Sunday, July 27, 2008
Happy birthday to us.
Today marks the 5th Anniversary of The Hundreds. On July 27, 2003, our website officially launched (the exact reincarnation of which you're looking at here) and we began showcasing our t-shirt collection and online-magazine/blog. We wouldn't be ready for online sales for a year or so, but by the end of that summer, the brand had already made headway in local Los Angeles boutiques like Brooklyn Projects, Fred Segal, and Grey One (Thank you Dominick, Tony, and Arnold). Of course, most other stores and customers were confused with The Hundreds, considering we hadn't pigeonholed ourselves as a skate brand or a hip-hop label, which was the standard at the time. A store in Portland told us "nobody's ever heard of your brand, dude" while another boutique here in LA told us that we should stop writing our name on the shirts, and stop writing "Los Angeles" while we were at it (I'm happy to note that both stores went out of business a couple years later). We used a lot of black and contrasted that with bright colors, which further complicated things in an earthtone-friendly era. But Ben and I just continued to make what we loved, inspired by the culture around us and the lifestyle that comes with growing up in California.
Over the years, we've expanded sales to over 400 of the world's finest boutiques. The Hundreds also has 2 flagship stores in LA and San Francisco. And after countless face-lifts, our website's been bookmarked more than "Crime and Punishment," read by over a million different people a month. In the half-decade, our family has grown to include residents like "Shutup!" Scotty iLL, Jon Hundreds, Alex the Super-Intern, Corgishoe, ... you know the cast of characters. We've built profound relationships, made lifelong friends, and established bitter enemies. In our immediate community, we've been hailed as everything from the second-coming of streetwear to everything that's wrong with the world. The best part is we couldn't care less what anyone thinks or has ever thought about us. You see, the very essence of The Hundreds has always been to do it our way, on our terms, taking no prisoners. Whether people liked it, agreed with it, or endorsedt it, was irrelevant. We were gonna do it anyways. And we did.
Last week, I was asked in an interview whether Ben and I had planned for it all to happen like this. To one day have a full-range apparel brand, our own stores, delve into footwear, to have such a prolific website. The answer? Yes. But what's more important is that we've only just begun. Apparel and online presence were the first part of the equation, the foundation for more complicated projects that we're drawing nearer towards. So if you've stuck with us over the years, stay with us as we embark on the next chapter of The Hundreds. And if you've just joined us, we're just glad you made it out.
Thank you to all of our friends, family, and The Hundreds loyalists worldwide. If it weren't for you, no one would have ever heard of our brand, dude.
Five down,
Bobby Hundreds
