Why nostalgia is such a powerful force for brand marketing
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Welcome to Most Innovative Companies. I'm your host, Yasmin Gagne, joined by my producer, Josh Christensen. Hey, Josh. Hey, Yas. Josh, what is the brand that you would say you are most loyal to that you will never quit? Oh, that's a good question. Man, I love an REI store that I will ride and die for REI, which I don't think is...

I love an REI. I'm also, it's, you know, this is such a, I don't really like the brand in terms of what their ethos is and their style is, but they're the only pants that I found consistently fit my body type right, and it's bird dogs. Do you remember that?

I can't believe they're still around. Their whole thing is so shitty, but never go away, Bird Dogs. I love your pants. They're such good pants for my body. I'm a tall, broad guy. I really struggle finding pants that are my length, but also not 8,000 times larger than me. Bird Dogs gets it right every time. Really, rethink your whole branding.

Anyways, but Yaz, what brand are you most loyal to? And I'm assuming it's not Black & Decker given the construction that's happening above you right now, if listeners can hear. I think for me, it's like condiments. Condiments? No, like as in I'd pick like Heinz ketchup every time. So you're not like a Sir Kensington ketchup fan? You have to do Heinz? Are you kidding me?

You don't like an organic homemade ketchup? No. Yeah, they are really annoying. If I want ketchup, I want it to be like... I don't want to have any hint of actual tomato. Absolutely not. I want it to be bright red and it doesn't separate. It's like organic peanut butter. I just... Give me Jiffy. I do like organic peanut butter, actually. But okay, so...

condom anything else besides condiments that you were most loyal to I trust most things from Trader Joe's like I feel like I wholeheartedly endorse and I know people found rocks in their food recently but that's okay that's okay

And then there's like a lot of makeup brands where I'm like, not that I wear a ton of makeup, but like I grew up watching my mom always wear Chanel lipstick. So in my head, I'm like, oh, that's like what I should like have one. You know, I feel like that's a pretty common thing. Makeup is something that like for people who, you know, folks who wear makeup, there are brands that like,

people swear by and die by, and that's their go-tos. Yeah, exactly. So we're going to be talking about brands that matter very soon, but before we get to it, any housekeeping? Yeah, so we just have a couple things that I want to call out to our audience. We want to hear from you and what you think about this show, who you want to

want us to interview or topics you want to talk about more. So if you want to let us know how we're doing, leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Seriously, tell us what you want to hear, what you've liked. Be nice, though, because we're delicate and we can't take too much criticism. So be constructive in what you want to hear. And also, if you don't want to leave a review on Apple Podcasts,

Hit us up on Instagram. We're both there. We're both following. We're going to be trying to do some more Instagramming and social media stuff and trying to connect to our listeners a bit more. So you can follow Yaz at Yazzy G on Instagram. That's at Y-A-Z-Z-Y-G.

which is still my favorite screen name ever. It just rolls off the tongue. And I'm at the Joshua Chris on Instagram as well. So slide into our DMs. Let us know what you want to hear. We are both sort of famously horrible at Twitter. So we're trying something new. X.

Sorry. So later on today's episode, I'll be talking with Bobby Kim, a.k.a. Bobby Hundreds, about celebrating 20 years of his streetwear brand, The Hundreds. But first, today's the day Fast Company's Brands That Matter issue an online package is out. And here to chat about it is Fast Company senior staff editor, Jeff Beer. Hey, Jeff. Hi.

Let's go over what this package actually is. What is Brands That Matter? Well, first, thanks, Josh, Jazz, for having me on the podcast. This is a very exciting day. On the podcast again. Yeah, not since Barbenheimer. I don't have my Barbies in my office anymore. But they are here in spirit. Speaking of strong, powerful brands. No, Brands That Matter is our recognition program that

aims to recognize companies that really build connection with their audience through their brands by being culturally relevant, by making an impact through social causes and throughout all that, communicating their mission and values clearly. Now that...

might come off a little like this is the brand purpose awards or the- - Yeah, like the Patagonia Awards. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's not really. And when I say, my definition of brand purpose is more about self-awareness, is about like, what is that individual brand's purpose and how well are they executing on that and connecting with the people that they wanna connect with? And that to me is like the bar.

This year, we have 165 honorees. There's 68 general excellence winners that we pick out of all the different categories of which there are 30 categories. And in that general excellence list, the kind of one we poach brands from kind of all different industries and product categories, we've kind of set

segmented them off into these themes of whether it's like mind and body for a lot of beauty or education brands to state of play, which really looks at brands that tap into fandom across whether it's sports or video games. Oh, I love that. A big mix. I mean, it's interesting. You guys were talking about the brands earlier at the top of the show. And, you know, I could hear...

across the different, like whether it's Josh's Pants or your ketchup. Just out of context. What brands that matter? Josh's Pants. Josh's Pants matter, man. I'm starting a D2C company that's called Josh's Pants. But...

speaking of themes, I mean, you look at all these brands, I mean, and a lot of it is apples and oranges because we're talking about different industries and different types of brands. But really, I think there's brands that resonate an emotional level, like you're kind of almost illogically tied to a brand because of how it makes you feel. I mean, you kind of touched on that with the, I think, did you say Chanel lipstick? I did say Chanel lipstick. Okay, good. Yes. So that with your mom and that's sort of an emotional, but

Josh is clearly not emotionally tied to bird dog. No, anti-so. This is purely utilitarian. Yeah, but that's a product. The product fits you so well that that's where your loyalty lies. And I think then there's the...

the kind of perfect storm brands that mix like that product fit and the emotional sort of connection that's a little bit of the magic. It's tougher to explain, but... The nostalgia factor is just a huge thing with like the Chanel lipstick. And now I feel like our... Now, like, Yaz and I are of...

you know mid-generation millennials we're like peak nostalgia marketing right now like i just saw did you see that craft macaroni is re-releasing the spongebob shape to their craft macaroni and cheese and it's all about millennials and stuff but that's a perfect example of a brand just being like these fucking millennials they'll buy our shit if we put spongebob in

Well, it's funny. Like I was just talking to, and they're, this is, they're not on the list, but they're a very strong brand. Magic Spoon, you know, the healthy cereal. Their whole thing was kind of Instagrammy, you know, but also using the junk cereal nostalgia with a new twist of being less sugar. They just came out with treats like, and they call them treats. They're basically a Magic Spoon Rice Krispie treat. And they were basically telling me they made them to be like a throwback to those kind of

first wave cereal bars and rice crispy treats that with like the drizzle on top and all that. Have you tried them? Yes. Are they good? They're pretty good. I went off magic spoon because I once like the only snack I had in the office when we were in the office full time was a box of magic spoon that somebody gave me and I ate it all dry in handfuls over the course of like a month. I love a good dry cereal snack.

Absolutely. If the cereal can hit dry, you know it's good. And maybe you got to do it after a box. Yeah. Magic Spoon is another company that's like a hardcore podcast advertiser, which they really like. It's one of those brands, which is interesting. We welcome them to sponsor this podcast at any time. Oh, yeah, please. Magic Spoon? Come on. Hit us up. Hit us up. I took a left turn down away from Brands That Matter for a minute, but...

we do have a huge mix of brands that vary from like, I feel like a brand, like in terms of that loyalty, both on the product side and the emotional side, like people won't necessarily think of this as maybe as a consumer brand, but like Blumhouse, right? Oh, that's my, I,

I wrote about that. Yeah. Oh, hey, look at that tie-in. We're all synergy. Yeah. And if you go back and listen to last week's episode, there's an interview from Fast Company Innovation Festival that Yaz did with Jason Blum. Blumhouse gets a lot of love on this podcast. Yeah, Blumhouse gets a lot of love. I haven't heard last week's, but I will say that when you hear that, there's the individual film marketing, but the work that they've done to...

both their product has done this because of the quality, but also just the way they market themselves. It's a Blumhouse production. Like if you're a fan of one of their films and you're not quite sure who the director is of the next one, but you see it's a Blumhouse film, they have that,

that brand now that is, that is super strong. It's almost like, uh, it's like the film version of a really strong indie record label where you're like, I don't know this band, but they're on this label. So I'm going to check it out. Yeah. As far as other brands that have stood out, I mean, PlayStation is on this list, which I have an incredible amount of loyalty to due to my PlayStation two days from my childhood. Mm.

But tell me why they're on the list this year. Well, the brand itself has, I mean, like you say, it has a lot of historical strength. But really, I mean, in terms as a cultural brand, they've really sort of leaned into this past year. They had HBO aired The Last of Us, which is a huge...

uh, joint production between Sony pictures and PlayStation. That's based on a, on a 2013 hit video game and Pedro Pascal started it. And it was awesome. It's also this year on the, that's sort of on the culture side, on the product side. Uh,

It came out with an access controller, which makes playing video games more accessible to people who have a hard time using the traditional controller. So that's just a quick version of why. But like we thought that mix of like the cultural cachet with the product development and sort of broadening the tent of who can be a gamer, who can enjoy their products was a cool combo. I love that.

So tell me about how Coors Light ended up on this list. And I say this also, my grandma had a cat named Coors and when the cat died, she got a white cat named Coors Light. That's awesome. So she had, she had Coors original and then Coors Light. That's amazing. Coors Light. Yeah. That's why they're on the list. Uh,

that someone would name their cat Coors and Coors Light is pretty amazing. And speaking of things that aren't quite beer related, one of the things that Coors Light has done is really they've found a way to sort of lean into the kind of, I mean, light beer, let's be honest, is kind of one of the,

goofier advertising categories, brand categories, or should be anyway. And they've really, I really liked how over the last year they've leaned into that with their partnership with Patrick Mahomes and how NFL players aren't allowed to explicitly endorse

alcohol in advertising. So they came up with this, one they came up with was the Coors Light, or the Coors Light Light, and it's a flashlight that looks like it's the same color as the can of Coors Light. And they did a whole commercial, and it's all the whole wink, wink, whatever. And the thing sold out in minutes, obviously, and all the proceeds go to Mahomes' foundation.

They did the same thing with the Coors Light Bear. He was endorsing the bear, not the beer. And it was like a golf... What do you call those things? I want to call it a koozie, but it's not. Head cover for golf clubs. And that sold out again. So it's like they're... Not only are they sort of making fun of the whole... It's a little bit of meta advertising, but they also...

are creating the products that they're kind of joking about and actually allowing people to buy it. I mean, I think increasingly that's an example of, you know, brands used to make lots of jokes and stunts and whatever, but you actually have to follow through. You have to pull the thread until it's done. Like you got to make the thing and you got to let your fans buy the thing. And, you know, obviously this is for charity, but like the follow through on the joke on the bit was huge. Committing

to the bit is a big deal. You know, speaking of Mahomes, the NFL is on the list, right? Yes, the NFL. The NFL is on the list. Obviously, it's one of the, if not the most popular league in American sports, but it's really done a lot of work this year and kind of looking to redefine what a football player looks like. And they've really, they've opened up

NFL Africa camps in Ghana and are expanding to Kenya. And I just think, and as well as highlighting campaigns that focus on women in the sport, like flag football and the NFL's tied to that, it just feels like the league has done a great job on building on the strength they already have to kind of widen its scope and scale beyond what we traditionally think of when we think of the NFL and

who your typical football fan and typical football audience is. Yeah, the NFL international pipeline stuff is interesting because the NBA has had a lot of success with that in terms of NBA Africa and the kind of transfer program there. And it probably also behooves them to improve their pipelines because less and less kids are playing football in the U.S. coming up for injury reasons like that.

People don't know about CTE abroad. Flag football is huge now. Like they're really pumping that as well as like a participation. I don't know if it's the gateway to, or maybe they're changing the sport going forward a little bit tweak by tweak. Right. Certainly the flag football is opening up to 50% of the population in, in,

women playing flag football. And I believe it's even being considered as an Olympic sport at some point, or it's being pitched as one. But anyway, the NFL's got its hands in all that and really working to, yeah, expand that audience and potential player pool, as Josh said. Did you see the Toy Story game this past weekend? That was awesome! Yeah, for those who...

Yeah, exactly. For those who don't know, the Jaguars and the Atlanta Falcons played in London over the weekend, as they've done for a lot. But they had this simulcast that was basically, I don't know, some sort of, basically took the game and put it into Toy Story format in real time, where it looked like they were playing in Andy's room in the game, and it was really cute. My husband showed it to me against my will, and I was...

really grumpy and then I actually loved it. I was like, oh, this is awesome. It's really, I mean, kind of like to do that in real time in a way that was so interesting is really a technical feat. Like that was pretty incredible. Absolutely. I mean, I think we often credit Major League Baseball as like the techie sports league, but certainly NFL, like this was a huge,

I've always thought the NFL is kind of a little over serious, a little too buttoned up. And they've kind of come a long way in loosening that up a little bit. And this is just a prime example of that. They're taking the sport seriously, but maybe not themselves so seriously. But taking seriously the idea of making sure it's entertaining to as many people as possible. And I don't know, I thought it was cool. I don't really watch football. And that got my attention.

Do you have any other quickly, like any other favorites that we didn't mention? Fair Trade USA, which is like a... I wrote that entry too. Sorry. I feel like I should have pointed out at the beginning that I contributed to this package. I should have pointed at the beginning to thank you for contributing to the package.

So thank you. Yes. No, uh, fair trade. I, I'm not even going to read it yet. I'm just going off the top of my head right now. But the one thing about fair trade USA that I love is a, that they're expanding their program of it for those who don't know is, uh, um, basically treating, uh, workers, um, and, and working conditions as, uh, human beings that are living wages and, and, and actually, uh,

healthy, safe working environments and certifying these so companies can be secure in the knowledge that their products are being made as responsibly as possible. But they're kind of like the, in terms of responsible business, responsible labor practices, a little like the Intel of that. That's how I think of it anyway. It's like, they're not like a brand that sells anything, but if you see their mark, it's like there's a trust that

And a shorthand there that they've established over years of work and certainly expanding over this past year into different product categories, I believe more apparel and coffee and elsewhere, that it just shows that the demand is there and that the trust that they built is really paying off in that expansion.

You also have your own brand. For those who don't know, Jeff has a like surfing brand, like they sell surfboards and clothes or whatever. And I'm curious whether any of the brands that matter inspired you. Oh boy. Well, first it's a tiny, tiny, I live way up on the East coast of Canada, a place called Prince Edward Island where the surfing is not great.

But I'm close to Nova Scotia where it is great. And it's kind of the joke we saw. Me and a few friends started this Rustico Surf Club. It's named after the little village we live in. And it's part sort of social club, part, you know, like T-shirts. And like I said, we do have surfboards from Positive Vibe Warriors out of San Diego, another great brand to check out.

mostly all our own stuff, little designs and stuff. But I think what I learned the most is that what we, in our tiny, tiny little way, is just know kind of who you are and not try to be something you're not. In all our communication, in all our how we talk to people, we know that this isn't like a surf mecca or anything. And we're very aware of that. And that's kind of the joke. I'm not trying to be... We're not trying to be something we're not. And I think that to me...

is the best starting point for a lot of these brands is like that self-awareness and then how that's communicated. Those are the kind of the goals or the aim for anyone, including our tiny little outfit. - This was great. We're gonna take a quick break followed by my interview with Bobby Hundreds.

To start off, and I obviously interviewed you about your book, NFTs are a Scam slash NFTs are the Future. There was some news last week that I thought was public knowledge, but I guess isn't that 95% digital collectibles may be worth it. And I figured I'd just start with that.

I made like a quip about it because, you know, the critics or the naysayers have really enjoyed saying NFTs are worthless. Why would anyone want any of these? They have no value. Like all NFTs have no value. And then last week they said, well, no.

95% of these have no value. And I'm like, oh, so now you're saying 5% of them do have value. I thought it was 0%. And now somehow there's a few that to you have value. I'm like, you got to pick a lane. But yeah, it was really funny to me. A lot of people obviously tagged me. A lot of friends DM me that story.

look, this is like a real like braggadocious redemptive moment for people who hated NFTs to say, I told you so. But you're somewhere in the middle. So were people like, you know, fuck you, Bobby Hundreds? Or were they like, oh, you're right. Yeah, like people who aren't fully reading the things that I write, they only see my name and they put it up against NFTs and they're like, oh, this guy is...

fully radicalized in this way where he thinks they can do no wrong. And I'm like, clearly you haven't read. Like the people who are saying, what do you have to say about this? I'm like, I wrote an entire book. I want to come back to NFTs, but I actually want to talk about your book

career and how you came to starting an NFT project. And that all starts with the hundreds. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How did you get started? And for our listeners, what is the hundreds? Yeah, the hundreds is a clothing company. Like that's the simplest way to put it. And then if we're going to get more specific, it's a streetwear brand. It's been around for 20 years based here in Los Angeles. And in time when streetwear wasn't even really a widely used industry word,

At that time, there were skateboarding clothes and then there was urban clothes. Those were the genres or the sectors in the industry and they were code for clothing for white kids or clothing for black kids, which it was funny because Ben and I are not black or white.

The beauty of that time was that the industry and brands and corporations at that time were trying to really compartmentalize and silo young people into these categories, you know, just to make it easier as far as marketing went. It made it easier to sell to them, to capitalize on them.

But then you had a generation like ours, which was largely mixed, largely brown, largely people of color that were, you know, never really had been spoken to, you know, from, let's say, the skate and surf angle. And then you had urban brands that, you know, hadn't been necessarily aligning with white demographics in a specific way. And our generation is,

knew that young people could be exposed and interested and appreciative of all subcultures and interests. When we came into the fray, we were like, well, we skate.

But we also listen to hip hop, you know. And so what kind of a brand is that? There was this really awkward identifier at the time called scurbin. Like the fashion industry was trying to – and it was like a really short-lived word. It was ugly. It was scurbin. Let's skate in urban. And then eventually everyone just got very comfortable with the word streetwear. I can't believe that didn't catch on.

I know, right? It's just so hip and cool. You can't tell old men in a boardroom didn't come up with that word. Streetwear was symptomatic and emblematic of what was going on in broader culture. You see that happening now with music. It's hard to relegate bands or artists to certain categories these days, even gender fluidity. It's just another example of how generations now are existing outside of traditions, norms,

systems that were set in place, you know, for whatever reason. I like the way you put it. I think that from my perspective, at least, I've seen obviously an explosion of interest in streetwear over the past maybe 10 years. Yeah. Is that fair to say?

There's always this debate of who is streetwear, what is streetwear, and whatnot. Our understanding of streetwear came about in the late '70s, early '80s. It really was catalyzed by surf brands, so more or less white culture brands, beach culture brands that were also being influenced and inspired by what was happening in hip hop culture and graffiti at the time. And so it was the mixing and the merging of these subcultures.

Stussy also did the same. And arguably, Stussy was the first quote unquote streetwear brand. It's not like they were claiming streetwear back then, but they were a surf brand inspired by what was happening in hip hop in New York and then eventually Tokyo and around the world. But when we were coming up, you know, we were really looking at brands like Stussy, Fresh Drive, Extra Large, Gat, a lot of the graffiti rave brands,

And so when we were coming back in the early 2000s, we were kind of tipping our hat to the 20 years prior of what we had seen in streetwear. We never had any impression or inkling that it would become mainstream and it would become large runway fashion, which is what it did.

Finally, I think the zeitgeist caught up to this idea of young people could wear anything. I remember even back when we were starting, women customers coming to us saying, I don't feel comfortable in apparel that necessarily hugs our silhouettes or shows off curves or presents us as being sexualized. And we like

this type of boxier, loose-fitting, baggy streetwear clothing because maybe I don't feel comfortable with like the way that the world wants to look at my body, right? And so that was like another breakthrough for us. And I think that was also a part of streetwear coming into the fold because it was doing something for a lot of young people who were saying, I want to be a

brand owner, an entrepreneur. I don't want to just support these corporations blindly walking around advertising their logos on my chest. I want to be my own brand and company. And so Streetwear is also going through a little bit of an identity and existential crisis trying to figure out what it is. Yeah. So I was going to ask you about that. I live in a leafy neighborhood in Brooklyn that is pretty diverse. It's called Fort Greene.

On my street, I live on just off DeKalb Avenue. There's a Supreme sticker on the sign. And I'm always like, this neighborhood is like full of young parents. Like, it's just not very cool. Yeah. And I want to hear about the sort of street wear in crisis that you're talking about.

Oh, my God. Isn't that like that image encapsulates it all, right? I see the same. Like there are moments like that where I'm like, that kind of signifies exactly where we're at right now with streetwear, like seeing something like that, you know, or seeing like a dad at pickup, you know, at school, like wearing like a palace sweatshirt or something like that. And I'm like, okay, like this is where we are.

For every generation, there has been this moment or this inflection where the consumers or the collectors or the advocates say streetwear is dead, you know, for whatever reason. 2003 is when the hundreds started and a lot of our peers started figuring out their brands. And at that time, the one thing that differentiated us from the generation before was that we were really taking advantage of the internet.

And we wanted to share this subculture with as many people as possible through the web. That was one of those moments where a lot of the OGs and the people who had been in the game for the last 10, 15 years prior to 2003 were saying, streetwear is dead. We have brands like the hundreds coming in now, taking something that was very much an underground culture, something that was supposed to be off the

beaten path and bringing it to the front line, bring it to the main stage. And so that was a moment. And then for us, you know, there was like when the celebrities and the rappers really started to like

styling streetwear into music videos. That was another moment for generations like ours saying streetwear is dead. And then when Paris took a hold of it, we were like, streetwear has changed. And when Kanye did his thing. So every generation, there's been a moment where people's like, well, it's not what it was.

Right. Like every year that Supreme's been around, you'll find people who were wearing it two years ago saying it's not cool anymore. They were saying that in 2009. They were saying it in 2003. You know, we were saying that in 2003 when we started the hundreds. That's why we started the hundreds, because we were like, oh, Supreme's over. Now it's our turn.

Right? And so that's a part of it because there's so much elitism and snobbery and just the way the attitude, youth culture and attitude work within subculture. It's always been a part of the alchemy of streetwear is that you need to have young people who are discovering it for the first time saying, this is cool. This is what distinguishes me from my peers. And then you need people who are a little bit of a

veterans or, you know, to feel like that they have a little bit more skin in the game to be able to say, oh, I was here before everybody else. You know, it's the version of I listened to this band before they hit the radio, you know, like that's all. And so you need both of those things going on in order for a brand to have lore and to start, you know, building a legacy. Your brand has obviously managed to stay alive through all this. Yeah.

You mentioned churn, but the hundreds is still around. That can't be said for a lot of streetwear brands. And I'm curious how you navigated that from a business or design perspective. Yeah, we've been around for 20 years, which in streetwear years is like 200 years. It is kind of crazy. I'm a product of the hardcore punk scene and hardcore bands are the same. They're almost designed to be ephemeral. When streetwear brands...

kind of stick around, right? And they have this legacy. There's always like a little bit of an awkward adolescent stage, you know, like from the age of, you know, from year 10 to like into the teens, which we went through where, you know, people are like, oh, you're kind of in this weird, uncomfortable area where, you know, young people are like, oh, you guys are an old brand for old people. And then old people are like, I kind of used to wear that when I was in eighth grade. And so we weathered that.

And when you get through that room and you make it to the other side, then you reach this really wonderful stage, which is like you're a legacy brand and you're just kind of like a classic. Right. And very few make it through. I think we're very much cognizant and aware and understanding of the fact that

Most years are not banner years in business. And if you treat a streetwear brand almost like anything else in work, and you're not hinging everything on these momentary blips of dramatic success,

And it's more just like let's just get through. You're disciplined enough to know that the bumps are a part of the road, that most of it is surviving before you get to the thriving. So I talk a lot about this. I talk about it in my book. It's all about surviving and thriving. But most of your life is just going to be surviving.

And then you're going to like all that work is going to pay off for like a season or two. But it's like are you okay just understanding that the work is the work and that it's not all like amazing and like sensational and you're like a rock star all the time and you treat it as such. You just show up and do the work every day even if no one is paying attention to you.

Are you okay with being in the shadows? And I love that, you know, because to me, the reason why Street Warrior ever existed was because we were in the shadows of

We weren't in the spotlight. We weren't meant to be the main star, the pop star, the number one on the Billboard charts. We were meant to be playing the side stages. And so I'm very comfortable there. And so, you know, I think we've treated it as such. We've surrounded ourselves by really amazing young creative people constantly every generation. There's a churn internally within the company to keep us fresh and relevant and excited and inspired to do the work.

I think our community is really solid. We've just been very honest and personal throughout the last 20 years. From the very beginning, our very first time that we got asked to speak anywhere was at UCLA. And a guy stood up in the back of the room. And, you know, we were only in like year two, let's say. And he said, how do you foresee yourself sticking around in 15 to 20 years in this business forever?

you know, that can just kind of chew you up and spit you out. And I was just like, I don't think we're ever on trend. I don't think we're ever the coolest in the room. I don't think we're like the hippest or the best design. Like I'll be on, you know, but like, I think we're the most honest, the most communicative and the most personal. And I think people never go out of style. Like good friends never go out of style. You know, like you stick with friends as they change and they grow up and they become different people, but you simultaneously,

Stick with them because you believe in them and they're honest and they're personal with you. And I was like, we're just going to treat this brand as such. Like the people who are our customers, we treat them as friends. We treat them as people that we want to hang out with and we just tell them everything that's going on. And so even if something feels a little unnatural or we feel like we're taking a different path, we walk them through it and explain. And so they will support us.

because they believe in us as friends, and we do the same with them. We listen to them and we treat them as friends. And really, that's what I think has carried us through all these years, is that we've just looked at it as this relationship with the customers. And that's what we call community. You know, we're coming to the end of our time. I guess my last question, this is really open-ended.

But, you know, you've got Family Style Fest is one of your initiatives. You're also you have Fireside Fridays on social media. But tell us, A, what to look out for when it comes to the hundreds and Atom Bomb and also B, where we should find you or tune in.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So much going on. The Hundreds, the brand, is celebrating 20 years this year. So we have a lot of collaborations and special projects and events that are continuing to unroll. I can probably hint at the next one. I mean, we're doing a project with The Roxy, which is a club here in LA. It's our 50th. It's our 20th. We have Star Wars collaboration coming up. We have a project with

with Klott and BBC and Edbanger Records because it's all of our 20th anniversaries together. So there's a lot of fun, cool, very traditional streetwear collaborations in the fray coming up. We also have started, we have another brand called Atom Bomb. And Atom Bomb is more centered around our mascot, that character that we use in the NFT project. It's a cartoon bomb.

And this is a brand that's set for a little bit of a different segmentation of customer. It's meant to be for a little bit of a younger audience. It's sold in different stores. We sell this in Zoomies, which is a mall store, a shopping center store that, you know, we're in hundreds of these doors throughout the country. I didn't realize they were sold at different stores because I've just seen them online.

Adam Bomb is sold nationwide and more and more worldwide. And so you'll be able to get your hands on Adam Bomb specific product. We look at it as like Mickey Mouse to Disney, like the hundreds is Disney, Mickey Mouse is Adam Bomb. And so we're really starting to lean into him and his characters as IP. You know, you can foresee entertainment down the line. Yeah, I was going to say, are we going to see a cartoon soon? Gaming, it's all in the works.

And then Family Style is our annual food and fashion festival. It's only one of its kind. We're really proud of it. We partner Michelin star restaurants, award-winning chefs, the best in the world with streetwear brands and designers. They make product. They make food together. It's a one-day event. It's Sunday, October 8th.

Here in Los Angeles, this is our fifth year doing it. And some of the marquee restaurants we have, we have Evan Funke involved with Funke and John Avini's Katz's Deli is coming in out of New York. We have Boya Day. We got some like really amazing Yongban Society. And then streetwear fashion-wise, we have Awake. We have Kid Super, Union, Verdi, Nike's involved. So it's just a fun – I can't think of many events –

where they cater to kids who are three years old all the way to 83 years old, right? And so, like, there's something for everybody at this event, and we love to bring people. That's the whole point of the hundreds, community, bringing people together. What better way to bring people together than around food? Well, I won't be in L.A., but I would kill to go. You really have to figure out a way to go. I promise you it'll be worth it. I know.

Again, Bobby, it's always a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for coming on our show. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it.

We are back with Jeff and it's time to wrap up the show with Keeping Tabs. A reminder, this is where each of us shares a story, trend, or company we are following right now. And Jeff, since you're our guest, what are you keeping tabs on? I was going to reference, I'm going to go both ways here. Do both, do both. I wrote about Yeti and a new film grant that they teamed up with Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Vesserholly, his directing partner, and their production company to fund

new documentary filmmakers. They make a lot of amazing short films and I thought that was a great brand move. Check it out on a fast company.com. But right now what I'm going to say, I'm keeping tabs on is Canadian legend. Maddie Matheson has a new food company that called Madison food company and his hot sauces. And I just feel like this guy, I'm keeping tabs on this guy because we wrote about how he's trying to build a little empire that

weird what are renaissance profane tattooed food media empire and his videos and his products are just keep rolling out and his latest one i'm just hoping it hits more stores because how whatever he puts his hand on is just super weird and fun yeah that's fascinating sorry guys why is he a canadian legend well how much time do we have guys uh let me get into there's a lot

First of all, all you got to do is go to his Instagram or YouTube page and see some of his instructional cookbook and cooking videos. They are hysterical. We should also say, for those who may not know Matty Matheson, you would most likely know him from being a co-star on The Bear.

He's an executive producer too. And an executive producer. He plays Fats on The Bear. That's cool. He's great in the show. And then he had like, he had a show on Vice, Vice before, I'm pretty sure. And it's like a Canadian restaurant tour, mainly in Toronto, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, exactly. Like it's like a high end, one of the most highly rated restaurants right now in Canada and Toronto called privacy of who passed. And he's also got a burger joint. His YouTube shows are still cranking out and he like has a cookware line. And obviously the new barbecue sauces I was talking about, he's buddies with like Bradley Oney and appears on his channel. I got to check this out. Josh, what are you keeping tabs on? Oh,

Well, you know me. I love reality television, so of course I'm keeping tabs on The Golden Bachelor, which launched last week. It's really sweet. It is really sweet. I've really been enjoying it. Do you know what The Golden Bachelor is, Jeff? No idea. It's The Bachelor.

the golden bachelor, which is, I believe he's like 70, 72 years old. It's like baby boomer bachelor. Oh, I thought, I thought, is he a virgin? Yeah.

That's the golden ticket bachelor. That's the next one. That's the next brand, yeah. The golden bachelor is this guy named Gary. His name's spelled G-E-R-R-Y. So it's like, I don't know if it's Jerry, Gary, or Gary. I'm going to go with Gary. It's pronounced Gary, which is messed up. It's weird to me. But anyways...

He's a widower from Indiana who's looking to find his person to retire with. There's Devaney? Yeah, he's an attractive man. And there's a lot of sweetness to it. There's obviously like, you know, it's a Bachelor franchise, so it's a little bit messed up in general. But it's a little exploitative, I should say, in a lot of ways. But it's interesting to watch because like,

Everyone now on the regular bachelors is like basically media trained in some example. Like they're all people who came up with social media. They all want to be influencers. And now that's removed completely with this or for the most part with this. And it's kind of nice to see, like it actually feels like real people for an instance, which is I think what the franchise is going for. I think it's a great move from what I've seen. It's gotten great ratings so far.

which not that I don't know necessarily how I feel about applauding and celebrating the Bachelor franchise for continued success given maybe some of the damage that they've done but man I love the reality TV show as problematic as it is

First thing it made me think of was one of the issues that were raised during the pandemic in terms of long-term care facilities and old people and the whole idea that like we shuffle off old people and don't think about them. But I think we do that large, a lot of times culturally, like culturally, like they're not in pop culture as much. But this is like a cool way to like, I don't know, humanized senior citizenship, like beyond like in our own families. I think it's cool. No, all these contestants

have such like rich lives and interests you know what i mean like you know i remember on the last episode like faith one of my favorites i think she's gonna win oh i love her saying like a song she was really good you know what i mean they all are like so interesting which is unlike kind of the regular thing which is a lot of and this is like no shade to like 25 there's some like 25 year olds who do like lots of incredible things but you're 25 you haven't lived that much the

So most of them are pretty much the same thing, have the same stories. And you're always like, there's always this trope of like pushing people to share like what's their, like basically what's their trauma, their vulnerability. And it's like a lot of the times, some people are very real stuff, which always feels kind of icky relating to it. But then like the amount of times people are just like,

I had a relationship and we broke up and now I just have trouble letting people in. My guards just stop. And I'm just like, you haven't really lived through a lot of different things, which is fine. That's your place. You're a content creator from somewhere else or a content creator named Brittany from California or a content creator named Brittany from...

Indiana. Like it's all pretty much the same thing, but this is like people who have like lived lives that are interesting. And like, especially with like the women coming on the show, we're especially in Hollywood. We're so, it's so misogynistic to like pit women into this place after they turn a certain age of like, you were no longer a,

a romantic being. You are purely a plutonic. You're a mother, you're a grandmother, you're an aunt, you're, this is what you play in this. And this is like, no, these are women who are looking for love. They're coming in there, you know, romantic beings. And that's kind of an interesting thing to do in reality TV show. And an interesting zag from the bachelor because reality TV stars are so generic at this point.

point when are they gonna do like a midlife crisis version though like i'm surprised they went right to golden like you have like the 25 year olds i i mean they should have a full show that is just like

52-year-old divorcees. Boom. Everybody. Oh, yeah, yeah. All Gen Xers. They'll have some stuff to talk about. Those have stuff they don't care about anymore that the younger ones still really care about. But they're not quite into the 70s yet. I think it's hilarious. What I'm really interested for is when they have enough of these and they have Golden Bachelor in Paradise. Yes. Yes.

That'll be so good. Yeah, you're going to have like a 52-year-old divorced dad as The Bachelor and he like drives in in a Porsche and eliminates everyone who's not 25. Oh, no, no. It should be like an eight-year-old Camry. Like covered in crayons and kid puke. This is true. Everyone's just tired. Most of the dates are just like sitting on the couch.

They're like, what do you want to do? The cameras go on the house at like 1030 and all the lights are off. It's done. The fantasy suites are just like, it's just a good nap. It's like we go to dinner and then they're out by 9pm. That's it. Totally. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. What's your keeping tabs? So this was originally a Daily Mail headline, but I just found out that the New York Times also wrote about it and I'm just going to read you this. Okay. So does that make it better? Yeah.

I find a Daily Mail article every week. Every week. But listen to the headline. Tom Hanks warns of dental ad using AI version of him. Yes, there was a weird dental ad on social media that used an AI Tom Hanks to promote it. That's so funny and strange. Oh my God. He's not famous for his teeth? No. No.

Why would you choose Tom Hanks? Maybe he's just like easy to capture in AI. He's trustworthy. That's weird. But this is probably going to be happening a lot more with the more and more like AI models that are coming out. He wrote on Instagram, he posted a story that said, beware, there's a video out there promoting some dental plan with AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it, which I don't know why is really funny to me. Yeah.

I mean, of the things that Tom Hanks thought he would have to deal with in his life, I'm sure this wasn't one of them, but here we are. It's a story that really has brought together two of my favorite things to talk about in Keeping Tabs, which is the Daily Mail and cosmetic dentistry. So I felt like it was right in this segment. Next week, our interview with Smile Direct Club.

That's it for Most Innovative Companies. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, thanks for having me, guys. Our show is produced by Avery Miles and Blake Odom, mix and sound design by Nick Torres, and our executive producer is Josh Christensen. Remember again to subscribe, rate, and review, and we will see you next week.