By Janice Jann Photographs by Eric Sueyoshi
If anyone knows what it’s like to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, it’s Una Kim.
After graduating from Princeton University, she found herself clad in stiff heels, working in marketing, branding and trend forecasting in New York City, a world she didn’t belong in.
So she kicked off her pumps and did some sole-searching.
Now she has a career that’s much more her style. Kim is the founder and CEO of Keep, a Los Angeles-based lifestyle company that originated as a women’s skateboarding shoe line and expanded to include men and children’s garments and accessories. The project launched in 2006 out of her frustration with the fact that whenever she wanted to buy cute skateboarding shoes, she had to look in the men’s aisles. Today, Keep is not just a fashion company, but as the website explains, it’s “an amalgam of interests, a way of being, a force, a language, a family and many other things.” All products are cruelty-free (Kim monitors conditions in her factories) and 99 percent vegan.
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Lounging about her trendy West Hollywood boutique in a breezy purple sundress and matching Keep sneakers, Kim looks more like a college co-ed than the owner of a burgeoning shoes and apparel company. It’s clear she’s a woman who steps to her own beat. “I went to Princeton, I went to Stanford,” Kim explains. “I’m like the Korean American immigrant wet dream. I could do anything I wanted and make a ton of money, but I’m really not interested in just making money.”
Growing up in the multifaceted Baltimore with parents who always encouraged and supported her, Kim felt like she had “really rad formative years.” “My mom let me shave my head,” she recalls with a chuckle. “Nowadays, that’s very common, but in the early ‘90’s?” As long as Kim was able to get into Princeton, she was allowed to play in punk-rock bands and skateboard to her heart’s content.
Post-college, feeling uninspired in her New York marketing job, Kim decided to enroll in business school at Stanford University. After earning her MBA, she launched Keep.
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“When I first started this business, I was so excited,” she recalls. “I’d be up late in the night planning with all these elaborate decision trees. I’d work all these scenarios out and try to be really prepared, but every week, we’d have a disaster. It was a wake-up call that the world doesn’t exactly do things your way and on your time.”
What Kim can control are her company’s philosophies. Feminist ideals peep through the tongues of the sneakers (priced between $30 and $100), which come in silhouettes such as hi-tops, loafers and skinny slip-ons, and in vibrant prints like argyle, herringbone and plaid. All sizing is in women’s. If men want a pair, they’ll have to do their own math. “I don’t understand why people would trip about that,” Kim muses. “[Converting to guy sizes] is something I’ve had to do my entire life.” The styles are universal, she explains. “There are the hardest thugs in New York who will track down and wear our shoes or 65-year old Korean ajumas who like them ‘cause ‘it’s soft and light.’” Adding to Keep’s list of fans are celebrities such as Jonah Hill, Vanessa Hudgens and Ellen DeGeneres. The company has been featured in Glamour, Lucky, Teen Vogue, Elle, Nylon and Bust magazines.
Most improtantly, Kim wants her company to promote a higher qualtiy of life, whether it be through encouraging people to find daily inspiration (“It’s everywhere. Go to the library. Walk around the city. Take a look around you.”) to raising awareness on cruelty-free and vegetarian products (“I just want to make sure we made our footwear the most conscious way that we could with the resources that we had.”).
For Kim, it’s all about the fit, in business and beyond.
“I just think having balance in your life, making decisions about what you do and being aware of the world is awesome,” she says. “You owe it to yourself, not to anyone else.”
