KILLSPENCER and the Entrepreneur's Journey

On LA's iconic leather goods brand and the Artist's Plight

The other night, I found myself sitting at a dinner with inspiring entrepreneurs and powerful founders like Ted from Poketo, Ellen from Mendocino Farms, Jing from Jing Theory, and Julia Huang of InterTrend. I’ve known some of these people for as long as my career. In fact, Ted reminded me that The Hundreds and Poketo were situated next to each other at our first major tradeshow, MAGIC in Las Vegas, in the mid-2000s.

The industry was so small then that a streetwear collection like ours and Poketo, a stationery and house-goods brand, were curated next to each other in the convention hall. As the years went by, we’d diverge into each of our growing markets and flourish, but we were both so young and small then that we couldn’t afford an official booth. MAGIC recognized the importance of supporting emerging designers so they sectioned off the High 5 Campground, a corner of folding chairs and rolling racks for a handful of indie brands like ours. Ted and I laughed about how foolish and blindly ambitious we were in our prior lifetime. He and his partner recently sold Poketo and now that he looks back on their story, he’s floored by all that they were able to accomplish.

It was kinda crazy to reminisce on what it was like back then as a budding dreamer. Everyone at the table offered anecdotes of how bright-eyed we were starting up our businesses and how naïve we were embarking on a shrouded and unpredictable journey. On my right was Spencer Nikosey, founder of KILLSPENCER, a popular leather goods brand out of Los Angeles. I’ve been a fan of KILLSPENCER since it started in 2009 when I was gifted one of their backpacks. Every piece is handmade to order and the craftsmanship and quality are so good, that all these years later, my backpack is still perfectly intact. Spencer’s journey has also been impressive and uniquely his. He doesn’t really do any marketing or wholesale and yet he has managed to sustain a successful and respected business. The following Friday, Spencer invited me down to his Atwater warehouse and workshop to experience KILLSPENCER up close.

Spencer was first curious about making shoes and that’s how he learned the trade, by studying under a local legend who creates specific footwear for period films. When I ask him if he was a sneakerhead, he responds that he was merely interested in making stuff. As we amble around his operations, Spencer’s creative spirit fills the room. There’s a drum kit, guitars, and piano by his office up front. It turns out that Spencer is a proficient musician. He also has a tennis club and is firing up another label designated more for women. He’s clearly been diagnosed with the Serial Entrepreneur disease. I suffer from it daily and know what it’s like. The world is your canvas and there’s never enough paint.

I mean, just look at this football. Why hasn’t anyone thought to put four sets of laces on a football to make for better grip and a balanced spin? Spencer has.

KILLSPENCER recently dropped this collaborative leather soccer ball with James Jean. There are only ten in existence, “based on a pentagonal hexecontahedron, the same polyhedron used in James’ stained glass dome, Pagoda. Each of the 60 faces is foil stamped on leather by James’ printmaker with a unique design inspired by his Fragments collection - none repeat. Each face was created individually and vectorized by hand. We hand-stitched each piece together inside our #AtwaterHQ, a painstaking but rewarding process when it comes out perfectly.”

I don’t know what the encompassing term is for the artist / entrepreneur / founder, but I’ll forever be captivated by the people like Spencer who surrender to their fire. Even if you’re not a creator, I know you’re drawn to their light as well. With all of the generative AI talk recently, I know we’re capable of replicating the art, but we can never replace the artist. Each person is a universe unto their own, the depths of which no technology can fathom or translate, let alone steal.

Recently, my 10-year-old son has been commissioning artwork from his classmates. He couldn’t even finish his dinner last night because he was so consumed by his unfinished panda drawing at his desk. I could see the fireworks sparkling behind his eyes as he hunched over, pressing marker to paper, coloring in the green bamboo. He has four pieces to catch up on and looked bleary-eyed this morning, complaining of sleeplessness. Ha! What a familiar sight… Poor guy, he has no idea that the art is creating him.