When I was digging through the archives for those Steve Nazar graphics a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon all the original artwork for the first few seasons of The Hundreds back from ’03-’05. Those were good years, it was really just Ben and I, and eventually Scotty iLL of course. I had never taken a graphic design class, so most of the first couple seasons were all done by hand and Photoshop. I didn’t even know how to use Illustrator, and had to teach myself along the way. As a nod to traditional streetwear t-shirts, a lot of our stuff ended up being based on parodies and flips, which we could never get away with today, due to legalities. Most importantly, I look back fondly on these years because Adam Bomb didn’t even exist, so our customer base had a better grasp of The Hundreds’ brand and story, beyond a logo. We really didn’t even have a logo at the time, come to think of it.

I like to think, however, that we are still making the same t-shirts as we did when we started. Obviously the content has changed over the years, but the spirit is still intact. The colors, the design choices, and especially the underlying commentary behind the graphics are still as loud as ever. That was our thing, if you recall, that everything we made had a story attached to it, whether whimsical and fun, or serious and politically charged. And that tradition continues on to this day.

Still one of my all-time favorite The Hundreds tees:

We collaborated with punk band Avail for this one, and it’s to date probably one of the most politically upfront t-shirts we’ve ever produced. I’d like to get back to incorporating social causes into our apparel again.

And this one, long before the food-truck hype that dominates our urban landscapes… Ben and I used to have our lunch meetings sitting on milkcrates in front of roach coaches like the one pictured. In fact, we still kinda do.

And just for kicks, I stumbled upon a buncha graphics that I worked on that never even made it to sampling or even production. In my head, though, they are still as much of The Hundreds’ past as anything that landed on the racks.

This one actually DID make it to fruition, but instead I changed it to be a photo tee, where I shot one of my ties and Photoshopped it all together to look like this illustration. For some reason, it just didn’t seem to make sense to make the commentary all cartoony, and I think it was the right choice.

How’s that for a trip down Memory Lane? Plenty more where these came from, I’ll dig back into the archives again soon.

by bobbyhundreds