The Hundreds

in the ultra-intense microcosm of the Streetwear culture, opinions run high so there's very little anyone can agree on. unless of course you're talking about The Hundreds. for over 2.5 years Bobby, Ben and Scottie have been serving the community with the properness. whether it's their ultra-on-point web blog (www.thehundreds.com), or their "sold out in less than a week" t-shirt and hoody collection, these fools are killing the Streetwear scene softly. SGV recently visited the offices of The Hundreds (looks just like the pics on the website) and found the whole squad there. Bobby was kind enough to take time out from his busy schedule to let us interview him. oh whoops, I think the SGV just dropped a gem.

SGV: basic 411 on Bobby Hundreds please. who, what, and why?

BOBBY: When I was young, I used to skateboard a lot. I was never any good at it, but I would still ride everyday. I grew up drawing pictures and cartoons, then I got stoked on graffiti (in Cali during that time, who didn't?) and subculture in general. Then streetwear had its advent in the early 90's with brands like Stussy, FreshJive, and GAT and all those brands started popping up. That kinda opened up my eyes and made me think I can draw some of these cartoons and put them on t-shirts. in fact, the other day I found a piece of paper from my parent's house of t-shirt designs I made when I was 11 years old. I had my own brand that I was even trying to start back then!

SGV: what was it called?

BOBBY: it was called BOBBYKIM clothing, and revolved around a very Stussy-esque signature (which I still use to this day)! Stussy was such a huge deal to me. It's as old as I am right now and I'm 25 years old. it's pretty much what got me into "fashion" and drawing my graphics. And I was extremely into the independent skate brands. ACME was my favorite skate brand. Eric Ricks was my favorite skater. I loved all the brands back then that would make dope graphics. World Industries, 101, Blind, New Deal, Underworld Element, Alien Workshop. Then I went to college and didn't really focus on my art because I was told that you can't make money at it.




SGV: You had strict traditional Asian parents?

BOBBY: Very traditional first-generation Asian imigrant parents who instilled in me that I had to do better than they did because they came here and struggled to give me a better life. But I just wanted to be happy doing what I did everyday which was draw pictures and write.

SGV: so what happened next in the evolution of Bobby Hundreds?

BOBBY: so I was always into art and design and photography. I was into clothing like Stussy, Supreme, and BAPE from when I was a late-teenager. I was also really into magazines and writing. I had my own zines that I would make in college. when I was in school, I wrote for Transworld Stance, I was product editor and fashion editor there for a bit. I wrote for Giant Robot magazine, and a bunch of different publications. I wanted to start a project that incorporated all of my interests, my background, and my experiences into one monster project --just for fun.

So after meeting Ben a few years back, we launched The Hundreds. from the beginning, it was a zine and a t-shirt brand, so I could exhibit both my writing and my artwork. it wasn't like a big explosion or anything, we've just been working hard at it for 2 and a half years now. its been a very organic and natural process. and now its gotten to the point to where kids are noticing the brand name. it's been really good for us. I don't really have a clean outside perspective of how we look to outsiders because we're so involved in it and we do it everyday.

like for instance, on my MySpace I put a certain AIM name on there for the kids to hit me up. when I signed on to AIM last night, I got hit up by like 100 kids all at once. I'll start asking them what they think of the brand and what they like and don't like about it. kids think its dope or wack or whatever, and I like to hear what they have to say. we're just trying to stick to what we do and stay true to ourselves and what our original concept for the brand was.



SGV: what was the original concept? what's the philosophy of The Hundreds?

BOBBY: aside from showcasing the art and writing that i've been into... we live in LA, and one of the things I noticed was that all the cool subculture-related artists, designers and brands, and anything that I would read, was coming from either New York, Japan, or London. I kept thinking how dope LA is. I meet cool people everyday, and I have a lot of friends out here that don't get the shine they deserve. Sure, all the big dogs are here; FreshJive, Stussy, Union, Undefeated, XLarge. the skate industry is here too. but in terms of independents, there wasn't much. Fortunately, it's growing now though.
So always from the beginning we emphasized Los Angeles Lifestyle. we highlight the city and getting our friends on the map. it was a way for me to help push anything in our community that I respected. so that was our idea for the zine. in terms of the t-shirts, they are totally recalling on stuff that I was into as a youth. whether that was the original Streetwear brands, like the way they looked, or that whole southern california surf and skate culture. like a small graphic on the front pocket and a huge graphic on the back of the shirt. that's what always made a classic dope shirt to me. we try to emphasize that.

and also the music scene that I was into while I was growing up. I was into Hip Hop but I also was into the hardcore Punk scene, so I've been trying to incorporate that into our graphics lately. I learned alot from the Punk community that helped to shape my perspective on how to run a business and a brand. in terms of one little thing like colors; if you notice, half the time we'll use black black black. black on black, variations of black. but then other times we'll use bright florescent colors and pastels. The color black has always been a common denominator in southern californian subculture. in Hip Hop, N.W.A. was all about wearing black. the metal kids, the hessians... those kids were all about using black a lot. it says a lot when you seen an individual dressed in black from head to toe. that's why we're always repping black. as far as the more flamboyant colors, that came from the streetwear that we grew up on which was always employing bright effervescent pastels and crazy color schemes that really highlighted the graphics. like on some, "hey look at me. look at what's going on with my outfit. it's kinda CRAZY."

SGV: "streetwear" is getting huge. please define it.

BOBBY: I guess it's exploding right now. it's something I'm happy to see. I'm sure there are alot of people that are pissed off that it is. there are people out there that think it's played out already, like Bathing Ape is played out. but the reality of it is that .5 of .5 percent of the international youth market has no idea what BAPE is or who Nigo is, or what Stussy is. I'll still see message board postings where kids are genuinely asking "what is Stussy?". they have no clue. most of the world has no clue. no one knows about this stuff. it's not like the GAP, it's not affiliated with Jay-Z or anything, it's nothing like that.

So i think it's important to remember that it's still very under-the-radar. it's starting to blow up now though. a lot of people have been telling us, "yo, you guys are doing really well, you're getting a lot of love, I see you guys everywhere". but at the same time it's like, "really?! I kinda feel like we're ALL doing better. Not just us!" anyone in this culture of ours that has been here for a minute and been putting in work is doing better. the Mighty Healthy's, the Alife's, the Supremes.... actually Alife and Supreme are in a league of their own. but the point is, even those forefathers stepped it up a crazy new notch. it's helping all us new guys to start climbing up. it's not bad for anybody. it's a really good time for our culture and our industry as a whole.

people sometimes say that there's all this new competition coming in and its taking away from our brand. I disagree, I think it's dope because everyone is coming up right now and we can all help each other out. some people might see Mighty Healthy as our competitors because they are a t-shirt based streetwear label and we came up around the same time. but to me, it's like, I wanna just help to push Ray and Dennis and their brand #1) because I respect their work and #2) because it brings more attention to this kind of clothing. true independent operations that are run by 1 or 2 guys that sit behind a PC...



SGV: or a MAC!

BOBBY: right, or a MAC... actually, we don't even know how to use MACs because we've been on 4-year-old janky PC's this whole time and are so new to this game. that's what a true independent is to me!

SGV: earlier you mentioned that there are people out there that think the Streetwear scene is getting too big. what do you have to say to those people?

BOBBY: I can't tell them how to feel if that's really how they feel. I know a lot of people that have been involved in this kind of thing for a long time who feel that we might be doing a disservice because of how much attention we're bringing to this "secret" world. some people are very protective and dedicated and all about keeping this secret their little secret. they believe that it shouldn't be for little 13 year old hypebeast kids from Colorado... that's their whole thought process.

I kinda see it differently. It's not anyone's sole culture to say how it should go or shouldn't go. I'd like to get as many kids involved into it as possible. albeit LEGITIMATELY, and well-educated. kids email me everynight... last night when I was on AIM, I asked each of those kids what they were into and "What are you trying to engage yourself in as a young person?" I would say that 80% of them said that they wanted to start a brand. "oh, I'm trying to start a label. oh, I'm learning how to use illustrator. oh, one of my homies knows how to screenprint so we're gonna do this line."

it's like, Dope, if you have any questions, just ask me. I have a 5 page template explaining how to start a brand from our perspective. not saying that we're the experts but if you're asking for my opinion... this is our story... this is how we did it... it somewhat worked for us. we made a lot of mistakes and we learned, so here you go... have fun with it.

we didn't have that when we were starting. when we first started, we had a lot of doubters and haters (even so-called-friends who wouldn't lend a hand), but we survived and we're still here. Ben and I really wanted to make an impact and to be heard. we stayed true to that and worked hard at it, and we're finally beginning to see the fruits of our labors. I'm all about independents, whether it's music, art, fashion, or anything you're trying to do that the world is telling you that you can't make money doing, or you can't succeed, or you're not good enough... it's like, why not?

SGV: seems like you guys are sorta in "uncharted waters" in terms of pushing the limits of what a t-shirt company is supposed to do and be. are you ever scared of the moves you make?

BOBBY: honestly, without sounding egotistical, we really are! it's like people think that we're rich and that we came from all this money or something. we started this thing with 200 bucks out of each of our pockets. we milked that 400 dollars! we cut corners like crazy. we didn't have any contacts, we didn't know anyone. Ben and I are not "cool guys". we don't know anybody. from the start, fellow brands, buyers, and store-owners were telling us we were doing it the wrong way. "if you want to make it in the scene you're gonna need the coolguy contacts. you gotta know and work with these people. you gotta be in this store. you can't shout-out LA". so many stores were telling us to stop putting LA all over the shirts and stop saying California. Man, this is where we're from. What's wrong with that?
so that wasn't supposed to work. we did so many things that were the opposite of was supposed to happen. we were not supposed to work with the internet. "don't hype yourself too much on the internet... don't have a regularly updated website". most of these guys, like 2 years ago, none of them had a blog. but that's how I grew up. I grew up at the nascent of the internet age. right now i'm 25 years old, and I was just at the start of that. I've been on AIM since I was 12 years old. that's one way I learned to connect with people and learn about things. I started my first blog in 2000! As corny as that sounds, thats how these kids are growing up. the older generations don't get it, and think it's wack. it's moving from the STREETS to the SCREENS! you can fight it and say NO, and be like, "I'm not getting down with the internet". but dude, you're kinda getting left behind, because that's where the youth is at.just in the past 6 months, everything has changed. everyone has a blog now, everyone has an active website. I'm excited to see that happening. everyone can start to connect with each other. so getting back to the original question, I'm not sure if we were strategic or if we just got lucky, but we've gone from making tshirts to doing cut and sew. that's a whole other nightmare that isn't supposed to work. there's a reason why t-shirt brands stay t-shirt brands, and why cut and sew is cut and sew. it's hard to make that transition. you need a lot of money, and you need to know alot of people... and we don't. we're just trying to go about it our own way, once again. we're just hoping it pays off.

SGV: what other company's business models do you look up to?

BOBBY: (James) Jebbia with Supreme... he pretty much created the blueprint for how to do things. even what Frank, Shawn, and Paul did with Stussy... that's like a whole other thing. as much as we try to do things and not be completely influenced by anyone else thats on our level, we do look up to those guys: Jebbia, Stussy, and Klotz (FreshJive)! he does business completely different from Jebbia or Stussy, but there are lots of things that we learned from Rick that we employ in our model of business. of course Nigo... I cannot hate on what he did in terms of marketing and how he formulates hype. I've always admired BAPE's biz moves. more so than wearing the clothes, I was fascinated on how he managed the brand and how he built it. to me it wasn't a clothing a line to me, it wasn't a fashion label to me, it was a BRAND. so that's a whole other entity that we took cues from. And last but not least, Alife. 100% respect to Alife for doing it right every which way, on their own terms, and setting their own standards. so in terms of this industy, I look up to those guys. everyone should pay attention and do their research and see how they did it. they truly did it opposite... they are the ones that when people told them to sell out, they said no. they chose longevity over the immediacy of money. I heard the other day that Stussy is actually gonna start pulling back from their accounts and cutting off accounts because they want to make the brand more intimate. normal business dudes will tell you to sellout, make your money. Stussy is huge and back on the rise again, yet they're gonna scale back. the way they look at it is: if we cut some dollars now it will add years to our longevity. I've always been impressed by that.

SGV: how is HYPE created, and what sustains HYPE?

BOBBY: I don't know, I'm not an expert! I feel funny answering these questions. This is all my speculation. in our humble opinion, we dont know anything, so take what I say with a grain of salt. we're learning just as much as the next guy. I'm just trying to read up and get answers myself. so that's my disclaimer.

but in terms of hype, I think limited edition does a great job of creating hype. putting it on the right people may be a good move for some brands. but I never thought of it from that angle. we've just always made stuff that we thought was dope. there are reasons for why we make the amounts that we do, it's not a proactive decision we made to create hype. it's more like "this is all the money we have right now!" all the money we make we put right back in and that's all the shirts that we can make. so that's just how things have worked out. kids would ask us to reprint shirts and make more. well, they should have been around the first around. so after years of all this, kids make sure they get what they want by waiting for the new lines to drop. I don't know about hype. I'd like to say it's because of how good a design is... how relevant it is to that consumer... but then again I don't know. it's probably something that somebody out there should be writing a research paper or dissertation on because it is a very very complex thing that is very specific to our youth culture that is so hard to win over in terms of brand dedication and things like that.

SGV: is streetwear a culture? is it fashion? is it art?

BOBBY: people refer to this as streetwear "culture," but the funny thing to me is that its not really a viable culture in terms of traditional definitions. an active culture interacts with the community. I always thought of culture more as a building of an artform, but this scene is founded on sort of a consumption-driven activity. skate culture goes down at the skatepark, but streetwear "culture"'s "park" is the local boutique. if you're training for basketball, you practice your freethrows everyday, but with these kids, their form of training is dressing dope in front of the mirror. their game is strong when they walk out with a dope outfit. then they go to the stores to show off and check out the competition. all that is really weird to me because, as funny as this might sound, I'm totally disinterested with fashion. but that's what this "culture" entails; it's treating your product and materialism as such. and that's cool, because those kids are supporting our brand and are genuinely passionate about their clothing, but it's still all very bizarre to me. when I was a kid growing up I was really into t-shirts too. I was into the art or the design. I liked the cartoons they drew on the skate shirts and how they were relevant to the skateboard culture. this is more about getting hyped about certain t-shirts and hoodies and hats and stuff that at the end of the day are only material objects.

SGV: if you were outside the game, would you buy into the hype?

BOBBY: Well, I do consider myself outside of the game... at certain times. when i'm doing interviews and I'm blogging I'm involved. most of the time I'm reading the same magazines and I'm hanging out at the same stores, so yeah, I'm totally involved and I get caught up in that hype. but you know what? there's just so much more to life. I go to certain stores in LA and there are certain kids that I see in there every weekend!

streetwear, street culture, t-shirts, these are all my passions but its not my entire life. this is only one part of my life and I have to round out my life with other things that have nothing to do with this industry. most of my close friends are not involved in this stuff. they couldn't care less. my girlfriend could not care less about any of this stuff that is going on. it's completely boring to her. it's cool that kids are so into clothing and buying it and consuming it, but at the same time I want to see this be more of a real culture where it's not so one-sided.

I put myself out there. I have a MySpace account. I put my AIM name out there, I put my email out there on the website and I'm engaged in the message boards. I do as much as can to create a culture that feels more like a community that works together. you wanna get involved in this? let's help each other out. But if we follow the universal streetwear paradigm of "I make it, you buy it, you pay my rent," then that's wack. that is NOT an active culture to me.

GV: you're so open about sharing knowledge and helping others out. it seems like in your position you could easily just ignore all the kids and protect your territory, so to speak.

BOBBY: most of our peers are like that. for some of them, thats what they think is best for their brand, and maybe it is! people tell me everyday that I'm stupid because I'm just creating new competitors for us. maybe they're right. maybe all these people will run me out of business one day, and that's ok. I'm ok with that. I feel better knowing I helped somebody out instead of shutting them down. like I said, when I was young I wish somebody would have been down to help me. I remember when I was really young I would go to the skate shops and show them my drawings and ask them if they would put it on a skateboard. I'd be in there everyday buying their stuff but no one gave me a hand. I wish somebody could have told me back then how to screenprint a t-shirt.

but on another note I think that comes from growing up in the punk culture. I always draw references to how the mentality we have about our brand, and how we run it, is very parallel to how the punk community is. very DIY and community-based. the shows I would go to wouldn't have the band on a stage, and them singing down to you and you sitting there listening. Instead, the kids were involved. There was no stage. we would set up shows in our friend's living rooms and we were on the same floor, meaning there was no difference between their status and mine. they may have wrote the song, but in the middle of the set I could jump to wherever they were at and grab the mic and sing the song with them. at the end of the show, I could sit down with them and take them out to eat and they could sleep over at my house. there was no difference. that's what a true culture was to me. none of this "This is my side and that is your side." there is no hierarchy to how we do things.

SGV: so what is in store for The Hundreds? break it down real quick.

BOBBY: I guess the big news is that this year we're introducing some cut and sew. we're gonna introduce a couple pieces in the summer, then once fall hits, we will have probably expanded to a full line. again, for us this is a lot of uncharted territory for a t-shirt based brand, but I think we've done it the right way. we've had some really good friends that we look up to help us out, so thanks to them. As always.

By: Highsnobiety.blogspot.com

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