boats,” he said with a laugh. “But I was communicating with them throughout and we got some really beautiful shots.”
Fieg’s choice to stay on terra firma allows him more time to plot his expansion. On March 24, Kith opened its latest store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. That follows a flagship on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles that debuted in January as well as a unit in Miami’s Design District that opened in February. All told, this brings Kith up to 12 flagships as well as three shop-in-shops around the world.
As the brand continues to expand its retail footprint as well as its number of collaborations — Kith recently partnered with Adidas Originals and Clarks on a new footwear silhouette and has worked with brands as varied as Levi’s and Versace to BMW — he’s not worried about being overexposed.
“That’s not really something that I am paying attention to,” he said. Fieg said that in the 12 years since Kith was founded, the company has grown “organically,” and “the formula hasn’t changed in the sense of how many projects we work on during the year. We don’t overpopulate the calendar.”
He said that because the brand is not wholesaled, its distribution is intentionally limited to its own stores or e-commerce site so that also cuts down on the chances of mass distribution.
And as far as retail rollout, he doesn’t believe Kith has been overly aggressive on that end either. “I have always only heard about cities that really want us to open,” he said. “A store a year on average is not a lot of growth so I’m not worried about overexposure. If anything, I feel we’re underserving the demand — not in a purposeful way, but as the product gets better, we see more people buy into it and hopefully we get a consumer for life once they experience the products. So I feel like we’ve just scratched the surface.”
Asked how many stores he could envision Kith operating, and where, he said: “I don’t have the answer to that. I think that strategically it’s just been organic and we’ve opened in the cities that I frequent that I think need a Kith store. So we have some plans for expansion, but there’s not a set number, and I’m not looking to really change the pace of what we’ve been doing.”
Fieg had the same answer to whether he would ever consider selling his brand to a larger company such as Supreme did to VF Corp.
“That’s not something that I’m thinking about at the moment,” he said before changing the subject back to the Columbia collab.
The Kith for Columbia fishing collection will launch at all Kith stores, at 11 a.m. EST on the Kith website and at 11 CET on the Kith European website and on the app.
Launch Gallery: Columbia Fishing Campaign
Best of WWD
