Bobby Hundreds

0:00What you're doing when you do that is you're saying, oh, I'm relevant. And what is relevance? Relevance just means that it matters, right? So you're saying, I matter, like I exist. And you just want to know that you're not alone.

0:16From the TED Audio Collective, this is Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

0:23On Design Matters, Debbie talks with some of the most creative people in the world about what they do, how they got to be who they are, and what they're thinking about and working on. On this episode, a conversation with Bobby Hundreds about identity, brands, and brand identity. I believe in brands that are living, that continue to adapt, that continue to grow.

0:46Hello, it's Ed Gamble here from the Off Menu Podcast. And James Acaster here, also from the Off Menu Podcast. Imagine a backyard tradition. A sun-drenched afternoon, a massive vat of bubbling oil, and a man named Big Dave wearing goggles. It's a lot of effort for a bird. Well, what if I told you that Boar's Head has brought that exact backyard tradition right to the deli counter? Well, I'd say, James, you finally lost it. Boar's Head brings to the deli the taste of deep-fried turkey. It's all the seasoning and that golden fried glory of the fryer's turkey breast, but without Big Dave having to set up a perimeter in your garden.

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3:19This interview took place on April 16th, 2026 in front of a live audience at Canva Create in Los Angeles. Bobby is a designer. He's a writer. He's the OG co-founder of The Hundreds, a pioneering streetwear brand that really has helped redefine the relationship between fashion, storytelling and community. And over the past two decades, his work has expanded beyond apparel into publishing, cultural commentary. And today he is the global creative director of the Walt Disney Company. Right? It's a fascinating story. I have spent the last two weeks immersed in his world, and I can't wait to share it with you all.

4:07Please join me in welcoming Bobby Hundreds for a very special live episode of Design Matters here at Canva Create.

4:19What is up? Bobby, I understand that one of your favorite novels of all time is Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Oh, yeah. By Min, yeah. Yeah. Who's read that book? Yeah, that's a beautiful book. It's a beautiful series as well. You said, though, that if anybody had read that book, they would understand your entire upbringing. Yes. So talk a little bit about how. Well, there's a lot of my familial history that is woven within that narrative. That's not that common, but it is a story that is recognizable and understood within the Korean immigrants community. that intersection between Korea and Japan and war and poverty and overcoming all odds and insurmountable obstacles to find success in the West.

5:16So my parents weren't the subject of that story, but it was very relatable. I think they saw themselves in it. My mom was the one who told me to read that book and then became a good friend of mine. And actually my manager, Teresa, and And Justin, Sean, my writing partner, were involved in the series of Pachinko. So that's a story that's really close to my heart. Just as an FYI for folks, Min Jin has a new novel coming out in the fall called American Hagwon. Yes. And I've gotten a little bit of a sneak peek. Oh, really? Yeah. It's amazing. It's amazing. Even that American Hagwon is about the SAT schools that Koreans and Asian Americans are very familiar with.

5:58And so that's why she wanted to meet with me, because the first iteration of that, I actually participated in. Participation is like not the right word for what that is. It was SAT boot camp. But that will maybe will show up in the book. You grew up in Baltimore. You were born in Baltimore. But you grew up in Southern California, where you described yourself as a minority of a minority. Can you talk about what that means and how that shaped how you moved through the world at that time? Yeah. Born in Baltimore, for whatever reason, my parents ended up there. And then we moved to Southern California.

6:39And not a lot of Asian Americans in my community, and even beyond heritage, not a lot of people who were attracted to the types of interests that I was drawn to. even the town itself of Riverside in those days there it was a little bit off the beaten path people were looking at Los Angeles and and Riverside was kind of this developing community with the orange groves but there was especially within the 80s and this is kind of hard to process even for like my kids today but there was a really distinct delineation between the mainstream and the underground what we would consider subculture now and mainstream and pop culture and for someone like me who there weren't a lot of people who look like me but I didn't necessarily feel like I was represented or that I belonged when within some of those mainstream spaces mainstream sports that was largely devoted to jocks and jock culture I was not a jock I was not athletic in that way I didn't know how to play with teams very well so there was an entire bastion and a sector over here, a frontier known as underground or the alternative, alternative sports, alternative music, skateboarding.

7:59I grew up in the hardcore scene and punk. And that's where I found myself being a minority within a minority within a minority town. You started drawing in secret when you were three years old. Yeah. But you felt you had to hide all of your drawings that you were making. Why did you have to keep what you were creating a secret? Yeah, I mean, look, no knock against my parents, especially if you have immigrant parents, you might be able to empathize with this plight and this struggle. You know, they were scared. They were just they were so frightened moving to this country. it is very difficult, as you know, to emigrate and to enter into this nation and then pull yourselves up by the bootstraps and make it even in a traditional career path.

8:49And so it's funny because both of my parents are very creative. They're both artists innately. And they saw that within me. They knew that I was drawn to the arts. I was drawing from as early as I could remember. I was always really enchanted by cartoons and animation. And they did everything they could to stifle that within me. Not because they didn't think it was great that I had that skill set or that interest and that intrigue, but that they were worried. And I had a lot of problems with that. You know, there's a lot of friction between us for it. It wasn't until I was older, you know, when you become a parent yourself, if there are any parents in the audience, you start understanding your parents a little bit more.

9:33of how scary it is. And so that's essentially why. You described a household where even a B plus or an A minus could be a problem. Yeah. Where achievement wasn't just encouraged, it was expected. But you were also an extremely good student. You skipped first grade because of how early you were able to read and write. Yeah. You've also described yourself, though, as restless, hyperactive, and even anti-authoritarian. And so I'm wondering, what did that teach you at that time about what made you valuable? Oh, wow. Yeah. Now I look at it as a superpower. Like, I really own that part of me. But in those days, you know, we didn't have a lot of literature, a lot of vocabulary to understand those types of personality types of being ADHD, of being saddled with various different mental health struggles that some of us might endure as creative people.

10:37and so we were all labeled as problem children right like we were miscreants we were rebellious if we were challenging the status quo or questioning authority and I remember I was with my therapist a couple years ago and I and I would talk about myself in this time of my life as being a mischievous kid, like a bad kid, right? And that was a narrative that I had written within and that I had been told and I had absorbed that for so long. And she questioned that and she said, if your children were refusing to follow rules, coloring outside the lines, metaphorically and literally, you know, would you deem them as being a problem child?

11:27Would that look like a bad kid to you. And I was like, no, I would love that. Like, I think that's the best thing, especially for a creative person. They should be questioning all the rules. They should be reframing narratives. They should be looking at it from their perspective. And she was just like, then why do you do that with yourself? And so I, at that time, I always considered it a slight, I thought it was a burden. I thought I had this weakness and that I couldn't focus. I was a dilettante. I couldn't stick to one subject. I, as you'll see throughout my career, I've kind of bounced all over the place.

12:06And, you know, the narrative, the conventional understanding of what a career journey and a path and an artistic career should look like was really, really uniform. And I never wanted that. And so I was concerned growing up. And I thought that that might have been a knock against me, but it turned out to be my best, my best strength. You said that when your creativity was restricted, it didn't disappear. It just found other ways to come out. Is that how you discovered skateboarding? Yeah. I mean, I was never a good skateboarder, but again, back to this dichotomy between there were mainstream sports that I didn't find a home within.

12:47I didn't relate to a lot of the athletes that participated in that type of sport or culture. And for the rest of us, we had skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing or some other types of action sports. And these were individual sports that towed the line of art and dance and were very creative. And I not only fell in love with the sport, but with the culture and the community that surrounded it. Skateboarding doesn't just come with the physical act of skate. Skateboarding comes with a different perspective on the environment around you. So it draws in a lot of artists. It draws in a lot of photographers, some who go on to become very recognizable names, like guys like Atiba Jefferson.

13:29The musicians that grew up within the scene become some of the biggest bands, like whatever, Blink-182. So skateboarding was a haven for young creative folks like me that didn't find themselves necessarily represented within the mainstream dialogue. Well, that culture or the subculture really became a portal into music, into style, into identity. And you described gravitating towards spaces like punk and hardcore where you could be louder, more visible, more fully yourself. What did that freedom unlock in you? What were you beginning to see that you could become? Yeah. It's the same thing that I see within my, I have a 16 year old son.

14:14I have two boys, the 16 year old, he loves going to rap shows and he loves moshing. And they, and I'm sure some of you can relate to this. And that's something that when we were growing up, we would do that at rock shows and punk shows. And now they do it at rap shows and it's amazing. but I think especially now there's so much societal pressure and there's so many expectations of young people and you have to be perfect. You have to be immaculate. You cannot trip. It's recorded. Tyler writes about this on his album. These kids don't even dance because there's phones out and they feel like they're going to get flamed the next day.

14:52I think there's so much more expectation now of young people today than there were back then. where we were allowed to kind of roam and make lots of mistakes. We were not on the public stage. We didn't have a YouTube channel or TikTok or an Instagram page where from the get-go all your moves were validated and crowdsourced by strangers. You could sing in the dark. You could sing in the shower, and that was okay. And because of that, now when my son goes out into these venues and he's at these rap shows and he's moshing, he can get it all out and he can be rambunctious and dirty and messy and it's okay it's a safe place for you to exist and I had that within the punk community also these clubs these underground basement shows these living room shows were a way to feel safe and to externalize all of the pressure and all of the stress I might have had where I didn't feel like I was doing the right thing in the outside world.

15:56But within there, I felt very comfortable and felt very much myself. You then went on to University of California in San Diego. Yeah. And got your bachelor's degree in media and communication. Yes. And you were writing, doing a lot of photography, freelancing. And when I got to the next part of what I thought was my research, I was like, this can't be right. I have to double, triple check this he went on Bobby went on to law school law school he has a degree in law why yeah I I don't know sometimes I wonder myself um well uh I had graduated from college I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up I still don't know I'm 46 years old I tell everybody I can't wait to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up and I hope I never figure it out to be honest life there's the world is just so big there's so much to do so I graduate college and by the way when I'm an undergrad I came in with four majors I ended up like studying everything from media to psychology theater and then it was the first year they were offering some semblance of graphic design and they're calling computing in the arts at UC San Diego.

17:19I took every single class I could take. At that time, UCSC had five colleges. I was a participant in all five colleges. By the end of school, I think I knew almost everyone on campus. I ran for office every year. I just, I just had this voracious appetite for, I'm very curious. And I just wanted to know everything that that school had to offer. But it gets me into trouble when it's like, well, what are you going to do when you grow up now? I'm like, I'm not sticking into one lane so I couldn't decide I had analysis paralysis and I went to Japan on it and I was writing for a year and I was I was learning what this burgeoning street culture was uh was doing out there that was inspired by New York and a lot of these incredible iconoclastic artists from the city um and there were these brands that were coming up like A Bathing Ape and Neighborhood and Double Taps and Street Fashion and Bear Bricks and Collectibility and the idea of Veblen goods within the street space.

18:14I mean, I just was, I was so enamored by it all. But I, again, I'm growing up with this narrative that I have to do the right thing, especially as a son of immigrants. I have to have a conventional and secure career somewhere. And so law school was inviting, very boating in the background, but also I was doing a lot of social justice work at the time and had a lot of, my heart was really set on human rights. So I figured I don't want to go into politics, But if I can understand the system from within, maybe I can enact change in a way that is more impactful than running for office or trying to become a political figure.

18:54So that was the that was the primary motivation. And I'm sure I thought also at the time, like, here, I'm going to make some money. And the money will afford me the luxury of being able to pursue art. That's that was my mindset going into it. You went to Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. And when you were there, you met two people that really changed the trajectory of your life. The first was one of your professors, a man named Abe Edelman. And when I read this story, my heart just kind of exploded a little bit. I was so charmed by how he influenced you that I was wondering if you would share that with the audience.

19:38Yeah, absolutely. So he actually wasn't a professor. Oh, you interned. Yeah, I interned for this guy, Abe. I show up. It's my first summer after my first year of law school. Law school is three years. And by the end of that first year, I was already very creatively frustrated. I was excelling in all the classes. In fact, in some of those classes, I was ranked first. I was getting the highest scores. but there was one class that I was failing and miserably I was at the bottom and it was a legal writing class because I'm a writer and the way that legal writing is performed is that if the apple is red you say it's red you don't say it's crimson they strip you of all adjectives and fanciful language and I just my brain couldn't process it so I'm getting very creatively frustrated at this point I everyone takes some type of internship during that first summer of law school sets you up for your big job I walk into the courthouse and I'm like all right who am I reporting to and there's this guy and he he looked like he was homeless he he looked like a homeless Santa Claus he had like this gray wiry beard and he was schlubby he had these oversized sweats and um he was he was just really abrasive as a person I mean today we would just say he was spectral you know he didn't necessarily like fit within society and he approached me and I could smell him like he was like he just he had like this scent and i was just like well yo what is this guy's deal like i have to report to this guy all summer and someone pulled me aside later and was just like oh you get to report to abe you know he's the smartest person not just in the courthouse but in all of la county he's a legend he's literally memorized the library so he takes me to the research library he's like what's your first case you're working on and i forget it was like a crack in a pavement and someone tripped on and they were suing the city and he literally like felt the books he like walked along the spines of the books pulled out a book flipped through like page 1039 and it was like that's your answer that's the procedure you're gonna follow and write a memo about them like did you memorize library he's like yeah so I work for this guy all summer long but what I find out is that he has cancer and the cancer is bad so his friends around him are like look you got to go easy with the guy he's on chemo he's not acting right and he's saddled with this disease.

22:01And as the summer goes on and I'm working for Abe, he starts disappearing. He starts disappearing in front of me physically, losing weight, he becomes emaciated and then he just starts disappearing altogether. He stops showing up. So the last two to three weeks I show up to work, I'm starting to report to someone else, I'm doing my job. But the last day of work, I walk into the courthouse and he is giving everyone the reviews. And there's like nine other interns beside me. And he's going through the, and I'm last as usual, because I'm always late. And he's going down the bench and one by one people are scooting up on the bench and he's just like, all right, you're good.

22:43I'll give you a letter of rec. See you later. Thank you. People moving in and out. And then he gets to me and I'm like, what's good, Abe? Like, how are you doing? It's been a minute. you feeling okay he's like yeah yeah i'm good he's like you're amazing you're gonna be very successful as an attorney he's like you're probably one of the best interns i've ever had and i was like amazing he's like you're gonna have it all you're gonna have all the cars you're gonna have all the girls all the women i was like plural plural like all this i was like yes let's keep it going and then he goes but you should never do this he's like you should never ever become a lawyer and I am young you know I have this ego and I'm just like immediately you know defensive and combative and I'm like what do you mean you just told me that I was going to be a billionaire being a lawyer I'm going to be one of the biggest lawyers he's just like no no one day you're going to be 40 years old like me and you might be dying of cancer is that a life that you want to live for the next 20 something years and I was 23 at the time the idea of 40 years old to a 23 year old I know many of you in your 20s you might like I remember when my dad turned 40 I was like this fool's gonna die like I was like that's it like 40 years old like that's the end you know so I was just like 40 years old i was just like no man i got like a lifetime to leave like nah it's like i'm and he was like you should do what you truly love and i was like i love the law i'm good at the law he's like no i'm good at the law he's like this is what i'm passionate about that's not what you're passionate about what do we talk about every day when we go to lunch and i was like no we talk about case memos we talk about procedure he's like no no what do we talk about i was like okay so every day at lunch i would walk out with him and i had a graffiti black book if anyone grew up doing that type of work and in my graffiti black book in the back of it i had mapped out this brand called hundreds that my friend ben and i in law school had just started at the end of the first year and it was a nothing it was really a nothing there were a few designs that i'd sketched out there's a website a framework that i built because we did that at the time and he's like You take out that book and you talk to me about these stickers you made.

25:06And you talk about this story you want to get into. These artists you want to work with. He's like, the way you light up when you talk about that, that's what you do. And I was like, okay. I take Abe up on it. He dies two and a half months later. The last time I saw him, he didn't even recognize me. And then during COVID, I turned 40. and I remember the day that I woke up in bed and I said, oh my God, I'm 40 years old. It went that fast. So it can go that fast. And so it's just a reminder for everyone, please do what you love. If you're good at being a lawyer, we need you. By the way, this is no knock against the legal profession.

25:54It's very important. And God bless the people who do it the right way. but life can be very short. I'm 46 now. So life just keeps going. And I encourage you all to, to think, think about those passions of yours. Thank you for sharing that.

26:19I have, um, I have something weird where I like, I don't cry. I like, I don't know what's wrong think I'm like a monster. And I almost started crying. I've only cried twice in my adult life when both my boys were born. And I was just like, whoa. But it's just been like amazing to look back on that story. Thanks for asking. I never get to tell that story anymore. I was about to start crying also, but I cry every day. If you've got a teenager, it's time to have the talk. You know, about investing. With the new Schwab Teen Investor account, teens can gain hands-on investing experience and build positive money habits.

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27:47Hi there, it's Adam Grant from Ted's Rethinking Podcast. And this episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. I get to spend my days studying how people think and what it actually takes to change our minds. It's work I find deeply meaningful. But even in meaningful work, there's still busy work. The admin, the repetitive processes, the invisible load that pulls attention away from what really matters. That's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work. They actually do it. Start to finish, cases closed, requests handled, no extra work for you to learn how to put ai to work for people visit servicenow.com hello it's ed gamble here from the off menu podcast and james acaster here also from the off menu podcast imagine a backyard tradition okay a sun-drenched afternoon a massive vat of bubbling oil and a man named big dave wearing goggles it's a lot of effort for a bird well what if i told you the boar's head has brought that exact backyard tradition right to the deli counter.

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29:18So you started the hundreds. You and Ben start the hundreds in 2003. So we go and partner the hundreds, yeah. With a few hundred dollars, a box of t-shirts, a silk screen. How'd you start? Well, there was no blueprint. There was no YouTube Academy for this type of work, for establishing a streetwear brand. Not only that, but there was no definition of what streetwear is. There was no definition of what that was. There was skateboarding apparel and there was urban apparel at the time. So late 90s, early 2000s, skateboarding, DC, anything in action sports, which was code for white kids. And then there was urban, urban, you know, Echo and Isha, Rockaware, black kids.

30:06And then you're looking at Ben and I, who's a, Ben's a Persian Jew from the Valley. I'm a Korean American kid and I grew up in Riverside. What about us? And so even for us, we didn't have models to follow. We didn't have an industry to necessarily excel and thrive in. And so it was on us to create what that roadmap could look like, not just for us, by the way, but for the community, which was eventually what led to our success, is that we created a stage for everyone to exist, as opposed to just making sure that we were okay. It was very scrappy, no money. Still no backers or investors in what we do.

30:56$600, no, six, I guess, initially$600 each, that's all we had in our bank accounts. We just put it right in. Made a bunch of shirts with our friend who's a screen printer in the valley. And there's a great story about this in my book, too. And he ruined all the shirts. So we were out of business before we started. And then we had maybe 20 shirts that were salvageable. And we just sold them at the trunk of our car to our friends and said, like, anything you can donate, please throw it back in. And then we turned that over and we turned it over and over and over again. And we got to a place where we were starting to develop collections.

31:34backed by an online narrative through a thing called the blog, which in 1999 Blogspot launched, blogger.com, and it was a way to live journal. And I thought that was really important for someone like me. As you can tell, I'm a storyteller, but I didn't want to just create another clothing company where the art was just because. There had to be a reason and a purpose, and there had to be a narrative and a story and that I wanted to tell through these t-shirts I didn't want there it's just the art just well that looks cool I'll buy that or that brand is supposedly hot because so-and-so's wearing it so I'm gonna purchase that hoodie I was like no I want to say something with it this is a forum like what a beautiful beautiful stage for us to be heard as artists in these t-shirts and so if you take it all the way back that was the initial impetus and the motivation for why I even wanted to do t-shirts because I was an artist and I was a writer but there was no way for my work to get seen I would take my art to galleries they said we you know there's no place for that here we don't know who you are and so I said if I put it on t-shirts I could put it in everyone's face and that'll be a way for my art to get seen and it wasn't just about my art getting seen but then there'll be a dialogue if I wear a shirt like this a person seeing it might say something it might get a reaction it might confuse it might make them angry or they might say i love that shirt what is that about and now there's a relationship forging between the person wearing it and the person seeing it and observing it and then that's community so that's how that's how i looked at the entire premise of a t-shirt brand and we went into these stores we weren't just there to sell streetwear we were there to sell community.

33:23Like this is a way for us to, to forge new relationships and friendships within the cities that we sell in. There was also, and still is quite a lot of wit and intelligence built into the design that you do. Um, and very early on you were doing parodies, um, and you did quite a few parodies with Mickey Mouse. Um, so I did. So is it, is it true? Well, is it true that Disney the execs came to the hundreds booth at a trade show and told you to stop where they'd sue the pants off. Yes. Yeah. So how did that turn into an actual official collaboration? Yeah. Well, exactly that. They, they, they were someone that was sympathetic on their side and it took him and his discernment to approach us at a show and say, you really have to stop doing that.

34:15They're about to sue you back here, but I got you. There's a guy named Les Shekko. I was just texting with him right before I came out. But Les was the one that was at Disney at the time. And he knew what was happening with it. He had the foresight. He had the sensitivity to culture to understand what was happening in this bubbling streetwear market. And he knew that Disney, as an entity, as a studio, could always use more relevance, especially with young men. And if we collaborate with them, with these young designers that sell to these male demographics, that's a way that Disney can find more permanence within some of these different scenes and cultures.

34:56And so he's like, what if we did it the right way? Now, here's the thing with collaborations. And I still I always follow this philosophy, which was number one, when we collaborate with anyone. and I even carry this into my latter stage of my career now, you only do it from a place where it says something about you that you can't say for yourself. And so what we're trying to avoid is developing monolithic brands that are just one face, and I want to feel like we're multifaceted, not unlike people. So the best brands are like a best friend, right? You don't want someone who's just one note and says the same thing and can only deliver like the same type of response or comfort.

35:42You want friends that are complex and complicated and nuanced because we are as humans. But we've gotten into such a rut and a routine in the way that we develop brands. And it's because of even the way that the word sounds like it's a permanent brand where this is what it's locked into and this is forever what it'll be. But I believe in brands that are living, that continue to adapt, that continue to grow. that make mistakes that one day might be over here, one day might be over here, just like a person would. And so collaborations are the best way to express that and communicate that. I have a deep, deep love and adoration for Disney, for the animators, for Imagineering, for the art departments there, and especially their storytelling.

36:29And so historically or traditionally, I would have never wanted to work with a big company or corporation or a studio like that. but was there a way for us to work with them in a way that highlighted a nuance of our brand that I couldn't share for myself. And that was doing a collaboration with Peter Pan's Lost Boys. And then more collaborations came along the way. And you did a few collaborations in the meantime, the hundreds is growing. You have some volumetric growth. Jay-Z is photographed wearing a t-shirt. He's on the cover of USA Today. And then you, you make a very deliberate decision to scale back.

37:02you and Ben want to keep focused on community and you want to keep it very intimate and with a lot of integrity yeah 12 years later you're sitting in your studio you get a call from somebody at Disney like hey Bobby what's up yeah well wanna wanna come be our chief design officer yeah how does that work sure sure yeah there's not a lot of detail out there about that The timeline is not, it wasn't 12 years later, but we are working within the company. And look, that's a great question because the hundreds, streetwear is all about this dance between integrity and credibility within a space, which is actually what makes it kind of remarkable is that there's so much accountability.

37:47The community holds your feet to the fire in streetwear. So you can actually only move in a specific way. There's a lot of code. There's a lot of rules. And there's a lot of honor and respect that you have to show the pioneers and also the people around you. So we move as one. And so it was really, really important for us to make sure that we were working with integrity, that we're moving in a way that honored the culture, but also honored the brand. And preserve the legacy and the permanence of what this could be. You know, early on when people would say, what kind of brand do you want to build?

38:19And I was like, I want to be like Ralph Lauren or Coca-Cola. Like I want to be around for a hundred years, Levi's. Like that's a little bit of a different mindset than I see a lot of newer, younger entrepreneurs coming out the gates with. They want to build brands that they want to flip. And there's nothing wrong with that. Again, it's just two different doors into the same room of success. But for us, it wasn't about valuations and it wasn't about a quick flip and behaving that way or finding capital. It was, I want to create a lifelong story that tells a story of us, of Ben and I and our friendship.

38:52And so I totally lost track of where we were going with that original question, which happens all the time. No, I mean, you're answering all the questions that I had in my head. So it's actually perfect. Yes. But I was actually hoping you would get to where you get. I was hoping I would get there as well. I'm almost there. No, we will get there right now. take your time i um have been doing the hundreds for 24 years wild 23 and almost 24 years uh which is insane because the people who are buying the brand now didn't exist when we started which is very humbling also because um if any of you are our owners or founders you develop these brands and you think that people know you're like i don't need to tell them where i've been or what i've done you don't have to tell stories like this they know and then I meet kids who are 17 years old who are just like I think the hundreds means this right now I'm like no no I gotta start over and you have to keep retelling your story a year and some change ago it was Thanksgiving week I got three phone calls within 48 hours job offers now I've never applied for a job in in this stage of my life the last job I had was I worked in a mall you know and then I was like an editor at a magazine I was like an internship but that's when I was like 19 and 20.

40:16So I haven't had job offers, let alone three that were meaningful, that were actually kind of enticing. And they were very, very flattering, right? So the first one comes in and I'm like, wow, that is so nice. And that sounds like a lot of money. And I need that money. But no, I work for myself and I'm not interested. And then six hours later, another one came in. And then I was hiking in the Temesco Mountain, like Temesco Canyon over here. And I had a phone call from a friend and the phone's cutting out and she's like I have to ask you something it's really weird and I'm like I'll call you later I call her at 10 o 'clock at night and I'm like what's going on and she's just like I got a weird question for you I was like are you gonna offer me a job and she's like how did you know I was like and I knew she worked at Disney I'm like you asked me to come work for Disney and she's just like I know that sounds crazy you're an entrepreneur you have the hundreds and I was just like in any other week I would have said absolutely not like not interested at all I don't work for anybody I work for myself and that's the dream that I've pursued and I've materialized it I did it and I was like but for whatever reason the universe keeps throwing this at me I'm going to lean into it and whenever I'm scared or whenever I'm confused or baffled by something that's going on in my life I always charge towards it I'm the guy in the scary movie there's the murderer upstairs like I run up the stairs like the idiot like my three worst fears in life are drowning the dentist and public speaking so I speak as much as I can I go to the dentist every six months and I surf to intentionally put myself in those situations and so this actually scared me I was like why are there so many people do I look like I need a job right now like do I need to start dressing better like what's happening So I take the meeting with my now boss, Marcus Rosi.

42:07He's an SVP of creative on the product side. And he paints the dream. He paints this beautiful portrait of what it's like to work for Disney. And for the first time, I actually considered this idea. I still want to do the hundreds. I write on the side. And Disney allowed and carved out the space for me to exist in that way. And they thought it would actually be beneficial to the work. four or five six months later so almost a year ago now I started at Disney as the initially the VP of creative for the Americas and then eventually I became global creative director for products. Thanks.

42:54Disney operates at a massive global scale. Yes. How do you bring community over commodity mindset into that environment, or can you? Yeah, that's a recurring theme in the work that we did with the hundreds. It was always about people over product. And I love that you say community over commodity. I haven't even considered that way. That sounds cooler. It's all yours. that one's for free i remember when i joined and i'm obviously from a creative and artistic community and um half the people half of my community was like amazing like this is the coolest thing ever and it makes so much sense if you really really know me and you've followed my journey you know i'm gonna i'll never stay in my lane i serve all over the road and every few years I embark on, I did a food festival and sold it to Complex.

43:47I wrote books. I write, I have a show in development with FX right now. So I'm like all over the board. So they're like, of course you end up at Disney. You've always been the biggest Disney adult. You love the IP, love this world. And then there was another segment of my community who were like, oh my gosh, you sold out and you work for the man. And I was like, at the time I was just like, yeah, the man's name is Bob bloggers guy's pretty cool actually he's like a really nice guy i was just like i see that man at work and um i see a lot of these men and they're actually like decent and very creative folks who support creative but when they were asking about the community piece and they were like well it's so corporate and how does that fit within culture i was like dizzy is the master of assembling community.

44:38There are so many cultures and subcultures within, and they are so good about reinforcing and supporting these people in a way that they feel seen. It is almost like the last frontier. Like it's a completely neutral and inclusive space where wherever you are on the social and political spectrum, you feel like it belongs to you. there was a day about a month ago there was a very politically charged day at Disneyland you could look it up where different factions were saying they were going to show up on the same Saturday and I was an idiot that didn't even know this was happening and woke up on a Saturday and my family was like let's go to Disneyland and I was like all right and I tell my friends we're going and they're like not today like it's gonna be crazy and there's gonna be chaos and it happened to be one of those days where it's been like 100 degrees for no reason so climate change climate change there is a reason thank you and we're walking around the park and i'm seeing these different tribes right these people wearing this color this these people were waving these flags and there was a black gospel convention happening at the same time that the chicano latino organization was showing up so there was like everyone stirring together at the same time and i'm standing in line for pirates of the caribbean and the line is long it's 45 minutes and i'm with my kids you don't get like a pass no no no i'm not that special yes um and you know they want me to earn my stripes so they're like you're gonna wait and i'm watching these different groups interact they're literally there's 15 of these people there's 15 of these people and they're butted up against each other and it's hot and everyone's sweaty and complaining.

46:27And I'm like, ooh, I can hear them grumbling. And I'm like, what are they saying? What are they, they're getting into each other. And I lean in and I hear them go, oh my God, it's so hot. And then this group is just like, oh my God, it's like 110 degrees. Why is it so hot today? And then they're like, but I'm so excited to go on the ride. And they're like, I love Parsons and Caribbean. I love this part. And I was just like, oh my gosh, these people don't care at all about any of this that's going on in the outside world. here, they have a shared love for Pirates of the Caribbean and a shared hatred for the weather.

47:00And it just brought everyone together into this one last remaining monoculture where everyone is invited in. And so when I think about community and I think about what Disney does in terms of welcoming everybody in, our greatest strength to me is the IP. We have thousands of characters across Marvel, Lucas, Disney, Pixar, 20th Fox, even Nat Geo, ESPN. There's thousands of characters that we own. And just to bring it full circle, this is a big part of the human condition, which is we're always looking for ourselves out there, right? So me growing up, I'm into skateboarding, I'm into hardcore. I don't see that in the media.

47:43I'm an Asian American kid in a neighborhood who's not a lot of Asian Americans, definitely not in media. so anytime an Asian person pops up on screen, I'm like, Asian, right? Like it's a Leonardo DiCaprio meme. Like Asians know this. Other cultures know this where, you know, even if you're into punk rock and you see a punk rock kid on screen, you're like, punk kid, you know? And so what you're doing when you do that is you're saying, oh, I'm relevant. And what is relevance? Relevance just means that it matters, right? So you're saying, I matter. Like I exist. And you just want to know that you're not alone.

48:17we have thousands of characters within the Disney universe where everybody can claim their own right some people are like I'm an Olaf and they're like oh why is it that one's mine you know like I'm a Winnie the Pooh like I'm a I'm a Deadpool like that's my guy and what are you saying you're like that's the closest to my truth like that's the closest representation of me out there the avatar of me. And so I, just to go back, I think Disney are the champions of community. I think they have identified what people are looking for, which is belonging, representation, meaning, and they'd wrap stories around it, stories that help us make sense of very complex and complicated universes, especially today where nothing makes sense.

49:01We need these narratives to help us through and figure out what's going on. Robbie, we have officially run out of time. I know. I wish I could talk to you for the rest of the day and into tomorrow. I want to ask you one last question. Sure. You said that you made it by making it. Mm-hmm. And you hope to make as much as you can while you're here. What feels most important for you to make next? Oh, wow. I don't have any pie-in-the-sky dream of something that I want to create. when I look back on my career, uh, it's even, you know, there are a lot of kids that walk up and they're like, Hey, I have this shirt from this year, or I've now vintage is so big that we are kind of like, it's, it's, we're seeing this cycle again of the hundreds where again, young people who weren't around for the first time are finding it in, in thrift and secondhand and saying like, what is this about?

49:55And I don't even remember, like they're showing me jackets or denim that I made or footwear. And they're just like, do you remember these? And what was this, was a skew number and like you know when did it come out what season i'm like i don't even remember but i remember the people that i worked with all along the way i remember everyone i remember everyone i collaborated with i remember all the artists that we put on a pedestal that we championed i remember everyone that i worked with on staff at that time i'm like oh but i remember at that time this person was here oh my god we had like such a good time we went to dinner we went to this party We like went to Coachella together.

50:31So I always say like the best thing I ever made were all the relationships, not just my, the relationships with me, but within the community. So many people found each other because of the hundreds and because of greater street where they found their life partners, they found their best friends, they found their business partners. Like that's collaboration to me is that we brought people together. We provided these bridges that people could find each other in a world where we're more and more isolated and fragmented. We need these vehicles and we need these types of projects in order for people to find each other in the dark.

51:09You know, they start with a shared interest and a shared love for the hundreds. That's great. You know, that's great. But then they're like, yo, but are you into this music? You know, you want to go to this show? Are you down with this artist? And then they start doing their own thing. And so the collaborations amongst the community were the best thing I ever made. and I hope I get to just continue to do more of that in the work that I get to do at Disney on a stage and at a scale like that. Bobby Hundreds, thank you so much. Thank you so much. Debbie Millman, everyone. Mastering viewer. Thank you.

51:46Design Matters is produced for the TED Audio Collective by Curtis Fox Productions. The interviews are usually recorded at the Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, the first and longest-running branding program in the world. The editor-in-chief of Design Matters Media is Emily Weiland.

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