Keep Company / Grey Suede
April 18th, 2012
Keep / Take Us With You
January 2nd, 2012
Keep / Una Kim
October 24th, 2011
Highsnobiety recently did a ego boost interview with Una Kim of Keep. Check out what she had to say!
The best part about my job… is working with people I love and respect every day. There is very little bullshit working at Keep. There’s no ego. There is just the work, the creativity and the community.
Running an independent business… can be incredibly draining and humbling, but it’s a beautiful thing, especially when you get to interact with people you care about all day long.
When I feel like going shopping… I figure out exactly what I want and then sit on it for a day so I can be certain it’s not just an impulse. I mostly buy books and cooking or food related items.
The most important thing about my product… is that it’s made by real people. We make things that we want to wear and that speak to us and hopefully to others.
My opinion of American politics… is that we are not adequately served by a two party system. I think it dilutes values, by default shifts things to the right, and encourages a continuing cycle of ineffectiveness that compromises away most things of true worth.
The cutest animal ever… is obviously one of my cats.
When I hear people say Keep is a women’s shoe company… I think, wow, you’re behind, and then I promptly forget about them. Keep began as a women’s footwear company but have been fully unisex for several years. We’ve always been bro-friendly.
Cruelty free products… are a no-brainer, even if you hate animals.
When dining out in LA… I make sure the company is good. Food is only as good as the love with which you eat it.
Design inspiration usually comes… from every day life. Inspiration comes to you, you don’t go to it. Be open, be respectful and be honest with yourself. It will come.
Interview: Highsnobiety | Cullen Poythress
Keep / Mayer Hawthorne
October 5th, 2011
Keep / Kids Ramos
October 4th, 2011
Keep / Giveaway
July 7th, 2011Shoes are the ultimate accessory in my book — this is probably why I continue to amass a collection of them (rarely letting any go). So it was with no surprise that I started looking at children’s shoes before my son was even out of the womb. While in the olden days (1970′s and 80′s) children’s shoes came in one color (white) and looked down right therapeutic, today we are lucky to have an abundant choice when it comes to adorning the tiny toes in our homes. And, even luckier still, Keep Company entered the market to make sure those toes are truly stylin’.
Keep is a shoe company that lives by their tagline, “We aim to keep things personal.” They do this by working with the people they love, respecting the work they do and paying attention to the details. In this vein of living by their work, Keep also remains cruelty free in all of their products — never a bad thing.
Knowing I can stand behind the company is great, but the shoes themselves are what make Keep awesome. The moment they arrived in their sturdy cardboard box I knew I would love the shoes. The construction of the shoes is top notch. Every detail is paid attention so that each shoe is well crafted out of quality materials — the kind of shoe you want to put on your child’s foot, the kind of shoe that lasts.
And remember, I think shoes function as amazing accessories. These Keep “accessories” do not disappoint. I had a difficult time deciding which style to choose for my son. Hipster, skater, preppy, urban, classic — you name a style and Keep has a shoe to fit. The Benten, the style I ultimately chose, is the perfect mix of preppy classic and modern hipster. It’s the ultimate boat shoe with perfect little details like lacing along the side and a whipstitch along the toe. And the pattern, Starry Night, is a very cool Japanese print — every print they offer is this cool.
My son loves wearing them (and can even help get them on and off with the easy Velcro closure). And I love looking at them on his feet. In the new atmosphere of plentiful children’s shoe choices Keep shines like a star.
A SIMPLE GIVEAWAY!
One SIMPLE reader will win a pair of KEEP kids’ shoes from the Benten, Ramos or Guerra collections. Make sure you let us know about each entry in a separate comment below. Here is how to enter:
- Check out KEEP and come back here telling me which product you think will be great for your child! (Required)
- “Like” KEEP on Facebook
- Follow KEEP Company on Twitter
- Facebook :: Daily – Leave a link :: Post a status on your facebook hyper linking SIMPLE and KEEP and this giveaway
- Twitter :: Daily – Leave a link :: Stylin’ kids kicks #win from @keepcompany at @simplereviews! http://tinyurl.com/3ve8kpc #contest #giveaway RT
- “Like” this review on Facebook below
- Sign up for our daily emails
- Publicly follow SIMPLE via Google Friend Connect
Winner will be randomly chosen on July 20, 2011. Please reference Giveaway Rules at the top of the page before entering. Good luck!
via: www.simple-momreviews.com
Keep / Khaki Workwear
June 28th, 2011
Keep / Mayer Hawthorne
June 24th, 2011
Mayer Hawthorne and his band the County also recently finished a tour with Janelle Monae and Bruno Mars on the Hooligans in Wonderland tour. Peep him rocking his Bentens while his band sports our Navy Boynes.
Keep / Una Kim
June 20th, 2011
NAME: Una Kim
OCCUPATION: CEO, Keep Company
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
WHAT’S YOUR HUSTLE: I run Keep. We make cruelty-free shoes and various other things.
WHAT DOES YOUR HUSTLE MEAN TO YOU: You can live the dream.
IF YOU COULD HAVE ONLY THREE TOOLS FOR YOUR HUSTLE, WHAT WOULD THEY BE: Computer, even though I hate computing. Cell phone, even though I hate talking on the phone. Either my record collection or my library, to keep me sane and to inspire me. If that’s cheating you can say Adobe Creative Suite, even though I really hate Creative Suiting.
A WORD OF ADVICE TO WANNABE HUSTLERS IN YOUR FIELD:
1) Have something to say. The only reason why you should run your own company, play in a band, make art, have a blog, be a hustler etc. is if you actually have something you want to communicate. This doesn’t mean you have to have everything figured out, like some sort of grand message, but you should at least have something you want to express, even if that something is a murky, shadow of a thought. If you don’t have anything to say, then don’t hustle. It will be better for you and better for the world. Not everyone needs to hustle. If you want to have something to say and you currently don’t, then get out there and enjoy the glorious fruits of the universe around you. Read a book. Listen to a record. Get your heart broken. Feel something. Do something — do ANYthing. Educate yourself. Then you’ll figure out something worth hustling for. Don’t hustle just for the sake of hustling. That’s empty, man.
2) Finish. Just finish something. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a million ideas and never making any of them a reality. Things do not have to be perfect. Geniuses spend their whole life trying to get what’s on their paper, on their recording, in their hands, to match what’s in their mind, their heart, and their soul. Where would we be if they decided it just wasn’t good enough? Just finish anything. I feel lucky to have grown up in a very strong community where the DIY ethic really made the process of creating something relatable and not intimidating. Don’t get caught up in the illusion. Just make something.
3) Treat people well. It’s not worth doing anything if you’re not appreciating the people you love around you. For one, you never know who will be the person to help you in the future, so be kind, be honest, and be fair. But more importantly, the people who love you and who you love don’t deserve to be stepped on while you’re working your crap out.
4) Be happy with what you have. Dream big, but never forget it’s the every day that counts.