Ronnie Fieg Talks “COA” PUMA Collaboration, High Fashion and Focusing on Footwear

Keeping up with the work of Ronnie Fieg is an everyday duty for our editorial staff at Nice Kicks. Over the past seven years, Fieg’s backstory as a stockroom worker at David Z turned designer has become well known, but it’s keeping up with his ongoing endeavors that has us and the rest of the industry constantly on our toes. After rising to the top ranks of footwear in the US via acclaimed collaborative projects and returning to the retail realm with Kith, Fieg focused his eyes on Paris’ famed Men’s Fashion Week for the launch of his “Coat of Arms” project, highlighted by the PUMA Disc Blaze. We ventured across the pond to talk with Fieg about the birth of the project, the ever-changing marketplace and the intersection between footwear and high fashion.

Nice Kicks: What was the catalyst for the Coat Of Arms project?

Ronnie Fieg: It didn’t start out with that concept. The whole Coat of Arms, the Parisian flag, means unity. That kind of mixes in with our ‘Just Us’ mentality at Kith, but it started off with a color palette that I put together for a wedding party in Brazil, actually. My friend got married and she asked me to design the gallery that she put together after her wedding. She had three parts to her wedding, and I put together this amazing space and I used these colors, but it was white instead of black – so it was coral, white and mint.

When Yassin and I started working on this project, I was told that it wouldn’t be able to ship in spring. I thought it would come in December, so we needed to switch up the colors. I wanted it to be something appropriate for that time of year. Then it got pushed back, because production wouldn’t be ready until January. I wanted to do it in Paris, but it was Yassin’s idea to do it during Men’s Fashion Week. The Coat of Arms was already in place, but then the whole idea of apparel and working with all my favorite independent designers came into place.

Nice Kicks: You got your start in sneakers, but we’re seeing you get more into fashion with the Kith line. What special things did you want to do with the Coat of Arms project by bringing it to Men’s Fashion Week?

Ronnie Fieg: I wanted to really highlight my favorite independent designers, which are ISAORA and John Elliott, and also our own brand which is really starting to take off and gain a substantial following. I wanted to bring it into Men’s Fashion Week because those designers are already involved in Fashion Week, but this is another way to bring them closer to my demographic – the sneakerhead, the person who loves footwear and athletics. Usually, you’ll see Men’s Fashion Week apparel pieces go with high fashion, designer shoes. What we were able to accomplish here is taking an athletic, classic silhouette and really souping it up so it can sit next to those pieces. The goal was really to take my aesthetic up a notch and bring fashion into our world and put them side by side, let those worlds intertwine.

photo by Ugly Mely

Nice Kicks: Do you think that we’re going to see our sneaker world get into fashion?

Ronnie Fieg: We’ve seen it already. As somebody as iconic as Kanye or A$AP Rocky starts to shift his way of dressing, it trickles down to everyone in that scene. You have the whole hip-hop scene getting more into fashion. Then you have the sneaker dude, and it’s really trickling down to him, too. It’s really trickled down to the whole market. Fashion has been taking more of a major play in our world now for the last couple of years. This is a step to even further that. I think that the kid will start to dress in higher fashion pieces. This is going to be a nice case study for that.