LEFT: Bobby and Ben (in center window) watch people mix and mingle at their Labor Day party in L.A. • ABOVE: Bobby (left) and Ben chat in the alley near their L.A. showroom.
ABOVE: At The Hundreds retail store in L.A., Bobby checks his PDA. • BELOW: A sampling of shots from the store’s digital “photo booth,” which allows customers to see their faces on The Hundreds Web site.
LEFT: Bobby looks over a document with production manager Jon Hundreds. • RIGHT: Some members of The Hundreds crew: (from left) Ben Hundreds, Benjie, Bobby, Jon, David Chun (aka The Chundreds), Vittles (aka Vitto), Intern Matt and Seun.
Bobby Kim is cool.
He knows it. Those in his industry know it. The herds of guys standing around at his L.A. block party on this sweltering Labor Day afternoon — they know it, too.
He’s not a musician, actor, model or anyone whose face you’d see splashed across billboards or in the pages of People magazine. He’s just a 27-year-old guy who found a way to turn a bunch of hobbies into a career.
We’d like to call this a story about fashion, simply because it would make things easier, but Bobby might protest. Fans of his streetwear brand The Hundreds, or “the kids” as Bobby refers to them, know it’s about more than that.
So instead, this is a story about a lifestyle project. One early disclaimer: If you love buying sweaters in bulk at the Gap, The Hundreds probably isn’t for you. Chances are you just won’t get it.
But those who do understand it, and, in many cases, live for it, have come out in droves to spend their summer holiday hanging out in front of The Hundreds retail store on the corner of Fairfax and Rosewood. Armed with handheld fans and water bottles, boys in slim-fitting jeans and girls in oversized sunglasses make attempts to mingle over the blaring deejay set.
Bobby, donning a black cap embroidered with the words “The Hundreds Is HUGE, Inc.” is bombarded with handshakes, hugs and compliments. “Are you Bobby Hundreds?” one kid asks. “Man, I just want to say I love what you’re doing.”
To trend-watching industry folks, being cool comes down to a formula. They’re zeroing in on this fast-rising company, which, evidently, has gotten it right. Co-founded by Bobby and his friend Ben Shenassafar four years ago, The Hundreds refers to the streetwear brand and an online magazine, both of which are inspired by the young duo’s roots within the Southern California skateboarding, punk and hip-hop subcultures. The clothes are chased down relentlessly by in-the-know buyers and are now carried in more than 160 stores across the globe. The corresponding online magazine, TheHundreds.com, anchored by Bobby’s daily blog posts on what’s new and fresh in the streetwear scene, attracts a whopping 12,000 to 13,000 unique visitors a day.
“The Hundreds has taken off faster than any other brand I’ve ever seen,” says Aaron Levant, director of Agenda, a San Diego streetwear trade show that brings together star companies such as Crooks & Castles, King Stampede, 10Deep, Obey, and, of course, The Hundreds. “Bobby’s blog catapulted the speed of the brand immensely. It’s required reading for anyone in the industry.”
What exactly is streetwear? While those in the scene — known in the industry as “streetwear heads” — might drop an ambiguous response like, “It can’t be defined,” the clothing genre began as a rebellion against mainstream commercialism. Those who didn’t want their sense of style to be decided by some rich designers with European accents — or even worse, by Urban Outfitters, which Bobby calls “the Starbucks of contemporary fashion” — decided to create their own gear. Many of these upstarts began with T-shirts bearing parodies of familiar logos: Kraft became “Krap,” Tide became “Jive,” Snickers became “Slackers.”
