JON CARAMANICA GOES SHOPPING: Sweet Sneaker Edition

It's a weird Fourth of July holiday that feels like two long, steamy weekends mashed into one week, but Critical Shopper Jon Caramanica has been at work studying the modern sneaker scene at Ronnie Fieg's KITH in Brooklyn.

It's confounding to negotiate the nuances of the current craze for one sneaker over another, but Kith manages to subvert the whole thing by customizing its own stock from brands big and small as well as collaborating with non-athletic brands like Sebago.

Kith feels like a rejoinder to the tyranny of Alife Rivington Club, which for a while turned high-end sneaker shopping into the apex of snobbery, cloistered behind a buzzer-only door even while its selection was limited.

In the end, Kith seems to be feeding on the same sneaker elitism it supposedly seeks to avert, saving its most precious wares for its Manhattan shop inside Atrium in NoHo. That is, apparently, where the higher rollers buy. Even so, the article made The Shophound want to run out to Kith to check out some of those sweet collabs, but then we stepped outside into the zillion degree heat, and so we will thank Caramanica for doing the shopping so we don't have to.

Critical Shopper: Cool Shoes for All by Jon Caramanica (NYTimes)
Kith 233 Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn