Q+A With Our Founder, Samuel Krost
The Creative Process of Our Fourth Collaboration with FILA
How did you get started in fashion and when did you know you wanted to create your own label?
I attended NYU and my degree required me to have internship/work experience. I remember having to write a 2-page paper to the dean of the business school explaining why I wanted to work within the fashion space while I was pursuing a business degree. My paper was persuasive enough and I had my first experience in the industry at Onia, a contemporary swim & lifestyle brand.
I built a great relationship with both founders of the brand and they were kind enough to give me an opportunity to learn the scope of the business. I didn’t have one specific skill or expertise – my goal was to learn and closely master each department from design, production, logistics, operations etc.
I worked in the industry for 6 years before I felt ready to launch my own brand.
Was KROST always envisioned as a mission-driven brand?
Yes. Since day one, KROST has been a mission-driven and philanthropic brand. I grew up in a community that has always given their time to help others. It’s my parents who have taught me that life about what you can do for others. When conceptualizing the story behind KROST, I knew there was no reason you can’t design, create & build something great while also simultaneously giving back and doing good for the world too.
Proceeds from the collection will be donated to the non-profit organization Good Sports. Can you speak to how this non-profit was chosen for this collection?
Majority of social causes KROST supports and the nonprofit partnerships we form are about providing equitable access and opportunity to our community and beyond. Collaborating with a sportwear giant such as FILA, while personally having a deep connection to sport – we identified Good Sports as an incredible organization to help support.
Good Sports, whose mission is to drive equitable access in youth sports and physical activity, by supporting children in high-need communities has grown into a national organization that has donated $88 million worth of equipment to 6,100 programs reaching more than 9 million children in need across all 50 states.
How did you come up with the brand token, “Support Your Friends" and what does it mean to KROST?
The brand story was conceptualized after a mass shooting took place in Parkland, Florida. It was the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school who inspired me to create the slogan. Amidst this terrible tragedy, they were strong enough to create an organization called March for Our Lives – the leading organization in the country in the call for gun reform.
I knew I wouldn’t have the opportunity to meet all of these students, but I was still determined to support them because we stood for the same thing and shared the same beliefs.
What Support Your Friends means to us as a brand is just that: people who believe in the same things, share the same beliefs and ideals and want to see the same change. For us, this is enough to call you a friend.
Who or what inspires you to stay creative?
Every collection we create is meant to increase awareness surrounding different societal issues. We try and do so through the designs we create and the nonprofit partnerships we form. Understanding these issues is our main source of inspiration and what we can do to make a difference is what keeps us motivated and creative.
Before each season the team will come together to agree on the issue that we will work to support, which is the leading inspiration behind a collection’s design - then determine the nonprofit organization that we can partner with to support financially through the collection’s proceeds.
What’s next for KROST and where can our community learn more about your efforts?
We’re so fortunate to be coming up on our 4-year anniversary as a brand. It’s beautiful to see the impact our team has already had in such a short amount of time, but we want to continue doing more for our community. As we look to grow the team and our product offerings, we hope our impact will grow alongside it.
Next year we’re excited to see the brand grow it’s presence with such incredible retail partners such as Urban Outfitters, who have supported our team and brand’s story since our initial launch together in Spring 2022.
Check out our Impact Page on Krostnewyork.com to see the incredible work our team has been able to accomplish with our nonprofit partners.