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Nickel & Suede is a Kansas City-area accessories brand and boutique founded in 2014 by husband-and-wife Soren and Kilee Nickels, best known for pioneering the lightweight leather statement earring. The company is primarily a direct-to-consumer/online brand built out of a Liberty, Missouri headquarters and production facility, where it also operates a retail storefront (801 Haines Dr, Suite 800, Liberty, MO 64068). Its five-year Country Club Plaza store (232 Nichols Rd) closed December 31, 2025, with the company shifting focus to online, B2B, and licensed products; the brand and the Liberty store remain open.1234

Description

Nickel & Suede is a Kansas City-area fashion and accessory company built around its signature product: lightweight leather statement earrings, designed as comfortable, stylish alternatives to traditional metal jewelry.23 The catalog has expanded over time to include a broader range of jewelry and accessories.1 Products are designed and produced in the Kansas City metro, where the company runs a headquarters retail store and production facility in Liberty, Missouri.15

While the brand maintains physical retail, it is primarily a direct-to-consumer business — it grew out of an Etsy shop and a style/parenting blog, and online sales remain central to its model. Following the December 2025 closure of its Country Club Plaza store, the company publicly stated it would shift focus toward online, business-to-business, and licensed products while keeping the Liberty location open.34

Ownership and history

Nickel & Suede was co-founded in 2014 by Kilee Nickels and her husband Soren Nickels.23 Kilee, who had returned to her hometown of Kansas City from Seattle to raise her family, began selling handmade products on Etsy as a stay-at-home mom and built an audience through a style and parenting blog.2 After originating a lightweight leather earring design, the couple recognized a “first-to-market” opportunity; Soren, a former certified public accountant, left his accounting career to launch and run the business with Kilee.2

The company scaled rapidly out of Liberty, Missouri, growing from a roughly 900-square-foot retail store and 4,000-square-foot production facility toward a much larger footprint as demand grew.2 In 2018 Nickel & Suede appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, reporting roughly $4.1 million in revenue.26

In 2020 the company opened a retail store on the Country Club Plaza at 232 Nichols Rd.34 After five years, that Plaza store closed on December 31, 2025; Kilee Nickels described it as “the difficult decision to close our Plaza store,” with the company shifting focus to online, B2B, and licensed products while keeping its Liberty headquarters store operating.34

Sources

Disputes

None at this time.

Footnotes

  1. https://nickelandsuede.com/pages/locations — asserts: Nickel & Suede operates a Liberty, MO location at “801 Haines Dr, Suite 800, Liberty, MO 64068” (described as headquarters; Mon–Sat 10 AM–6 PM, Sun closed; phone 816-467-4603; in-store ear piercings Saturdays by appointment); also lists a Kansas City / Country Club Plaza presence; active online store with current product listings (leather earrings, jewelry, accessories). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. https://startlandnews.com/2018/12/nickel-suede/ — asserts: Nickel & Suede founded 2014 by Kilee and Soren Nickels (husband and wife); product is lightweight leather statement earrings; based in Liberty, MO with ~900 sq ft retail + 4,000 sq ft production (expanding to ~15,000 sq ft); Kilee returned to her KC hometown from Seattle, started via Etsy and a style/parenting blog; Soren was a former CPA who left to run the business; Inc. 5000 2018 list with ~$4.1M revenue. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. https://www.kctv5.com/2025/12/30/saying-goodbye-three-metro-stores-closing-calendar-flips-2026/ — asserts: Nickel & Suede’s Plaza store closed December 31, 2025 after five years; owner Kilee Nickels quote (“It’s with a heavy heart I share that we have made the difficult decision to close our Plaza store”); company shifting focus to online sales while keeping its Liberty location operational. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. https://fox4kc.com/business/locally-owned-business-to-close-its-doors-in-country-club-plaza-at-end-of-year/ — asserts: Nickel & Suede’s Nichols Street (232 Nichols Rd) location on the Country Club Plaza, opened 2020, closed after five years with a final day December 31, 2025; brand to stay present in KC, keep the Liberty store open, and shift focus to online, B2B, and licensed products. (Headline/summary corroboration via search; page returned 403 to direct fetch.) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. https://hufft.com/leather-working/ — asserts: Hufft designed/built the Nickel & Suede HQ in the Kansas City area, corroborating a Liberty-area headquarters/production facility (leather-working operation). for exact build address. ↩

  6. https://www.inc.com/catherine-perloff/2018-inc5000-nickel-and-suede.html — asserts: Nickel & Suede profiled as a fast-growing company that turned scrap leather into one of the fastest-growing companies in America; founder Kilee Nickels (mother of five); corroborates Inc. 5000 recognition. ↩ ↩2

See also

  • Registry
  • Owner-And-History-Research-Toolchain
Categories
  • Kansas City–owned
  • Liberty