- It's not by chance that it happens to
be that Fairfax in L.A. kind of
became a streetwear capital over
the last, like, 15 to 20 years.
It's not by chance.
It's because of diversity.
You know, it's just, that's what
streetwear has always stood for.
And that's where its strength came from.
Hey, this is Bobby Hundreds with B/R Kicks,
and this is "Behind the Design."
The Hundreds. Simple,
straightforward side of things.
It's a clothing brand.
We used to say a men's streetwear brand,
but I think even those boundaries and
lines in that genre has been challenged
and, um, reestablished, so we—it's
a clothing company for everyone.
And I think I was always
drawn to streetwear.
Um, well, first I have to also establish that
streetwear when we were starting out,
it wasn't
called streetwear.
Uh, there wasn't really an
industry or marketplace around it.
There was clothing for young people
and youth culture, but there wasn't
anything, like, really like the
streetwear that we know today.
Streetwear—these young brands and artists
at the time of the mid-'90s
and the early '90s and the late
'90s, they really spoke to me
because they were kind of cross-genre.
They were for every—or more
inclusive—even though it's a
very exclusive sector of clothing,
it's also in many ways inclusive in the
sense of, you know, it's not just for,
you know, at the time late-'90s,
early 2000s, it was like
black or white kids.
It was just like, they called it
"urban," which was code for black. And
white, which was, like, really like
skateboarding, action sports-related.
And, um, I didn't fit neatly
into either of those categories.
And so, um, I was drawn to these brands
because it was just really more about the
art and really more about, uh, reaching
out to all different types of communities.
Yeah, so, LA28 is this program. It's a
cast of characters, of artists,
entertainers, personalities, athletes,
Olympians who have contributed
in many ways, in their own personal
ways, into what the logo looks like
for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
And as you know, with every Olympic
series, a big rollout around what
the iconography or the logo set looks
like, and this time around, they
didn't want to go with just one static
logo or one static identity.
They wanted it to reflect the nuance
of L.A. and the diversity of L.A.
Um, they invited me to be one of the
artists involved, and, um, my piece of
it was making an A that also reflected
on—again, like, my favorite part of L.A.
when I think of it, what makes us
so strong and unique is our diversity.
And so it's a bunch of these cartoon
hands, which I often draw a lot and
flowers that bloom from those hands.
And, um, I think it's our greatest
strength, and L.A. has really proven
to be this classic illustration of
what it looks like when different
people in different communities
can coexist, work together
and actually, uh, become greater
than the sum of its parts.
I feel like we've been leading the
pack in terms of tech, art, food,
culture and streetwear, you
know. And it's not by chance
that it happens to be that, uh, Fairfax
in L.A. kind of became a streetwear
capital over the last, like,
15 to 20 years. It's not by chance.
It's because of diversity.
You know, it's just, that's
what streetwear has always
stood for, and that's where
its strength came from.
I mean, look, it's massive. Just to work
alongside and with the Olympics,
it's—
that's a career milestone, I think,
for most everybody. We try to do work
that is timeless and lives outside of
the walls of, you know, the current
context and to think of, like: There's
nothing more timeless than the Olympics.
Like,
they run throughout history,
and so it will outlive me,
which is a cool feeling.
Um, this project specifically also
is really meaningful because it's
technically an eight-year project.
Like, we're starting to promote in
2020 what will happen in 2028.
And I juxtapose that with
the lifespan of my children.
I have two young boys, who,
um, are, you know—I very much
made them a part of the process.
I sat with them as I was drawing
the, uh, my piece of the logo.
And I wanted them really cognizant
and aware of what I was working on
so that in eight years, when they're
late teens and we go to the
Olympics together and they see,
you know, the iconography up,
they can say: "I was there with my dad when
we were kids and young and worked on that.
And now, you know, I'm an adult."
And so, it mirrors their entire
youth and their childhood.
Hey, this is Bobby Hundreds with B/R Kicks,
and thanks for watching "Behind the Design."
