Clocking The Whitaker Group's NB Project, Kith's New Store, Joe Grondi Moves On, And Sabato de Sarno's Underwhelming Gucci Debut
It appears it’s James Whitner’s time in the barrel. The (rightly-celebrated) founder and owner of The Whitaker Group, which houses A Ma Maniére, Social Status and APB boutiques, has received some push back for an effort with New Balance on a 9060 silhouette whose pastel color story titled “Missing Pieces” has been criticized for being overly inspired by Joe Freshgood’s pastel-era collabs with the brand.
Debate over who owns the rights to pastels aside, I discovered Whitner’s partnership with New Balance is different from Joe’s because it’s a special makeup (SMU) not a collaboration. SMU for those not in the sneaker business is an exclusive colorway, which brands will make for retailers to recognize their clout (very common with heavy hitters like Foot Locker, JD Sports, etc.) However, SMUs are not co-branded, so Whitaker’s Group isn’t stamped anywhere on the capsule, while Joe’s shoes inlude both his and New Balance’s logo.
Even more intriguing, it turns out, A Ma Maniére has an exclusive with Nike and Jordan (thus all the juicy collabs) and even if Whitaker Group wanted, contractually it can’t do co-branded collaborations with other brands. Clearly Nike is watching because a flier billing the New Balance shoe as a A Ma Maniére production came down shortly after it was posted, replaced by one showing the shoes as a production of The Whitaker Group (above).
These things don’t matter to all but a tiny segment of obsessive sneaker heads, but they are closely tracked by sneaker boutique owners who clock who is being granted what collab just like a Wall Street analyst studies the rise and fall of names s/he cares about. Like it or not, the truth is collabs with top-tier brands have become the pulse of the channel and are an indicator of health more significant than same-store sales.
Speaking of clocking, Kith opened a store in Toronto this past weekend (congrats to the team!), marking the New York-based brand’s 16th store. The grand-opening included a collaboration (note the co-branding above) with New Balance alongside an apparel and accessory capsule, which is all sold out.
One of the things that’s noteworthy about this opening is that it marks the first Kith store opening that was celebrated with something other than a Nike Air Force 1 collaboration. I have no idea whose idea it was not to do an Air Force 1 collab; it’s entirely possible the decision was mutual and who knows, maybe Nike is putting a pause on AF1-related projects.
I’m a fan of Kith and all the many things founder Ronnie Fieg has achieved, so appropos of the opening I want to add that I don’t agree with Complex’s entertaining “Streetwear Power Ranking” article ranking Fieg as No. 6 on the list and Teddy Santis of Aimé Leon Dore as No. 1.
More than just a brand, Kith is a leader in a new era for department stores, taking up the space that Barney’s and Jeffery’s used to occupy. Santis is valid but like Nicki Minaj says of her peers, ALD is Kith’s son! I’m not committed enough to list my top 1-5 picks but I would put Fieg somewhere in the top three.
One final New Balance/Nike crossover story to wrap my coverage of the two all-American brands in a neat little package: Based on his LinkedIn profile, it appears Joe Grondi is no longer employed by Aimé Leon Dore where he clocked out from his role as chief marketing officer after just six months.
Grondi joined ALD following a much-celebrated, eight-year stint at New Balance where he lead the brand’s game-changing global collaborations and energy team through efforts with ALD, Joe Freshgoods and JJJJound, among others. I have no idea where he will land, but from a newsletter thematic perspective, Nike would be too perfect.
Wall Street is funny. It invests in brands and yet there remains a persistant disconnect (though much improved from years past) between having an understanding of the company’s balance sheet and how its perceived by the consumer its targeting.
I saw this in action last Friday when Kering’s stock jumped up 3%, spurred according to Reuters, by news of Gucci director, Sabato de Sarno, presenting his debut collection.
Meanwhile, reviews of the debut collection were polite at best with WWD describing it as “a good start,” Cathy Horyn of The Cut, noting, “I want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is a pathfinder, and this collection was only the beginning..,” Even Vogue, which depends on Kering’s ad dollars, ended its review by simply stating, “[de Sarno] has wiped the slate clean, now he can begin building.”
At the Washington Post, Rachel Tashjian chose violence, writing, “Many editors and attendees remarked that it looked like Zara, which, well, everything eventually looks like Zara these days, since the fast fashion brand eagerly watches and replicates runway trends. But it looked dated, like ideas from a few seasons ago. It was a timid idea of the possibilities of extraordinary clothes.” Throwing de Sarno some bail, she conceded later in the review, “Designers have recovered, and thrived, after far rockier debuts…”
De Sarno’s well-liked predeccesor Alessandre Michelle chose to resign rather than take design direction from Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault who wasn’t satisfied with Kering’s stock price growing 280% during his seven-year tenure. And not only did Michelle dip last year in November, but the other shoe dropped when Gucci’s well-reguarded CEO Marco Bizzarri also exited stage left in July.
Pinault was willing to make the shift because he believes a cleaner design direction will enable Gucci eventually to reach annual sales “above €15B.” Gucci generated €10.49B in revenue in 2022, compared to €9.73B in 2021 and €7.44B in 2020.
While Pinault didn’t provide a timeline for his projections, I can’t help but wonder where the evidence is that de Sarno has it in him to grow the brand 42%?
I have no personal vendeta against de Sarno (even after hearing he was snooty toward the staff during a recent visit to a Gucci store in New York), but what are investors seeing that I’m not? He’s a complete unknown. He was a designer at Valentino (whose revenue in 2022 was a relatively paltry €1.42B) for 13 years and was a key member of Pierpaolo Piccioli’s design team when he was plucked by Gucci, but that’s all we know.
Mostly I sit in the same camp as my fave Tim Blanks of Business of Fashion, whose piece on the de Sarno’s debut was titled “Can Lightning Strike Thrice at Gucci?” Blanks described the collection as missing “the frisson of rebirth that Gucci was looking for,” but concluded the bigger issue is that the consumer is so fragmented it might not matter anymore. “Then again, I wonder if such a sensation is even possible at this point,” he wrote, “Would content-saturated audiences recognise it?”