The Hundreds is a lifestyle brand founded in Los Angeles in 2003 by Bobby and Ben Hundreds as a men’s apparel company and online magazine.
Inspired by California culture, they call their brand a “lifestyle project influenced by a variety of California’s defining traits from punk to hip-hop, skateboarding to surf.”
Recently, they have expanded beyond apparel, accessories and headwear to a print magazine, a footwear collection and retail stores.
We got a chance to chat with Ben Hundreds, CFO and co-founder of The Hundreds about the brand that they call, “the world’s first social merchandising company.”
How is the brand doing these days?
The brand has been doing pretty well lately. Right now we are really focusing on growth and development in our footwear collection. We recently hired a new footwear sales manager and brought in a new footwear head designer as well and are really making that part of our business a priority.
On the apparel side we are trying to keep it fresh and be creative in the ways we grow, which is always a challenge, especially for a relatively small company.
Is business up or down? By how much?
Business is up, thank God. We are actually up about 15% this year.
What’s the story with your footwear? Where do you make it, how much do shoes cost and who are you catering to?
The Hundreds footwear is manufactured in China. The MSRP on TH footwear ranges from $49 – $84. TH shoes are lifestyle, classic, skate-inspired shoes. They’re for the skater or athlete to wear when they’re done with their physical activity; it’s not as much of a technical skate or shoe as much as it is skate-inspired in design. It’s aimed at tastemakers, skateboarders and anyone who embodies The Hundreds lifestyle.
What have been your hottest selling items for spring?
By far, our best-selling items for spring are our snapbacks (hats with an adjustable back via snaps, rather than a fitted cap like a New Era).
We can’t keep them in stock on the wholesale end of business and they are selling like hotcakes in our retail stores as well.
See Page 2 for more information about The Hundreds
How many retailers are you in now?
Globally we are in more than 400 doors. Domestically, The Hundreds is carried in around 200 doors and internationally we are in another 200 doors – our biggest areas are in Canada, the Netherlands, UK and Japan.
Who are some of your best retail partners?
That’s a hard question. We have really strong relationships with all of our retailers. We’ve been fortunate enough to get creative and do collabs with a couple – we recently did a denim collab with Primitive and we are planning on coming out with one in the future with WISH. Some of our solid, long-standing retailers include: Active, Pharmacy and Moda 3.
What’s new for the brand? Any new collabs?
The most exciting thing for us right now is the launch of our Santa Monica store that recently opened – it’s our fourth retail flagship store (also have stores in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York), and it’s in a great location, right off of the Promenade.
As far as new collabs go, we have a small collection of skate decks and a shoe coming out soon with Mark Dean Veca. This summer we are doing a capsule collection of boardshorts, Ts and hats with the iconic surf brand, Katin. Also on the horizon for summer, is a small set of Ts for The Hundreds made by Ron English – these Ts are just a prelude of what’s to come with the partnership between us and English so stay tuned.
Tell us more about the Santa Monica store. How big is it? How did you choose that location?
The Hundreds magazine
The Santa Monica Hundreds store is our biggest store yet – it’s 2,400 square feet. It’s on 4th and Broadway, very close to the Promenade. We believe that the brand has a strong enough presence in Southern California to support another store (our other So Cal location is on Fairfax in Los Angeles). The space became available and the location and opportunity was too good to pass up.
Do you carry any other brands in your stores or just The Hundreds?
TH stores only carry The Hundreds as of right now.
Anything else you are working on or you want to share?
Not sure if you were able to check out our most recent magazine issue that came out last month, but on the cover, Holly Madison was featured wearing a TH bikini that we made for the shoot. The feedback from retailers and friends alike was so strong that we decided to produce the bikini – so for the first time ever we will be offering that style to retailers, which is exciting.
Bikinis? Is swimwear in the near future?
The bikini was produced strictly because of the strong response we had from it being on the cover of the magazine – it was a one-time thing and we don’t plan on producing any other women’s swimwear in the future.
For marketing, I know you guys produce a magazine, which is definitely something most brands in the industry don’t do. Can you tell us about this strategy, how often the mag comes out and why it is important to the brand and why you keep printing them?
The magazine comes out twice a year. We have a Fall/Winter issue and Spring/Summer issue. This past issue was our fourth one. The magazine is meant for the TH fan; it gives them insight into what the brand is up to for the next few months, who we are going to be working with, what we think is cool.
It gives them a sneak peek into the lifestyle of the brand. We don’t pay to advertise in other magazines, so what we would spend on an advertising budget we spend on creating a big marketing tool, our own magazine. We think that it makes more of an impact for fans to be able to flip through a full magazine that embodies the brand, rather than seeing a one-page ad in any other magazine.
