This Is Not a T-Shirt
A Brand, a Culture, a Community–a Life in Streetwear
About the book
Bobby Kim, better known as Bobby Hundreds, tells how The Hundreds, a brand started by outsiders, became one of the few early streetwear labels to last as the style went mainstream. The memoir ranges from his punk, DIY youth in Southern California to the brand's rapid rise. Along the way he explains streetwear itself, the hoodies, sneakers and T-shirts of a scene where real cool sits alongside big business and a star designer may work with Nike, Louis Vuitton, a tattoo artist and a skateboard company at once. He pairs the personal story with his view of where streetwear came from and where it is heading and a focus on building community.
Lena Waithe praised it as smart and funny with real insight into streetwear, Tony Hawk called it an insider's guide to decades of youth culture, and Gary Vaynerchuk endorsed Hundreds as a storyteller who knows how to bring people together.
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This book has 6 recommendations
Gary Vaynerchuk (Chairman/VaynerX)
Simply put, Bobby Hundreds is a social beast. He knows how to tell a story, where to tell that story, and he's great at bringing people together. He's also crazy dedicated to his work and has the laser-focused attention to detail needed to not only build an everlasting globally relevant brand, but any successful business.
Tony Hawk (Owner/Birdhouse)
This is Not a T-Shirt tracks the history of surf and skate culture and their relationship to streetwear—from the Zephyr skate team of the 1970s to brands like Stüssy, Supreme, BAPE, and, of course, The Hundreds, which has managed to stay relevant for more than fifteen years in a fickle market. This book is an insider's guide to the prevailing trends in youth culture of the last few decades that highlights the importance of self-discipline and self-confidence; the same traits that made me fall in love with skateboarding at a young age.
Lena Waithe (Screenwriter, Producer & Actress)
“With This is Not a T-Shirt Bobby Hundreds has proven that he’s not just an incredible designer, but a literary force as well. The book is smart, funny, and gives some real insight into the ever-changing, ever-elusive Streetwear game. It’s a great reminder that art exists in many different forms and that a kid with a dream can be unstoppable.
Ronnie Fieg (Founder/KITH)
Bobby is the embodiment of the type of hustle that streetwear was built on. In This is Not a T-Shirt, he maps out how to start a brand and blow it up while maintaining a core community—it's like a streetwear bible slash history book.
Jessica Alba (Founder/The Honest Company)
Building a brand is about identifying and fulfilling a need in a way that no one else can. It takes vision, dedication, and attention to detail. The Hundreds is a prime example of what it looks like when you've combined all these elements along with tapping into a culture and community. This is Not a T-Shirt guides you through methods and tools you can apply to get you one step closer to fulfilling your dream.
Alan Yang (Co-creator/Master of None)
Bobby Hundreds is an encyclopedia of American pop culture, from breakfast cereals and Saturday morning cartoons to hardcore, punk, and hip-hop. He's packed all of his cultural insights into This is Not a T-Shirt, a book about turning your hobbies into your passions, which he's done his entire life. Also, we went to high school together, he was way cooler than me then, and now he's written a book before I have, and that's extremely annoying.
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Gary Vaynerchuk, Tony Hawk, Lena Waithe, Ronnie Fieg, Jessica Alba, Alan Yang