diff --git a/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/KafkaStreams.java b/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/KafkaStreams.java
index 291a8c5925d54..eee55fc091104 100644
--- a/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/KafkaStreams.java
+++ b/streams/src/main/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/KafkaStreams.java
@@ -883,6 +883,7 @@ private KafkaStreams(final TopologyMetadata topologyMetadata,
         ClientMetrics.addApplicationIdMetric(streamsMetrics, config.getString(StreamsConfig.APPLICATION_ID_CONFIG));
         ClientMetrics.addTopologyDescriptionMetric(streamsMetrics, (metricsConfig, now) -> this.topologyMetadata.topologyDescriptionString());
         ClientMetrics.addStateMetric(streamsMetrics, (metricsConfig, now) -> state);
+        threads = Collections.synchronizedList(new LinkedList<>());
         ClientMetrics.addNumAliveStreamThreadMetric(streamsMetrics, (metricsConfig, now) -> getNumLiveStreamThreads());
 
         streamsMetadataState = new StreamsMetadataState(
@@ -915,7 +916,6 @@ private KafkaStreams(final TopologyMetadata topologyMetadata,
             globalThreadState = globalStreamThread.state();
         }
 
-        threads = Collections.synchronizedList(new LinkedList<>());
         threadState = new HashMap<>(numStreamThreads);
         streamStateListener = new StreamStateListener(threadState, globalThreadState);
 
diff --git a/streams/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/integration/MetricsReporterIntegrationTest.java b/streams/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/integration/MetricsReporterIntegrationTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..a7c925ad5f5a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/streams/src/test/java/org/apache/kafka/streams/integration/MetricsReporterIntegrationTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.kafka.streams.integration;
+
+import org.apache.kafka.clients.CommonClientConfigs;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.metrics.KafkaMetric;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.metrics.MetricsReporter;
+import org.apache.kafka.common.serialization.Serdes;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.KafkaStreams;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.StreamsBuilder;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.StreamsConfig;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.Topology;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.integration.utils.EmbeddedKafkaCluster;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.kstream.Consumed;
+import org.apache.kafka.streams.kstream.Produced;
+import org.apache.kafka.test.IntegrationTest;
+import org.junit.AfterClass;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
+import org.junit.Rule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
+import org.junit.rules.TestName;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Properties;
+
+import static org.apache.kafka.streams.integration.utils.IntegrationTestUtils.safeUniqueTestName;
+import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.notNullValue;
+import static org.hamcrest.MatcherAssert.assertThat;
+
+@Category({IntegrationTest.class})
+public class MetricsReporterIntegrationTest {
+
+    private static final int NUM_BROKERS = 1;
+
+    public static final EmbeddedKafkaCluster CLUSTER = new EmbeddedKafkaCluster(NUM_BROKERS);
+
+    // topic names
+    private static final String STREAM_INPUT = "STREAM_INPUT";
+    private static final String STREAM_OUTPUT = "STREAM_OUTPUT";
+
+    private StreamsBuilder builder;
+    private Properties streamsConfiguration;
+
+    @Rule
+    public TestName testName = new TestName();
+
+    @BeforeClass
+    public static void startCluster() throws IOException {
+        CLUSTER.start();
+    }
+
+    @AfterClass
+    public static void closeCluster() {
+        CLUSTER.stop();
+    }
+
+    @Before
+    public void before() throws InterruptedException {
+        builder = new StreamsBuilder();
+
+        final String safeTestName = safeUniqueTestName(getClass(), testName);
+        final String appId = "app-" + safeTestName;
+
+        streamsConfiguration = new Properties();
+        streamsConfiguration.put(StreamsConfig.APPLICATION_ID_CONFIG, appId);
+        streamsConfiguration.put(StreamsConfig.BOOTSTRAP_SERVERS_CONFIG, CLUSTER.bootstrapServers());
+        streamsConfiguration.put(StreamsConfig.DEFAULT_KEY_SERDE_CLASS_CONFIG, Serdes.Integer().getClass());
+        streamsConfiguration.put(StreamsConfig.DEFAULT_VALUE_SERDE_CLASS_CONFIG, Serdes.String().getClass());
+        streamsConfiguration.put(CommonClientConfigs.METRIC_REPORTER_CLASSES_CONFIG, MetricReporterImpl.class.getName());
+    }
+
+    final static Map<String, Object> METRIC_NAME_TO_INITIAL_VALUE = new HashMap<>();
+
+    public static class MetricReporterImpl implements MetricsReporter {
+
+
+        @Override
+        public void configure(final Map<String, ?> configs) {
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void init(final List<KafkaMetric> metrics) {
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void metricChange(final KafkaMetric metric) {
+            // get value of metric, e.g. if you wanted checking the type of the value
+            METRIC_NAME_TO_INITIAL_VALUE.put(metric.metricName().name(), metric.metricValue());
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void metricRemoval(final KafkaMetric metric) {
+        }
+
+        @Override
+        public void close() {
+        }
+
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void shouldBeAbleToProvideInitialMetricValueToMetricsReporter() {
+        // no need to create the topics, because we don't start the stream - just need to create the KafkaStreams object
+        // to check all initial values from the metrics are not null
+        builder.stream(STREAM_INPUT, Consumed.with(Serdes.Integer(), Serdes.String()))
+                .to(STREAM_OUTPUT, Produced.with(Serdes.Integer(), Serdes.String()));
+        final Topology topology = builder.build();
+        final KafkaStreams kafkaStreams = new KafkaStreams(topology, streamsConfiguration);
+
+        kafkaStreams.metrics().keySet().forEach(metricName -> {
+            final Object initialMetricValue = METRIC_NAME_TO_INITIAL_VALUE.get(metricName.name());
+            assertThat(initialMetricValue, notNullValue());
+        });
+    }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file