Kith & adidas' Past, Present & Future, Explained By Ronnie Fieg (EXCLUSIVE)
Kith has worked with just about every footwear brand that matters but its relationship with adidas is special. When it came time to launch Kith's membership program, for instance, what was the first special shoe it offered? A pair of exclusive adidas sneakers, of course. Kith and adidas have since collaborated on everything from terrace shoes to hiking gear to the rare three-way collab. And everything always sells out.
Fieg's adidas hot streak began even before Kith, however.
The Kith x adidas Superstar "Black Tie" sneaker is OG Ronnie Fieg material, quite literally: The Superstar "Black Tie" was the first shoe Fieg ever cocreated with adidas, back when he was working at his uncle's pioneering shoe store, David Z, in 2008. (this is years before Kith was even a shop-in-shop inside Atrium.)
Fieg talked at length with Highsnobiety about the cultural weight of this undersung adidas shoe, now rereleasing as a four-pack of absurdly opulent German-made Superstars on August 17 as part of Kith's Fall 2025 collection.
This is not just any ol' Kith collection, by the way — Kith is hosting a blowout Fall 2025 runway show, its first of the 2020s. Expect adidas. Lots of adidas.
"We’re covering so many aspects of what [adidas does] through our lens that I couldn’t picture the season unfolding without showcasing them all in one place," Fieg tells Highsnobiety.
The presentation will be entirely outfitted with adidas sneakers, in fact, including new iterations of Kith for adidas Football and adidas x Clarks 8th Street, demonstrating just how far Kith x adidas has come and just how far Kith x adidas will go.
Can you explain the process behind the original "Black Tie" Superstar?
I’ve always felt [the Superstar] could be dressed up or down, depending on how you style it. I wanted to create a version you could wear with a suit. I used leather for the upper and patent leather for the Three Stripes, added tonal stripes on the upper, and wrapped the midsole in leather. I packaged it with a matching tie and released it on Black Friday '08. For the campaign, I shot my good friends Jonny and Patrick, who ran Goldbar in SoHo — I was there every Monday — wearing the Superstars with suits.
The campaign, paired with the release date and black tie packaging, made the rollout feel very holistic.
Were you considering any other designs before landing on "Black Tie?"
No, I remember it being the first concept I came up with. As soon as I found out I could work on the Superstar, I knew I wanted to do something classic that would age as well as the silhouette, a pair of sneakers I could wear with a suit.
That's how we get the new Kith x adidas suits, right?
Just like we evolved the design, I wanted to evolve the concept. The suits won’t be available publicly, since I only made a handful out of Italian tropical wool to gift to my friends and family as the invitation to our Fall 2025 show. Kith produced them the same way we create our &Kin suits, which have become some of my favorite suits I own.
I designed this package for my friends and family as an invite to our first runway show in six years, which we’re calling “Institution.”
What was going on in sneaker culture that shaped your process of designing the original "Black Tie" Superstars?
My background is in boots and brown shoes, so the idea was to bridge the gap between premium dress shoes and sneakers. And, at the time, I had been working with a lot of color in my designs, and athletic footwear across the market was starting to follow suit. So, going triple black with tonal branding was meant to feel a bit left and different.
How does it hold up nearly 20 years later? And how does it feel to see it made in Germany?
The concept and intention are just as relevant today as they were then. The execution in 2008 was great for its time, but today my experience in footwear design has grown, as has my relationship with adidas.
So, while the original concept is intact, we can now deliver it at a much more premium level. We used dress loafer quality leather, waxed laces, leather footbeds, and refined stitch lines on the toe cap for an ultra-luxe execution.
It’s fulfilling to see the new pair next to the originals. Breathing new life into ideas I’ve always wanted to create, but maybe couldn’t fully at the time, is a special feeling.
Can you talk a bit about bringing adidas and Clarks together? What was that initial conversation like and how does creating those initial designs compare to the new shoe?
I love bringing people together. I have great relationships at Clarks and adidas, and I know I can pick up the phone and call people like Matteo Bellentani from Clarks or Max Bente from adidas and pitch an idea that, if it makes sense for both brands to come together, they’ll go the extra mile to make happen.
That process started about three years ago, when I first approached both brands about doing the Samba for my 8th St category with Clarks. We released the first pairs two years ago and since then have dropped multiple adidas silhouettes on Clarks crepe tooling.
This season, to celebrate Clarks’ 200th anniversary, we’re flipping it and taking a Clarks silhouette and applying it to adidas tooling. I’ve always said that opening a box of fresh Wallabees is one of my favorite feelings. So, we started with the high and low models, and applied two of my favorite adidas toolings: ultraBOOST and 4D.
As you can imagine, this took serious development time, but the final executions are some of my favorite models I’ve ever worked on. It’s a special feeling to create something that hasn’t existed in Clarks’ 200 years.
Just wrapping up, is there a defining factor of the Kith x adidas partnership? Why has it worked so well for so long?
Mutual respect and a shared passion to disrupt. I approach each project with admiration, and they value my perspective as a storyteller. Every collaboration has had a reason behind it, whether it’s about honoring history, pushing design forward, or introducing something new to the culture.
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