What a night.
The Hundreds team rolled deep to our biggest event of the year last night, celebrating the release of Bobby’s first book, This Is Not a T-Shirt. The memoir arrived on bookshelves worldwide earlier in the day, so where better to throw a banger release party than the biggest bookstore in LA?
As Bobby and Ben and pretty much our entire team, plus friends, family, and a few hundred of the best fans in the world, converged on Barnes & Noble in The Grove, it was amazing to see just how ecstatic all of these people were for Bobby’s story to finally be available to hold in your hands and read. Sure, he’s had a blog for almost two decades and nobody does a better Instagram Story, but this is the first time he’s told us all about his entire life, struggles, successes, and all, in a way that you could hold it, ruffle the pages, and feel that tangible energy. You’ve all shown so much love on social media throughout the book rollout, but it was a whole other level of feedback to be able to see our dearest supporters clutching onto Bobby’s book like it was their yearbook on the last day of senior year. It means so much to us, and it was amazing to see how much it means to you.
To rewind a little bit, we began the night back where it all started, on Rosewood. Bobby’s in the process of recording episodes for an upcoming podcast series to be released later this Summer and Wale thankfully had time to stop by for an hour before we met everyone over at Barnes & Noble. The longtime friends discussed a wide range of topics that I won’t spoil right now, but it was awesome to hear two titans in their respective fields reminisce about the old days on Fairfax and what’s transpired in the last decade to bring them both where they are now.
After recording the podcast, Bobby and Wale made their way to The Grove for the event, where the tables would turn and Wale would interview Bobby this time around. The two discussed the evolution of streetwear, the immense difficulty of writing a book, where The Hundreds has been and where it’s going, and then opened up the floor for fans to ask questions. Some wanted to know about rare releases, some wanted to know how the streetwear industry was going to make itself more sustainable, and some wanted to know how to maintain strength and determination while struggling to build a brand. We can’t express enough how much we appreciate our fans and how thoughtful you guys are in your questions and topics at these events, we learned a lot last night, too!
After the Q+A, Wale took a bow and headed off to probably unwind with a blunt and some wrestling videos if we had to guess. We are infinitely grateful that he took so much time out of his busy schedule to come out and spend this momentous occasion with The Hundreds family.
Then, Bobby signed what seemed like a thousand books and took time to meet with every single attendee, taking photos and trading stories from The Hundreds past with longtime fans. Everyone that came out and copped This Is Not a T-Shirt went home with, well, a T-Shirt. We made these dope tees with the book title on the front and this little scribble on the back that you’ll find used throughout the chapters of the book to separate trains of thought.
It was an amazing night, and we hope all of you that pulled up had just as much fun as we did. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. Now, we’re off to do it all over again for all of our homies in San Francisco on Thursday. If you’re in SF, come out to Green Apple Books in the park at 7:30 PM. Benny Gold will be our guest moderator and just like LA, if you buy a copy of the book at the event, Bobby will sign it and you’ll go home with a very limited run This Is Not a T-Shirt T-Shirt.
Last thing, if you bought Bobby’s book, please leave a review on whichever platform you bought it through, Amazon or wherever. If you physically bought a copy in stores, go leave a review on Amazon anyway. This feedback is instrumental in garnering more support for the book from the publisher, and honestly, we’d love to be able to call our fearless leader Bestseller Bobby.
Photos courtesy of Ben Shmikler
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