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Our friends over at Breaks Magazine recently sat down with Bobby, co-founder of The Hundreds. From just a mere dream at college with his friend Ben, Bobby takes us through his journey into establishing the brand alongside an insight into the industry itself.

How did you and Ben meet and how did you start the Hundreds?

We met in school, over sneakers! …as cliché as that sounds.  Grad school drew more of a serious crowd, not as much of a sartorial crowd.  They definitely weren’t keen on street culture and that’s something we grew up on and loved.  We looked at each other and said, “ok, so you’re into cool shoes and you’re into cool brands!,” and that’s how we became friends.

In the early days how active were you two? I remember seeing a photo of you guys from the early days sticker bombing on campus?

Back then we did absolutely everything as we were the only two employees of the company.  We’re still just as active, in fact, moreso than ever.

In those days, when the amount of brands were numbered, how did you go about creating relationships with brands and do you think relationships back then where contrived or organic?

A lot of it was organic.  We forced ourselves to travel a lot around the country and the world.  The internet wasn’t as big of a social network, so we had to rely on building relationships face-to-face.  We were small and nonthreatening and neutral (at the time), so people supported us and had our back.  It was a fun and friendly time.  There wasn’t much in the way of money, but we were rich with relationships.  Ahh, to be poor and pure.

Who were some of your early friends or peers in the same industry? Is it difficult to maintain those as there kinda is rivalry, but they’re friends and it’s a weird line right? Did you learn from each other or keep everything insular?

It was a very small world back then, but we were largely supportive of each other. I think most of us recognized that we had to build the platform together in order for independent Streetwear to exist.  Early “friends” and peers…. Mighty Healthy, Mishka, Married to the Mob, Reason, Huf, Diamond… Of course lines got blurred once the spotlight turned on Streetwear and money got thrown in the mix. Egos got bruised, feelings got hurt.  When it came to relationships, I think everyone got a little confused as to whether it was business or pleasure.  And as you know, at the end of the day, business tends to win out.  The ones who accepted that first and fastest, moved forward.

To read the rest of the interview, head over to Breaks Magazine.

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