The Power of Brand, the Glory of Hype
Up-and-coming streetwear brand The Hundreds opened a boutique in Los Angeles’ Fairfax District on Feb. 1, and this store might turn the 400 north block of this thoroughfare into a Rodeo Drive for the streetwear set.
In the past year, more than four influential streetwear brands have opened stores on Fairfax, including Supreme, SLB and Fresh Jive, whose founder, Rick Klotz, co-owns the Reserve boutique on the street. A few more brands, such as Los Angeles–based Diamond Supply Co., also will reportedly open stores on Fairfax.
However, The Hundreds boutique should make Fairfax a pilgrimage place for streetwear’s acolytes, according to Aaron Levant, president of Agenda, a trade show and a showroom that focuses on streetwear.
“It’s become a center of attention of this streetwear genre,” Levant said. A reason for the attention is that The Hundreds Web site, www.thehundreds.com, is required reading for streetwear fans. Brand co-founder Bobby Hundreds regularly interviews the genre’s top designers and retailers for his site.
Publicity and brand awareness were not the only reasons for the Web site, according to the 26-year-old Hundreds, who graduated from Los Angeles’ Loyola Law School in 2005 and founded the brand three years ago. “Our whole goal was to build a community around this brand. If that is hype, then it’s hype,” Hundreds explained.
Hundreds and his partner, Ben Hundreds, financed the construction of the 320-square-foot boutique on the northwest corner of Rosewood and Fairfax avenues. The compact boutique is covered with cabinetry that is painted in a midnight black. The dressing room, painted bright red, breaks up the monochrome color scheme.
Hundreds said the boutique deacute;cor is like his brand. It relies on dark colors but plays off the blacks and the grays with pastels. The store’s price points are $29 for T-shirts—which are composed of Hundreds graphics and Hanes blanks—and $150 for straight-leg denims, also manufactured by the brand. The boutique sells The Hundreds T-shirts; Public Label, the brand’s cut-and-sew effort and Tens, the brand’s women’s program.
Hundreds said that he has no current plans to open more boutiques for The Hundreds. The brand also is sold at retailers such as Active, based in Chino, Calif., and Los Angeles–based Brooklyn Projects. —Andrew Asch.
