Bobby Hundreds: 80′s Icons to the Present | Hypebeast

In terms of creating an open platform, is there a particular reason why you don’t open up comments on your TheHundreds.com blog? It would seem like it would be a great opportunity for discourse. But your note about the aspect of Twitter being narcissistic can be true but I think for many of your fans out there, you’re offering an opportunity to communicate with them on a more personal level, something the Internet will continually try to the bridge.

Call me crazy, but I really don’t understand the point of user comments on websites.  I think they’re put in place to facilitate customer/fan interaction, but all it really does is open the floodgates for a few bored idiots to ruin it for everybody.  I think readers come to The Hundreds’ website to read about The Hundreds, not some 13-year-old hater in Des Moines complaining about how streetwear is dead.  There is a time and place for that though, just not on our website.  I am open to discussing with everyone, I just choose to do it in a different venue, which just so happens to be the Hypebeast Forum (I’ll make visits once or twice a month to answer questions). 

You bring up an interesting point about Twitter.  But it begs the question, do we really want that? Sometimes I fear that all this sharing and divulging will bite us in the ass (Is blogging the embarrassing fashion trend of the ‘00s?).  Again, it makes sense for The Hundreds’ brand to do so, but do I really want to be hearing about what my favorite musician is eating for lunch right now?  What happened to the mystique and reverie of NOT knowing?  I think so much of that distance, and the unknown, contributed to the branding and characterization of many of my own cultural idols.  Now, that idea is lost.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career thus far, it’s that you never really want to meet your heroes or know too much about their personal life.  Trust me, not only will you be disappointed, it’s anti-climactic.  

Many people think that because I’ve run a daily blog almost everyday for a decade that they know everything about me.  The truth is they only see what I choose to show them, and if you only know me by what you see on the blog, you barely know me at all. I never discuss my personal life, my family, my closest friends never make it on there.  I don’t discuss my views on religion or politics, although those issues are big in my life.  And I certainly don’t tell them about how I read books under a lamp at night, instead of hitting up streetwear parties to compare sneakers.  I think some things are meant to be sacred, and maybe I’m the least likely candidate to propose that.  Perhaps the last one who fights for it, as well.

I appreciate your thoughts and insights into keeping certain things offline. At the end of the day and just sort of further extending on the point you began, the Internet is as we know a constant curation of content. If Bobby Hundreds doesn’t talk about the aforementioned topics, nobody will know about it cause nobody will report it. But I guess it just comes down to personalities, I myself really enjoy reading the insights of other peers, I find the discourse refreshing and brings forth a more rounded dynamic to our industry… showing there is more than just t-shirts and what not. But getting back on track… how has the move to create a whole new footwear line for The Hundreds been? I imagine there are some difficulties designing minimalistic skate shoes in an arena that is so heavily dominated by many well-established players. How do you view footwear versus apparel/accessories design? 

After going through four seasons of The Hundreds Footware, it’s been working out well. I’d say surprisingly so, but it’s not really a shock.  Our customers are dedicated to the brand, and are very lenient and accepting of new avenues we decide to pursue.  Again, shoes were always a part of the equation, we just didn’t have the resources to get into it until a year ago.  Ben and I have been very adamant that Footware stands on its own feet (pun intended) as a brand, so we’ve devoted separate Sales, accounts, and design towards that end of The Hundreds.  

As far as Design and Creative Direction goes, there have been interesting challenges.  Our shoes are not complicated, if anything they complement our line to a T (again, pun intended).  The aesthetic is casual, California-based uppers with vulcanized soles.  Over the next year, we’ll be introducing a cupsole and a high-top as well.  The first few styles we’ve offered, the Johnson Mid and Low, and the Valenzuela, are what I like to call “gateway” sneakers into The Hundreds Footware brand.  I didn’t want to get too crazy or weird with it, I just wanted our customers to get comfortable with the idea of having The Hundreds on their feet.  So the designs are very non-offensive and easy, anyone can pull them off.  The next chapter’s a bit more difficult, as I begin to implement our own signature look within the silhouette and detailing, and I plan to do that with unique materials and shapes, and minimal but effective branding.  

Designing shoes is a tricky thing in our world, if you’re not Nike, Vans or the other players who’ve been around for generations.  The customer has become so accustomed with those guys’ silhouettes that anything new and innovative is considered ugly.  The customer doesn’t realize that the reason why they don’t like it is because it doesn’t fit into their preconceived notion of what a shoe should be (the Nike sneaker they’ve been wearing and looking at for decades).  But if you try to make a sneaker that looks good and sells, you gotta keep it really simple, and/or based off of an existing Nike or Vans, etc., and that’s when the customer complains that it’s unoriginal and just a carbon copy.  

So it’s a fine line that I hope to walk.  Wow, so many terrible puns.