Ronnie Fieg is bringing at least one bespoke BMW to Monterey Car Week this Saturday, and BMW is saying almost nothing about what it is. That silence, set against the backdrop of two confirmed Neue Klasse concept debuts happening at the same event, is doing all the talking.
The Kith founder and BMW’s design leadership will appear together on a Saturday night panel to unveil the next installment of their running collaboration. BMW has confirmed Fieg designed the vehicles himself and that the reveal will include a preview of the 2026 Kith for BMW apparel line. Beyond that, the automaker is keeping the sheet firmly in place.
The timing makes this interesting. BMW has already announced that both an M Concept built on the Neue Klasse platform and the first ALPINA developed under BMW’s direct ownership will debut during Monterey Car Week. Whether Fieg’s project touches Neue Klasse architecture or simply runs parallel to it remains an open question.
The Kith x BMW partnership started in 2020 with a Chapter I M4 Competition finished in Cinnabar Red. It established a formula that hasn’t changed in four years: a customized car, a signature color that becomes the collection’s visual anchor, and a matching apparel drop. Chapter II in 2022 moved the concept onto the electric i4 M50 xDrive, painted Vitality Green.
Chapter III, unveiled at Art Basel Miami in December 2024, was the most layered effort yet. Fieg built two cars around Techno Violet, a color lifted straight from the E36 M3 era: a restored 1981 M1 E26, rebuilt with BMW Classic using original-stock parts, and the XM Kith Concept. That design study led to a limited production run of 47 BMW XM by Kith units priced at $199,000 each.
BMW positioned that pairing deliberately. The XM is the first standalone M car since the original M1, and wrapping both in the same purple was a way to tie 1978 to the present. The accompanying apparel line pulled all three chapter colors into one collection, turning the collaboration into a cumulative project rather than a series of one-offs.
So the pattern is clear. Each chapter escalates. The first was a single car, the second shifted powertrains, and the third paired a vintage restoration with a current production model and sold 47 units to collectors.
Fieg isn’t a casual BMW enthusiast playing dress-up. He’s owned E30 M3s. He has a relationship with BMW’s design team that dates back years before any branding deal existed, and that personal history gives these projects a specificity that separates them from the typical brand-celebrity arrangement where the famous name shows up, picks a color, and cashes a check.
The real question is whether Fieg gets access to Neue Klasse sheet metal. If BMW hands him one of the new platform’s early designs to customize, it would mark the first time the Kith collaboration has been used to preview the company’s actual product direction rather than riff on existing models. If BMW keeps him on current-generation hardware while the Neue Klasse concepts debut separately at the same show, that tells a different story about where the automaker sees the collaboration fitting in its hierarchy.
Saturday night will answer that. The apparel previews and signature color reveals are guaranteed. The car underneath is the variable, and BMW seems content to let the speculation build.
Share this Story