Fight for justice is second nature to streetwear brand The Hundreds’ Asian-American founder

On the last weekend in May, Bobby Kim was getting ready to reopen his West Hollywood fashion store, The Hundreds, which had been closed for nearly three months. Los Angeles, like much of the United States, had been in lockdown to combat the coronavirus. That same weekend, looters broke into stores on popular shopping streets, grabbing armfuls of merchandise, in an act of civil unrest triggered by the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis in the US Midwest. While there were many peaceful marches, there were also factions that rioted through stores like Target, Gucci and Chanel. “What was ironic was that, for most of the area, that weekend was like a homecoming,” said Kim. “The stores had been freshly restocked with new inventory. And then the riots happened.” The Hundreds was not broken into; all that happened was that some graffiti was spray-painted on the store front. “We were one of the lucky ones,” he said. “But now, I’m not sure when we will reopen. We don’t want to distract from the energy around the movement right now. We want people to be focused on more important issues, like raising awareness about police brutality, the corruption of the system and the importance of defending and protecting black lives.” Kim has long been an advocate for social justice. He co-founded streetwear brand The Hundreds in 2003 with a friend from university, Ben Shenassafar. Their vision back then – one they still adhere to today – is embedded in the name. “The Hundreds refers to our community,” he said. “It refers to masses of people. The media spotlight on the fashion industry shines around a certain segment. But if you look beyond the ring of that spotlight, we exist in the shadows. That’s where we have thrived. Our culture is strong. “The brand began because I had something to say, I put it on a T-shirt and gave it to my friends to wear. If my voice is being heard, then it makes others feel heard and seen. That is the essence of streetwear. It’s why it’s grown and proliferated.” View this post on Instagram For the first time ever, The Hundreds and Billionaire Boys Club are joining forces for Black Lives Matter. Bobby wanted to appropriate the original BBC logo shirt from Season 0, re-illustrating Adam Bomb with the same distressed aesthetic as Pharrell’s astronaut icon. Both brands were founded in the same summer (2003), so this is a nod to the golden age of modern Streetwear. Our “BLM" T-shirt is available until tomorrow night. ALL PROCEEDS will be donated to Black Lives Matter and the Black Mental Health Alliance. Tap the link in our bio to purchase or donate to Black Lives Matter and Black Mental Health Alliance directly! A post shared by The Hundreds (@thehundreds) on Jun 9, 2020 at 9:00am PDT Kim is the second of three sons born to Korean immigrants. He grew up in the Californian city of Riverside. He says his parents were pretty strict, expecting their boys to do well in school, get into good universities and pursue medicine or a legal career. “Whether that was out of fear or because they were immigrants to this country, they never thought their kids could do anything else,” he said. “I did okay. But I was much more interested in the arts, in skateboarding and hip-hop.” The Hundreds was founded on the simplest of notions; Kim wondered what would be “the best way to express the things I wanted to express, with no connections and very little money”. “A T-shirt was the best option,” he recalls. “You can put anything on it. It becomes a walking billboard. I got into T-shirts, which led me to streetwear with a collective of young artists from around the world. It’s not about a fashion trend. It’s about expression.” Among Kim’s first offerings was a T-shirt emblazoned with a silhouette of the rapper Slick Rick, holding up a microphone (the T-shirt was named “Mic”). “The story I was trying to tell was one around questioning authority and leadership, like: ‘Who has the microphone?’ Because of the way the silhouette was done, it looked like an illusion, where you have to question if you are looking up or looking down. I wanted people to think about that. “I had been immersed in the punk rock scene, where there is no distinction between the singer and the audience. It’s so democratic you can’t tell who is who. I wanted to build a brand like that, where the customer has as much ownership in what is being made or said. The Slick Rick T-shirt was me challenging the customer, telling them, ‘you shouldn’t just be looking at the microphone. You should be using it’.” That somewhat subversive and playfully renegade spirit informs everything made by The Hundreds today, in a way that clearly resonates: it has become a global brand, a factor which allowed the business to thrive in the pandemic even as stores shut down. “We couldn’t keep products in stock,” said Kim. (In Hong Kong, the brand is available at double-park.) “We have always had a loyal online following that is centred more around community building other than just seeing products. Every week was better than the previous one, every month better than before. We were lucky.” Pieces in the collection reflect the prevailing sentiment; the new Mood Sweatpants are printed with sayings including “Hate is just another way of holding on” or “I want to forget”. A collaboration with the estate of film director Stanley Kubrick encompasses camouflage gear with “Full Metal Jacket” emblazoned on the back. In another collaboration, with sports brand Puma, there are reflective windbreakers and pants. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Hundreds (@thehundreds) on May 28, 2020 at 2:17pm PDT “Fighting for social and political justice has been present and evident for us since day one,” he said. “It’s second nature to us. We’re a political brand, activist minded, even when it wasn’t popular to do so. Everything that’s happening now has me wondering – what took people so long?’” Once the world is open for business again, Kim says he’s looking forward to returning to Asia. “The older I get, I really feel drawn and pulled back to that part of the world,” he said. “Sometimes I fantasise about living there. It feels so familiar and comfortable. And the city with which I have the biggest affinity is Hong Kong. I’ve spent the last 17 years travelling there for production.” Despite all the success, Kim isn’t quite done spreading his message yet. Last year, he published his book, This is not a T-shirt: A Brand, a Culture, a Community – a Life in Streetwear, which he describes as a business memoir. “It’s the story of my life and background and how I went into building a clothing company that is established around community and how that distinguishes us from other brands,” he says. “In times like this, that proves its worth. Our customers have continued to support us. I love them. They stick with us.”