I was just like, All right, God, like I got to get back to Jerry, I got to get back to me and you 'cause this Jerry Lorenzo dude, like I'm cool on him, like never wanted to be that dude anyway. In 2011, a 33-year-old party promoter in Los Angeles, California, had an idea. A former college athlete who had dabbled in sports management and retail fashion, Jerry Lorenzo found himself hosting some of the most celebrated parties in town. Inspired by the streetwear intelligentsia at his events and unable to find a simple t-shirt whose cut he liked, Lorenzo decided to make one himself. That first product landed him on the radar of Virgil Abloh and then Kanye West, jump-starting a career in fashion. He would launch his luxury line, Fear of God, and its mass-market spin-off, Essentials, making Lorenzo one of the most acclaimed and popular designers of a [Music] generation. And it all started with one idea. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Got it and

marker we good cool cool welcome to idea generation. Jerry, thanks for having me, man. You launched Fear of God about a little over 10 years ago now at what I would sort of describe as the peak of the hype movement. And you know, things have changed pretty dramatically over that period in a number of different ways. Where do you think we are in the life cycle of that sort of cultural movement? I mean, obviously, the moment of 10 years ago is over, right? And I'd like to think it's progressed in a positive way. I think everything through time takes on a new shape, a new form. I think for us as a brand in the beginning, I always knew whatever that wave was, whatever that time period was, was going to come to an end. And you know, our goal has never been to stay at the top of a wave. You know, our goal is to be just to sustain, so to always be in a position where we have a voice in the community and setting up the business that way. It just allows us to authentically have something to say that

doesn't require such a change in strategy every year, if that makes sense. And so, as you know, we were blessed as the world got cozy during COVID. We were Essentials. We were here, right? And as the change from hype sneakers, we're here with something that really performs, you know? It's an honest shoe. It's not here for you to stand in line. It's here for you to go play basketball in it, you know? And so, I've always kind of felt as if things that are, you know, hype always dies. And how are we creating things that kind of sustain the waves? You mentioned the Footwear. What is your assessment of the current state of sneaker culture? I was never a sneakerhead. I graduated high school in '95. It was Jordan's or nothing. We didn't know what was going to happen after the 10. We didn't know what was going to happen after the nine, you know? There was like this anticipation of like, Oh my God, what's the next Jordan going

to be, and it was a new idea that you had no education on how it would fit with your outfit, the same way kids do now. They know a Jordan one is going to look exactly like that, no matter how it's colored up, right? And so, that's the emotion that I'm chasing through design. I want a kid to unpack something, open something they've never seen before, and it to give them an emotion that they haven't felt before, because it's that emotion that I think they're going to [Music] remember. My good ideas come from God, um, my bad ideas come from me, um, but everything I do, everything we do at Fear of God, is like really birthed out of a deep conviction. So, if it's not something that I feel like is aligning with him, it's not anything I move on. You've talked, you know, quite a bit in various interviews about your father, Jerry Manuel, and his professional run as a pro ball player, as well as being a manager and a coach. Um, I'm curious about your mother. How has her sort of personal

and professional journey informed your ambition. Oh man, that's a great question. In the times that we're in, my mom, you know, a black woman, right? Like, we're in the middle of a black woman being considered to be the next president of the United States. You know, there was a time when the black woman was at the lowest of the totem pole, however, was responsible for taking care of slave masters when they're sick or taking care of slave master's kids when they were sick. Or to me, they've been the backbone of this country. And to speak to my mom, she's been the backbone of my family. She's been the foundation of our family. It was my mom that went to church, and it was her example that my dad then followed because my dad didn't start managing in the big leagues until I was like a freshman at Florida A&M playing baseball. Like, my most of my life through high school, I would, you know, working. We were a kind of a struggling minor league.

family right there was something cool about my dad. He was in baseball, but you know, didn't really have enough to get a Nintendo or you know, buy the latest things. And um, so a lot of growing up was like doing the best with what we had. And so, it's always been my mom at the foundation. It's always been her that um, has given my dad the right and ability and permission to follow his Big League Dreams um. And so, having both the example of my dad and understanding that these aspirations can't really go anywhere without Foundation that my mom um, provided the family with. I've been able to kind of lean on both of those examples and understanding what's really needed for a fear of God to yeah, have sustainability growing up. You know, I've I've heard interviews where you've talked about moving between black spaces and white spaces and growing up largely in the suburbs and then going to church in black churches and then obviously going to an HBCU for college. Can you tell me a

little bit about that experience and how you think that that sort of shaped your worldview. Yeah, I mean, I think we all have a unique view of the world, and for us, like moving to Florida, you know, living in the outskirts of West Palm Beach, Florida, you know, going to a predominantly all-white school, you know, driving 30-45 minutes out to like Riviera Beach to make sure my mom had us around, you know, in a black church, in a black community. Um, I was around, and I loved all things. I loved Nirvana just as much as I loved Metham Man at the time, you know what I mean? I was just exposed to more, you know, going to HBCU. I think the biggest thing from that experience is like, what is this emotion, right? It's like, it's a different emotion when you know the band hits, you know, halftime, and the stadium's rocking this way. It's like, how do you communicate that feeling through product, through a story we're telling, you know, I

think that's the biggest thing I took from an HBCU was just like, does this, is this going to make us move as a people? But again, I feel like everyone has that unique perspective. I think maybe, maybe one of my gifts is being able to bring all those different worlds together to like say like one thing that feels cohesive, even though it's informed by so many different [Music] things. I think my advantage is just like everyone else's advantage, and that Advantage is I'm uniquely who I am, and no one can say what I want to say better than me, but that goes for everyone else on Earth. And I feel like what we do with Fear of God comes from such a unique and honest place that really my calling is only to say and do what only I can uniquely do. You play ball in high school, and then in college, you switch to baseball. When you look at how you were as a player, what do you think your greatest strength was? Uh, my greatest strength was that I

wasn't the best, but I could compete with anything that I had to do. So, if I had to play third, I could play third. I could play second. I could play center. Similar to my dad, I was a utility guy. Wasn't the best at any one thing, but I could do a lot of things well. I was probably a better teammate than I was like the MVP player. I was, you know, the guy that's pulling the guys together and, hey, you know, still leading even though I wasn't the best player on the team. I think that was probably my greatest trait, you know, in sports, was I knew how to lead from the back, you know. I didn't have to lead like on the field, and I think I learned that also from my dad. How has that transition been from, you know, playing that position to now being the leader of this company for, you know, over a decade? Again, I think all things, all things at that time, I never thought that I would be in this position, you know, again when my dad was managing.

In the big leagues, I just didn't. I was like, Oh my God, what am I going to go get my master's and try and get a front office gig at the baseball team? 'Cause I can't. Like, what dreams am I going to chase that could ever amount to like what he's doing? And I think for me, it was more when I started to really realize that my giftings were different than what my dad's were. You know, I realized that just the working retail, you know, it just clicked. Even when I had my first front office job with the Dodgers, I was still working retail part-time, but I was so much better at understanding what someone needed when they walked in the store, what they wanted, how they wanted to feel. Like, I had a knack for that, you know? I had a knack for what was the best piece in the store that we had that I could offer. Um, and I just knew this clothing thing better than I realized I did. Fast forward, you know, throwing parties in LA and being friends with, you know, Nick.

diamond and the hundreds, kids and cooks, and castles, and mega black scale, and like cats that worked at Supreme, and all these kids on Fairfax that had their own brands. It just felt like something I naturally, if I went downtown and figured out how to make a t-shirt, that I could do. And so, that's just how it started. You mentioned throwing these parties, and these are the infamous JL parties. You know about these parties? JL Knights. JL Knights, exactly, yes. They are definitely well known, you know, and the networking that was involved in there. I've noticed a trend, whether it's yourself, Virgil, Train, even the Who Decides War guys, EV Bra, all started in nightlife in one way or another, throwing parties. What is it about that scene and that energy that you think has created this nightlife to fashion pipeline? I think it's NTI to like anything you do in life, really. You're working directly with people that are influencing culture at all times, but at the same time, you're also serving

you're also providing a product. You're providing a party that you want people to attend because they want to have a good time, not because you're like calling them, you know. It's like, I want to make a sneaker. I want to make a Blazer or a leather coat that you just want to wear. I don't want to make it and then call you all the time and say, 'Yo, come get this jacket. I'm telling you it's cool. I'm telling you it's cool.' It's like, 'No, just make the dopest party.' So, sort of foundational storytelling, yeah. It's just like, 'Just make the best party.' You know, it's not about, 'Let me paint this pretty picture of what the party might be,' and you're caught up in painting the picture instead of like really doing the work to build the party. And I think a lot of times people see the outside of maybe what can get someone interested in what they're doing, and that outside becomes a reality, and then you get inside and it's

empty. I think the way that I connect with my community is just to be honest, is to be myself. I think as soon as I feel myself trying to get strategic or stepping outside of something I would do authentically, um, it feels forced, it feels fake, and I feel like I'm playing a game that is not a game that I'm good at. Outside of honesty and authenticity, it becomes strategic and it becomes something that's not natural for me. So, it's a lot easier for me to just approach things from an honest place. You mentioned that, you know, all of these luminaries from the streetwear world were coming to these parties, and that sort of inspired you. You've talked also about how a lot of your design is informed by your own wants and needs and filling the white space that you personally, uh, see in the marketplace. What were the first items that you absolutely felt I need this to exist in the world, and that inspired, you know, that first line, a t-shirt. I just could not find, like, a t-shirt.

that fit with the swag that I wanted to be myself in, you know, and I just felt like if it was a long tee, it was Rick, and the fabric was feminine, and it was skinny, and you know, I looked a little gothy. If it was, you know, AAA or something, I'm, you know, looking like Nelly, right? So, like, what is this long t-shirt that feels vintage, that drapes in a way that's a little bit longer, you know, the sleeves fit a certain way. I just felt like I couldn't find it, and so I just felt like, Oh, I have, I got to make this. You invested $4,000 of your own money from your savings account to get that first collection made. Obviously, things worked out, and I'm sure that you've made that money back many times over, but in your head when you did that, when you made that investment, did you have sort of a cap at what you were willing, like how far out onto the ledge you were willing to step?

financially, man, it's funny 'cause we're at a place now where our numbers are similar to last year, but I'm closer to that ledge because I'm investing more and more. There's something also about being in these uncomfortable waters, as scary as it may seem, that I find more peace. And so, to answer your question, it's like I'm just used, whether it's 14,000 or a couple hundred million dollars, I'm used to like Nipsey Hussle, all money in. That's just kind of what, you know what I mean? Because there's not like an end goal for me where it's like, Oh, I'm trying to get to this number. No, I'm just trying to sustain this thing that I believe God has given me to somehow be an example and inspire, hopefully not the next designer, but like the next engineer, the next doctor, the next lawyer. How far into the process of making that first collection did the brand of Fear of God come into focus for you? Again, I wanted

this t-shirt. I didn't really wasn't thinking of a brand. I was like, oh, I kind of want my hoodie to feel like this. Oh, I kind of want this like flannel to feel like this. But it's got to be a little hood. It can't be too curt. It's got to have some some RI gold zippers or whatever it may be. You know what I mean? It's like all of a sudden, you know, I look up and I've got a bunch of pieces that to me start to represent what a brand could be. And um, as the pieces started to inform me, then I was like, okay, like what's this like? I talked about my mom, this foundation. What is this brand going to sit on? Because I'm not about to make clothes just to make somebody be cool. Like that's the corniest thing in the world, right? Like what is the real message that I can like build this on top of so that I can always feel as if I'm giving to somebody.

Beyond a solution to their wardrobe, and that's just kind of how fear of God came to be with a clear understanding of his brand and its purpose. Lorenzo received an early crash course in design and celebrity from Kanye West. Lorenzo's vision would propel his company to unprecedented heights, but success would not make him immune to the perils of fame and [Music] fortune. You were talking about arriving on sort of the deeper meaning of fear of God and how that became sort of a North Star for the brand, for the collection, and everything. What was that meaning? What is the sort of mission statement? I mean, fear of God is at the essence of who I am, you know. It's a reverence, it's not really a fear, it's a reverence for something, someone greater than yourself. And I think, again, it was like, Hey, here's this thing that's foundational to what I base my life on. I can always feed this clothing company this message because at the end of the

day. This is the essence of who I am. At the same time, having conviction that the well from which these ideas came from, these first few or five pieces, I felt was just barely scratched. I also look at those collections and like, Oh my God, I was like learning in front of the world, you know? Like, my first collection are literally the first pieces I ever designed, and clearly, you know, even though they may have been sort of your demos, those that first collection had a certain resonance. And famously, you know, you gifted it to Virgil, who then put it in front of Kanye, and you were summoned to Atlantic City. Yeah, enter the whirlwind that is Kanye West. Yeah, um, obviously, you were in a very formative stage of your own sort of development of your creative process, and he was at a moment where he is operating at sort of peak powers. How did that experience sort of change how you thought about creation? Man, I learned. I learned a lot. I learned a lot. Um, extremely thankful for that.

time. I mean, I had just started, you know, when I went and met with yay that night. All I had was my samples and like a campaign that we shot with those samples. And then he asked me, Hey, can you be in Paris in a week or two? He's like, I'm working on this APC collab. I was like, Sure. So, that whole time, I worked together with trying to figure out how I run my business that I started that attracted him to me coming on board to how am I serving what he's building. How do I separate the two? And it was like the first collection with APC where he didn't feel any, any, any, um, any, uh, let's say, uh, these lines are getting blurred. It was me. I was like, Oh my God, this is very similar to what I just showed you, kind of with Fear of God. Like, you know, then I'm talking to my boy Ian and I'm just like, Yo, like, what do I do? Should I say something? And he was

just like, Hey bro, like this is why you're here, like do you want this experience or not, right? And it just kept it really real with me, and I was just like, All right, like I understand. And so from then, it was like, Okay, I got to serve what he's trying to do, because there's no doubt that that school, the school of Kanye West, is probably the best school that I could have ever gone to in trying to learn how to do this on my own. You know, being exposed to so many different parts of not only the clothing business but everything else, obviously, that he was attached to, being able to give ideas to that and watch those ideas blossom. And, you know, it was, you know, three and a half years of doing everything from not doing but being a part of everything from APC to the merch to Yeezy seasons 1 through 3 to day-to-day, you know, was he wearing to a fashion show and just being in those rooms and every other creative conversation that we had that I'm super

grateful for, but like everything, um, you know, ran its course. What happened that sort of set you guys on separate paths? Um, if I look back now, I mean, it was just destined to be that way. You know, God gave me a vision to start fear of God. He didn't give me a vision to build someone else's Empire. Um, God gave him a vision to build his own Empire, right? And at some point, like, you know, we have to follow that direction other than trying to find a Synergy for both to work within, um, Within These Realms. And so, I think quite simply, that's kind of how it ended. And I think he, as you can see, like his point of view is so different than what we were doing in that era, and mine is very similar because the thing that I'm chasing hasn't changed. And you can see that through the Aesthetics. There's an evolution of the aesthetic. It's not like a change of the Aesthetics. And I think Kanye is creative.

in a way where he changes the aesthetics. You hear 808, and then you hear Yeesus, right? And it's like there's a harsh change in how he redirects, and that's just how he is creatively. And some of those changes, I just didn't really fit. I've seen recent interviews where, you know, people are speaking a little bit more vocally about those times, but they also don't understand the weight and pressure that someone like that is under when you have that much influence. So, I have a lot of grace and understanding because what little influence that I have has created problems for me in my personal life when you start to think that you're responsible for things when it's really given to you from God. And so, you know, I'm really careful with judging someone that's given that much influence and that much gifting. That's a heavy weight that very few people really understand. And so, I'm not one to judge.

how that manifests to human [Music] reaction. I think all of my mistakes, big or small, inform me to constantly make sure I'm in a place where I'm in the will of what God has for me to do. And I can feel when I'm outside of that. I can feel when it's too much Jerry Lorenzo, not enough of like the calling on my life. And I think that's when my, when I make a lot of the biggest mistakes, when I think it's all me or it's all like relying on my shoulders. When you did step out on your own, was that a, an anxious or, or you know, were you filled with trepidation? I think in the beginning I was, uh, I almost feel like I kind of had lost kind of myself within those three and a half years and was further and further away from what I felt like God really had directed and set me out to do. And so I was really just kind of chasing, okay God, I just want to be in your plan.

and purpose like I never wanted to be in the cool kid club, to be in that world with, you know, these super cool influential guys. It's like I didn't really feel like I fit, and I feel like that kind of lost my way in who I was. And so, right after that, I was just trying to get back to, okay, like, I'm gonna get back to Jerry. What has Jerry founded on? Jerry's founded on God, purpose, intention. And then months later, I get reached out to by Justin Bieber, and me and my kids are like rocking this album. Do I like his swag? Oh, it's all right. Do I feel like I can help? Yeah. And I believe what he's trying to say with purpose and how he's trying to change his life and like, let's go. I'm down. Like, I'm down to help you. And I felt like had I still been in that cool kid mentality, I'd be like, oh no, I'm too cool. It's too popular or whatever it may be to answer.

your question like there's always been these moments in my life where I doubt myself, and I'm no longer working with the coolest group in the world, but God has always shown me that, Hey, I got you. Soon as you get back on track, Hey, I got you. And that's the one thing that I just hold on to, you know, whether it's personal problems that I'm dealing with, you know, stopping drinking again, or like soon as I get back in kind of the pocket with him, I feel covered, I feel at peace. And so that's why I chase that feeling more than I do anything else. You mentioned the stopping drinking again. Now, obviously, you went sober. It was like, actually, actually, it was right after I started working with Yay. It was like eight years ago, coming off throwing parties, and then on tour, on P's tour, partying like I'm the one on stage, backstage. Like, I just was a mess, you know what I mean? And like, I was like, I

got to get back to like Jerry, and then you go through this um rise of building a brand, and you start to get recognition, and you start to become influential in your own space, and then you start to think that it's you instead of this relationship, the spiritual relationship that's been directing you, and you start to carry the weight of everything you're building with weight. With pressure comes the need to medicate, the need to like how do I forget that I've got all these financial issues with the company to deal with. I have HR issues, I have to let go of this person. How does their family going to feel and designing and creating and the responsibility of being in the nuance of that side of it um it can get very heavy, and as it got heavy I just okay let me how do I medicate, how can I sleep, how can I turn this thing off, and it just was a place that in that I never found peace. I might have found like a night's sleep but the next day

like the demons and the responsibility are like just as heavy, right? And crazily enough, like what's been built is even more fragile and larger, right? So any type of decision, all of this comes crumbling and so fast forward to the beginning of this year. I was just like, all right, God, like I got to get back to Jerry. I got to get back to me and you because this Jerry Lorenzo dude, like I'm cool on him, like never wanted to be that dude anyway. I don't even want to be that character. I just want to be in line with you and be where you want me to be, and I can trust that. And so, you know, now I'm on my second stint of like putting that down, and I just feel like drinking, you become loved by the party. You become loved by everyone that really doesn't matter, but drinking kind of hurts the people that you love the most, and it hurts the people that you really care for you the most. And again, that's why it's like I would

never point a finger at Kanye like no one knows that weight. No one knows. I don't. I don't know. That man was built to have that type of influence and fame and notoriety. Like the weight of that is just insane. If you don't, you know, give it to the one that gave you the gift. So this is my, you know, back off of it since January. I feel congratulations like Jerry again after returning to a more grounded approach. Lorenzo navigated the mixed response to a high-profile collaboration with Adidas while continuing to push fear of God outside its comfort zone, branching into new markets. Lorenzo and his brand continue to be driven by a singular sense of [Music] purpose. You've scaled the team and the business from, you know, being basically yourself and then a small staff to now 70, 80 people. Um, um, what has been the part that you felt the most challenged in learning and overcoming? I've just always had the vision of where we're going. I've been driven by that t-shirt. What it cost.

me to make that t-shirt I didn't care about, and unfortunately, I'm still driven by this vision and in getting to what I think is a Finish Line. There's a lot of things that I do that are not efficient, are not managed properly, and we have now been products of some of those bad business decisions, right? And so now having a CEO that can help design the play and how we get to the vision, I'm finding peace again and being able to continue to dream a little bit more freely without also being bogged down on what our organizational chart looks like and who reports to who and who's responsible for what. You know, you mentioned the weight, and you know, in watching, listening to many of your interviews in the past, you talk about HR issues a lot, just in passing, but do I maybe, I just, I just care about my, I care about people, man. Like, I care that people have bought into this thing that started off as a dream. I care that someone wants to come here and like help

me build this, you know, and so when things aren't working, I really care. I really carry that with me, you know. Those are hard decisions for me to make, and I just had to get to a place where, hey, is this person taking you further away from where God is calling you to take this? And is your responsibility this person and their family, or is your responsibility to, like, answer this call? And that's been, like, one of the toughest things as a brand owner, you know, because I don't have investors. It is me at the end of the day. It's like, Jerry, let me go, you know? And that, you know how that person feels like. I care. I feel like I failed a lot, you know, and I think that's what drives me to consistently want to achieve, consistently want to be better, you know. I feel like I could be a better husband. I could be a better father. I could be a better brother, a better friend. I see myself failing the word fail more in

important areas of my life, not so much in the business. Those are more like learnings, you know. It's like, okay, I've learned that. Now I've gained the wisdom to attack that or approach that in a different way. With relationships or those deeper responsibilities, that's when you really feel the weight of whether did you show up the right way or not. I think it's incredibly impressive that you've essentially self-funded this thing. So, you've never taken on money or investment from outside. When we entered a relationship with Essentials, the relationship was a license. Paxon wasn't doing well at the time. We were only in Paxon before we took it and distributed ourselves. I said, If you want to continue this relationship, like this is mine, and I'll give you a percentage, but no longer am I going to be the one taking a small percentage on all of my ideas. And that switch was, I would say, extremely baby investment in order to help us kind of make that switch, but 99% of this is ours. And I don't say that

with pride because that doesn't mean it's the only way or the best way to do things. It also comes with a lot of weight, you know. I watched all of my peers with partners. I watched Off-White become Off-White when he went and partnered up, you know, with those partners. And, you know, I watched all of these brands take off. But something about that partnership, if it's not really, really right, I just don't have the capacity to answer to someone else's, like, because they invested, they have a point of view on where I'm taking this. And I know that where I'm taking this is always going to be an unorthodox new way that I have to go back and sell you on. I don't have the capacity to do that and run a company and design next season and the seasons after that. And so, in some way, shape, or form, it's easier for me to just carry the weight of that. But at the same time, the weight of that is, like, it's heavy. Well, some decisions are bigger than

others, and one of the ones that stands out to me was, you know, you launched the fog line with Pon to a lot of success and acclaim, and fairly quickly pivoted and rebranded it as Essentials. Some people would say, you know, what is it, a name, right? Because the clothes are the clothes, but clearly for you, that rebranding was essential, no pun intended, for you to sort of bring that idea to its logical conclusion. What was it about fog as a name that just didn't sit right with you? Number one, I hate the way I hate the word fog. It just doesn't sound cool. And then two, it just feels like a watered-down version of a real thing, where Essentials felt like something necessary. It felt like something foundational, something you needed, something that you could grab and put that against something luxury and aspiration. They work together, not that you were wearing something luxury and something that was a watered-down version of that. And so, Essentials needed to be accessible aspiration. It couldn't just be aspiration at a low price.

and it not really be aspirational because it's trying to be something else like H&M and Zara, and for me, it needed to be true to what its intended purpose was. Couldn't just be a business play, so the call on what we do is, is this product what it was intended to be? Does it do exactly what we designed it to do? That's how it's considered good. Forget if it's cool, forget if it's hot. Is it good? And that's what we're trying to do. We're just trying to make good, honest product, and I feel like, you know, the first sneaker was positioned as basketball, but it's heavy. This is for the Adidas sneaker, yeah, so it's just like some dishonesty there. To me, it's the most beautiful shoe, but does it do what it's intended to do? It's not, you know, finally, we're at a place with this too where I feel like, okay, we got a basketball sneaker, and you can for real hoop in it, and it's going to do

what it's intended to do, and that'll be the judge of where Athletics goes and what is next for athletics. We finally delivered on this promise of what this is going to be. This is our latest ready-to-wear Mainline collection that's up here, and then a little peek at our first performance basketball shoe that's on the way. I know shape is something that is very important to you when it comes to Footwear. Can you tell me a little bit about sort of both the psychology and then also the engineering to achieve this? I think that's where I have to credit the Adidas team into taking my shape and putting it into a performance shape that allows for the athlete to do what he needs to do. I think for my seat, shape is so important just because if you want this shoe to transcend the court, you know it's got to work beyond just with your uniform. What is it like design-wise about most basketball sneakers that you think makes that prohibitive? The toe, the toe box, you

know you could look at like all the Retro Jordans, right? You look at like the first Jordan three, and it's like sh. The other ones are like, you know, they're wider. I kind of lift up a little bit. Obviously, that's need for you to be able to run, but you know, that's just a difference from, I think, when I wore those in High School junior high today, where it's just kind of like something wrong with that toe that I just can't unsee. So, you spent a considerable amount of time and energy working with the Adidas team, I would imagine, to figure out how to state your aesthetic concerns, but also their sort of performance requirements. Th% and it's like, I don't in this to me. I don't feel like we compromise one or the other, right? I feel like we were honest in both the shape and also the performance of the shoe, and that was the goal, right? Where maybe the first shoe shape was probably dead on, but the weight, you know, performance wasn't all the way there, so

this I feel like we landed where we always wanted to land. A very long time ago, you mentioned this, you know, sort of evolved thinking around the Adidas collaboration. Obviously, when you signed that deal, it was a huge news story, and there was quite a bit of fanfare around the show you did at the Hollywood Bowl. Here, you now have some distance from that rollout and how it was received. How do you feel about it, and how does it inform the decisions that you're making moving forward? Again, everything informed everything. You know, I think we were just really put in a very tough spot. I signed a contract, and there was an announcement made two days later. We hadn't even found a way of working together. We hadn't even found a rhythm. You know, there were some bullets of here's how we'll creative direct, and here's how we'll build Athletics, and here's how we'll meet in between and create a Halo to inform the category, but we still need to figure out really what does that look like, right?

and it took years to figure that out. You know, when we released the Nike shoe, that was two and a half years of work done. When we announced that shoe, came out two weeks later, they had done the hard work. So you have all this anticipation, and then you have something that doesn't do what we promised it was going to do. And so that reception was, you know, somewhat like, you know, expected in a way, even though I love the shoe, even though I think it's the most beautiful shoe on the market. Just selfishly or narcissistically, if it's not doing what we promised it to do, then how can we expect anything else? Because I'm not an entertainer. I don't have a new song coming out. I don't, I don't, I'm not going to go host a party. I don't have a TV show. I'm not an influencer in that way. My, my, I make product, and my following is expecting me to make what I tell them I'm going to make. There's nothing else other than

that allows fear of God to be here. So, if this relationship isn't operated in this way where deliver on this at a baseline, then it's not going to be what you're expecting it to be, unfortunately. And so, that's probably something that I feel like Adidas may not really have understood. Speaking to that, I read somewhere recently you were talking about the partnership with Adidas, and you sort of floated a certain level of uncertainty about the future of the partnership in the quote that I thought was interesting because you don't usually hear people be that transparent about sort of where these things that go on behind closed doors are. Where are you with that partnership now? I mean, we're locked in until '25. We have product that's coming out through '25. I'm focused on the relationship and the agreement that I signed, and I'm delivering on that. What happens after that, of course, it's uncertain because our agreement only is only up to a certain part, and as a business owner, I'm

fully responsible for fear of God. I'm fully responsible for Essentials, and I think in the first probably two years of our relationship, like I probably gave that way more than I gave the things that we have because I knew it had so much riding on it. This is not a jump from Nike to Adidas for a better deal. No, I believe this is written. I believe this is a third pillar in our business. I believe, you know, three stripes mean something more than three stripes to me. It's the Trinity. I believe there's something deeper here, and I went about it in that way with a lot of things that I did not have control over other than how much I gave to it. Um, but I think fundamentally how companies operate fundamentally, fundamentally fear God never was on season. We deliver collections when they're ready because I can't afford for it not to be ready. We, you know, like fundamentally, we're just, we operate differently. Fundamentally, Adidas has a board of investors, a board of uh.

directors that they have to answer to different things. Their deadlines are different. There are different things there that sometimes battle with how we just approach the product. And so, we've had to find this consistent rhythm for the past three and a half, four years of how we can work together. But it's not like, Oh, bad blood. It's just like, Just grow, man. Talk. Hey, this is my business. I'm responsible for this. You know, I'm not talking to anyone there that's responsible for that. Those are their jobs, but it's not their babies. You know what I mean? This is my... I'm given this my life, so I'm coming to this at a whole different way. Whether you're the CEO or whoever at any company, you're not coming from the same seat that I'm coming from. That's where I like have empathy for someone like a Kanye K. Like, I'm giving you me. Who am I talking here to that has this much on the line that I do? No.

one. Oh man, um, success is peace. Success is like being at home without like worry, concern. I think what we're all chasing is peace more than anything. I think you, once you start to define success based off anything external, then that external circumstance or that external reward becomes a false measure, and you chase that instead of inner peace. And I think inner peace is really what we're all striving for. You said that you would never sell the business, which, you know, for many entrepreneurs, is the goal, right? Is to build something and then hand it off to somebody else for a nice bag. Um, given that this is sort of an endless marathon that you are now running, like, how do you keep yourself focused? You asked me that question today. It's like a different hat because it's like I actually may need some assistance if I want to keep this thing going. I actually can't do this all on my own, depending on where I feel like I want to go with it, right? At some point, that, you know, your internal team needs to get

better your external resources. How those resources come in and invest for it to be what you want it to be. And there's everything is constantly being evaluated on, Hey, in order for us to go here, maybe able to get there quicker this way. Doesn't change where we want to go, but I think the methods, whether it's investment, whether it's growing your team, or whatever it may be, those things may change where we're trying to go. Where I'm trying to take this thing hasn't, but I have to be honest and open to, Okay, what's the best way we're getting there? What is that goal? Where is it that you want to go? I mean, we have a piece of the brand called Eternal. I just want this thing Rolex Perpetual, just want this thing to keep going. You know, Ralph Lauren, like I want this thing to be beyond Jerry, get fit off, and it be about myself. It needs to get beyond that. That's the goal. That's the goal for this thing to just, again, be sustainable for this thing to continue.

for it to always be in a position where it has the right to dream big. If we want to say, Hey, we want it to be that we've done the work that allows us to dream there. I never want to be in this thing where I feel like we're at a position where we don't even have the ability to dream. And I think that's what I'm kind of fighting for, this place where I can always dream of what this can be. As long as I'm there, then I'm good. [Music] Oh. [Music]

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