Looking back, did Bobby (Bobby Kim aka Bobby Hundreds) and Ben (Ben Shenassafar aka Ben Hundreds) know what The Hundreds would become when they started their blog and clothing line 16 years ago? What began as a small independent project turned into one of the most well-known streetwear brands in the world. Since its inception, The Hundreds have not only produced clothing but also have created and refined a space to critically engage with the state of streetwear through its blog and think-pieces. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, The Hundreds have collaborated on one of the most controversial and well-known skateboarding silhouettes of all time, the Osiris D3.
The Hundreds x Osiris D3.2001 // thehundreds.com
One of the chunkiest, most tech-filled, monstrous skate sneakers of all time, the Osiris D3 is the stuff of legends, especially to younger skateboarders. The D3 silhouette immediately evokes thoughts of baggy cargo pants and tall tees and is rumored to be the best-selling skate shoe of all time. While skate fashion went “slim” for a while, the cycle of fashion has once again come around to chunky “dad shoes” and exaggerated silhouettes. Recently, ASAP Rocky and Under Armour released Rocky’s debut shoe, the Under Armour x ASAP Rocky SLRo, to widespread controversy, as the shoe was essentially a glorified remake of the Osiris D3. The SLRo created a lot of buzz around the origin story of the shoe, leading to a lot of press on the shoe’s designer, Brian Reid. All of these factors converged for The Hundreds, Reid, and Osiris, to finally debut a D3 that’s been in the works for several years.
We sat down with Bobby Hundreds to chat about the genesis of D3 collab, and how The Hundreds looks to the youth and the future for inspiration. Scroll down to read the full interview.
The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
StockX: Why are you collaborating with Osiris, and why are you bringing back the D3?
Bobby Hundreds: So the story actually began several years ago. Brian Reid has been a friend of the brand and a good personal friend, and he designed the D3. We’ve been writing that story on our website for a few years now, just informing everybody on the history of that shoe, why he designed it that way, and why it’s just such a significant piece of shoe culture and skate culture. I think it’s arguably the most successful selling skate sneaker of all time.
So a few years ago Brian suggested that, just for fun, why don’t we try making a D3. I was vehemently against it for several reasons. I was a fan of Osiris, but I just had never owned a pair of D3s, and it was really a controversial shoe, at the time. The design was so crazy, and it was such a complicated, gigantic shoe. It also wasn’t necessarily associated with the number one skateboarder in the culture at the time. Dave Mayhew was a good skater, but he wasn’t the greatest, and I think that’s where a lot of the controversy lies: this shoe was out-selling all the other shoes, but it was associated with a skater that wasn’t an Eric Koston or someone of that caliber. I told Brian no, and he was like, “Well, let’s just make one anyway, it’ll be fun.” So we made one shoe, and that’s the shoe you’re looking at today.
I’m not in the business of trying to be relevant to 40-year-olds. I don’t sell Brooks Brothers suits; I don’t work at J crew.
A year-and-a-half ago, we started getting a new generation of kids coming to work at The Hundreds that had a different perspective on everything. They bring a different vantage point as far as what is relevant and what culture means to them. They got wind of this shoe, and our marketing director said, “Hey, I heard you guys worked on this The Hundreds x D3.” And we were like, “Yeah,” almost as a joke. He argued we should put the D3 out because a lot of kids of his generation started skating with the shoe. I kind of opposed the idea, but some of the other younger guys we trust were also saying we should put it out. This back-and-forth is a really clear example of where we may not be understanding something generationally and may not be on the same page, but The Hundreds isn’t just the story of Ben and me, it’s the story of all of us and of community. So we entrusted these kids to run with the project because we believe they have their finger on the pulse of the culture. If they feel like they can tell a good story on the shoe, let’s put it out. So we started working on it, and it’s been a year-and-a-half-long process.
Did the whole Under Armour x ASAP Rocky SRLo play into this at all?
I think it exists independently of that, but I can’t say that it hasn’t affected our enthusiasm for what this shoe may bring to the marketplace. ASAP Rocky and his coverage and his exposure are like a million times what we could ever bring to the table, so he definitely whets the appetite for this type of shoe. But when he was introducing his Osiris shoe, we were also running a lot of editorial around Brian Reid and reminding people that it started with this designer because I think a lot of that narrative was getting lost. Our project, though, was already in motion at that time and ASAP Rocky’s shoe just helped to propel it forward more. It was like, “Hey look, like, there’s even more incentive now for us to tell a broader story around this shoe.”
Right: The Hundreds x Osiris D3.2001 // thehundreds.com; Left: ASAP Rocky x Under Armour SRLo // underarmour.com
How do you see this collaboration fitting into any kind of skate shoe revival?
I think we’re reaching this point in time where there’s a collective nostalgia around a certain era of youth fashion, and we have this weird, like, 15-year nostalgia window. Now these kids are in their early twenties, and they have the means to buy things that they grew up wanting, and that’s a cycle that you see repeatedly happen throughout fashion and culture. This cycle explains why Jordans have these significant surges every few years because there’s another generation of kids who are now coming up who couldn’t afford them as a kid and are now buying them for themselves. So it’s just like this nostalgic, sentimental culture that is now encompassing skate footwear of the early 2000s and late ’90s.
Avril Lavigne wearing Osiris D3s on the “Let Go” cover. // Avril Lavigne, “Let Go” (Arista Records, 2002)
Do you feel like The Hundreds and Osiris share a similar space in fashion and skateboard history?
I feel like those spaces were different, and they’re merging at this point around the shoe. We look at collaborations as storytelling vehicles. I get more excited about telling a good story, a really good history lesson, more than even a solid design or making a product that’s going to sell well. This shoe continually provides us with a platform to tell a good story, whether it’s the Brian Reid story, this collaboration story, or that now our worlds are intersecting.
How can we do an interpretation in The Hundreds’ way so a little of our DNA is attached to their DNA, and we can create something good together and connect these worlds?
Any final thoughts?
When you look at these kids coming up now, they’re like, “I don’t care man. I’m just super grateful to be here.” Those kids are the ones who keep me on my toes; They keep me being better. Again the D3 is a good example of that. It’s an old brand and an old shoe, but it’s a young way of thinking, and I could be an old dinosaur and be like it’s not cool to me, it’s not cool for a forty-year-old. But if you’re trying to stay cool for 40-year-olds, you’re not going to be relevant to a nineteen-year-old. I’m not in the business of trying to be relevant to 40-year-olds. I don’t sell Brooks Brothers suits; I don’t work at J.Crew. I’m in the business of catering to 19-year-old kids and speaking their language and trying to understand and support them and provide them with what they want. So if they’re excited about a D3, I need to be open to that. So the real question becomes: How can we do an interpretation in The Hundreds’ way so a little of our DNA is attached to their DNA, and we can create something good together and connect these worlds?
Shop The Hundreds x Osiris D3.2001 on StockX here.
