From Lawyer to Streetwear Icon
Bobby Kim, better known as Bobby Hundreds, is the founder of the iconic Streetwear brand, The Hundreds. He initially went to college studying law, ranking near the top of his class and landing a sweet internship at a well known law firm.
His manager at the internship, Abe Edelman, was a legend at the company known for basically memorizing a library of precedents. Abe, 40 years old at the time, was also dying of cancer.
On the last day of his internship, Bobby describes the pivotal conversation he had with Abe that spurred him to go all in and pursue The Hundreds:
He looked upwards and said, “Bobby, you’re gonna have it all, man! The cars, the houses, the girls. You’re about to make a TON of money…”
“Awesome. Totally! Crazy!!,” I could only muster, as visions of dollar signs and Maseratis danced through my head.
Then Abe drew a deep breath, returned his gaze to me, and with a bold tone, proclaimed, “…but you should NEVER be an attorney.”
This is me being stunned. Wait. What?
“Bobby. Look at me,” he motioned to the alien fixtures surgically bound to his waist, “I’m 40 years old, man, and I’m gonna die.” Tears welled up, not out of sadness, but anger. Abe was pissed. This cancer was robbing him of a perfectly good life, without explanation and without prejudice. “Do you want to die at 40 and realize you spent your life doing something you weren’t passionate about? At least I can say I did something I cared about and loved. You don’t love being a lawyer. You’re not passionate about this. You’re passionate about The Hundreds. I see it in you, I see how you talk about it, it’s all you ever think about, man. Do The Hundreds. Life’s too short –” and the rest was lost between broken sobs.
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