Launched in January of 2005 by Kevin Ma as a simple want-list of gear and sneakers, Hypebeast has gone from a one-man blog into a full-blown online magazine with far-reaching influence on brands and fans the world over. As Senior Editor, Eugen Kan has become a gatekeeper of sorts to all that is cool. As irreverent as he is intelligent, Kan represents the reluctant but well-qualified influencer of the 21st century who is the intermediary between brand and consumer. StreetLevel linked with Eugene to talk about his work, his life and his personal style.


For a long time Hypebeast was a one-man operation, how did you get involved?

It's sort of weird and ironic how it all started. A good portion of the team is rooted in Canada and Hong Kong and somehow we all ended up working together under the same roof. After I graduated university, I decided to take some time off and travel. I played soccer pretty much my whole life at a decent level so I figured I'd come to Hong Kong and play for a year or however long. I had a useless economics degree, which I knew wasn't worth much, so I just delayed the inevitable [reality] of eventually settling down and working in a bank job that I would f***ing loathe. Moving to Hong Kong was an easy choice, I had family here, but also noteworthy was the fact I wasn't good enough to play anywhere else [laughs]. I would have a grip of free time each day so I sort of got acquainted with the good people over at the online sneaker store Kix-Files for whom I would blog every once in awhile. Eventually, I got "scouted". . . OK, that's lame. I got poached by Hypebeast and made the jump because I was getting paid a ballin'-ass $3 USD per post. This was back in March of 2007 or so and it eventually turned into a part-time contributor position which then led to a full-time gig when I decided to stay in Hong Kong semi-permanently.

Were you in any way involved in the creative or administrative aspects of street culture before HB?

I sort of touched upon it before [Hypebeast], I did some minor blogging for Kix-Files and before that a shop blog for a friend back in Canada (Foosh.ca). I guess back then even before that, I did have a penchant for some simple DIY s***. I actually put together this terrible studded jean jacket that said "EXTREME EUGENE" on it, in fabric paints and s***. But the thing that kicked it off was in grade ten or 11, I went to put the aforementioned "EXTREME EUGENE" on a belt but spelt it wrong and it came out as "EXTRME EUGENE", then my friends started calling me "Excrement Eugene." All in all, looking back I never considered myself really doing stuff and consciously telling myself: "Yeah I'm doing this, I'm so street-cultured", I just did stuff 'cause I liked it and largely 'cause where I was, there wasn't that sort of sub-cultural aspect. In many ways not knowing and walking in the dark was a lot more fun. No regiment or manual to follow, just do s*** you wanted to do.

There was a long period where blogs were like the Wild West, with no rules or governing bodies, do you find, now that Hypebeast has become as big as it has, that there are new rules of journalistic integrity that you must follow?

I definitely think so, the little guys get away with a lot more s*** in terms of what they do. They can rip you off, they can keep content up without worrying about having big companies bitching at you for leaks. I definitely try to make sure proper accreditation goes down but when you're a smaller fish in the sea you don't really have to play by the rules. No big deal I guess, s*** comes with the territory. But for some traditional print mediums that have developed an online presence, usually they don't really participate in the so-called "un-written rules" of blogging. Either they don't care or they don't know. I often find that it's usually the work of a few doing the work of many. If ourselves and people like High Snobiety just ceased to post for two days, there would be a definite drop cause big sites are at the top of the hill disseminating the news for all these smaller get-rich-quick news blogs.

Hypebeast is very influential in deciding what's cool and what's not. Brands send you stuff and try to buy your affection because your cosign makes and breaks them, is it daunting having that kind of power? How do you discern what's cool and what's not? Do some things that you don't like slip on to site occasionally?

Actually, not all that many brands send us s***. We went through a bit of a phase where we would request products to photograph on our own. But we realized that is pretty time-consuming and not all that beneficial as the post is gone 23 minutes later onto page 4. A good indicator of a brand's quality seems to lie in their ability to put together a well-produced lookbook I find. As well, lookbooks are a much better association with a brand's overall direction and concept. Their attention to detail, their execution, all-in-all it's a more comprehensive measuring stick than say a press release and white background shots.

Making and breaking brands... eh I would like to think that no brand needs Hypebeast to survive and vice versa. The exposure is good for brands obviously but there are lots of mediums out there as well. However, one thing that does ultimately make it difficult is that with each passing month, year, cracking the Hypebeast front page is arguably getting tougher. We're a day older, a day more experienced and have seen just that much more s*** so it makes the bar rise day-in and day-out. When HB was smaller and we didn't know or experience as much, it was easier to get that solid exposure that little brands needed to make the next step. Now that platform is still attainable, just you need to jump that much higher out of the starting blocks. Less room for f*** ups and you really have to get it right the first time in my opinion. The Internet is a running encyclopedia, everything is documented. For upstart brands, your s*** if it does make it to some media outlet and is wack, it's forever ingrained into the fabric of the Web. By doing so, it's easy to draw reference and difficult to remove yourself from bad drops. In the past with print mag, no way you would look back and find that specific page with that 1997 spring/summer collection that was terrible.

As for power, I never really think of it that way. Sort of goes back to the previous statement, nobody needs us to live and we don't necessarily need them but obviously there are some major traffic drivers. I still consider myself a regular person, not some almighty being--maybe even thinking some people out there look at me as that is a bit much and misguided on my part. But anyways, I really don't know how much power I yield, so to say. Nobody reads Hypebeast in Hong Kong cause there's already a huge print magazine culture and they can't read English all that well [laughs]. I'm sure if I was in the US, it might be a different story.

In terms of slipping . . . it's not really slipping if your gut says that the demographic or reader base wants to know about it. Like if I think our demographic is suddenly in favor of Crocs/Affliction/Vibram Five-Fingers and Kanye and Pharrell are doing collabos with those brands, as much as it pains me, yeah I think we'll put it up . . . but I will post it under STAFF and not my own name [laughs] . . . S***, now you know my secret!

With a lot of your info coming from the U.S. and you guys being in Hong Kong, do you find the inverted time zones to be a hindrance to the timely delivery of information?

We got a dude by the name of Luis working as an editor out of San Francisco so he helps alleviate some of those problems. Usually Kevin [Ma] works a half-day shift and a night shift. But it seems like I'm doing that more as of late as well. For most our news, I wouldn't say it's US-centric, it's pretty diverse so it's not a big deal. But most dudes in this industry on top of their game work f***ed up hours to span the global time zones.

Have you encountered situations where brands or artists were upset with you over your depiction of them or putting out info early etc? Do you have any horror stories?

Yeah happens all the time, but less so as of late. Maybe because peeps need the support more than ever? What really puts us in the s***ter is sometimes when we pass on some peoples s*** and they bitch at us: "You put--insert brand name here--up but don't put our s*** up?" I always feel real bad when I put up bad info, but that is the nature of the beast and an unfortunate aspect of blogging as you scour the net for news that often comes from third party sources. I'm all for quality, but quality and timing are a fine relationship in the world of blog media. In terms of blogging, it's cool if you take the extra 36 hours to compile all the info on a piece of info that is generally well-shared among the community... but within that 36 hours, everybody else has posted it and nobody will really bother reading your link assuming it's the same re-hashed bulls*** seen in other blogs prior with the added bit of having the model number and release date.

Hypebeast became the model for many of the quick hit culture blogs spurring many imitators and driving print media to follow suit. Do you guys feel like credit is due?

I don't really give a s*** about credit to be honest. I like my job, but I still think it's pretty nerdy. I f***ing live in front of a computer and I blog about clothes, shoes and s*** that I think are cool . . . Yay. Not really, I'm still apprehensive telling peeps I'm a blogger cause it's like that person you meet from adidas or Nike for the first time... you know those kinds of people exist but it's just weird to meet them or a blogger for the first time. I usually just say I'm an editor at an online magazine and hope they don't ask anymore questions. I think that for us the bestowing of the title as "model" is a bit far-fetched, but I feel that the real credit due is for just the movement of blogging. The hyper-connectedness of the Internet is unparalleled, we all know that. But many are still hesitant to instill trust and support in it. It makes our job tougher when we're met with friction on the part of many who are not comfortable venturing into unfamiliar territory.

Are blogs the demise of print media?

I hope not. But then again I must admit I don't remember when the last time I read, front-to-back, a magazine that landed on my desk. I do like to think that humans require a sense of touch in their life and that includes tangible products. Something to touch and feel is a human necessity. I know print is going through a tough-ass time, but hopefully some way they can re-invent themselves and become relevant once again. It's obvious that the better days for print are long gone, coming from an era where they were the king in terms of portable, visual content. But now they're sharing the arena with the Internet, computers and cell phones. I am not the person to solve this massive riddle nor do I want to fathom what exactly is needed to revive print.

You get hundreds of brand submissions daily, but what do you actually wear? What's your personal style?

Over the last little while, I've definitely seen myself diversify in tastes and s*** I wear. I like mixing it up and I find that's the fun part of fashion. I like to wear sweat pants and a tall-beater with tech-y running shoes to the gym and then throw on a pair of Danner Mountain Lights or desert boots with slim cut denim and a button-up for another day. I like aesthetically bold stuff as well like COMME des GARCONS and Henrik Vibskov alongside subtle classics like Alden. But the unfortunate aspect is, you only have so much money and you're hard-pressed to drop cash on something that is instantly noticeable and not really timeless. I have a lot of trouble fitting Japanese brands that I like a lot and even dope American contemporary menswear designers cater their sizing largely to people with pre-adolescent body types. I usually am relegated to buying Asian XLs which fit fine in the chest and shoulders but are way too big in the arms and length, and I get them altered.

When you're not writing posts about random brands on the internet, what are you doing? What's your solace outside of work?

I used to make sure I got real f***ed up at least once a week on Saturdays usually, but I've taken it easy or I plan to for the month of May. I have a huge project I want to make sure blows up the Internet so I'm making sure things are working out. To be honest, all I do is work, go to the gym, and meet people who come through town every so often. I need to change that. Oh yeah, sometimes I play Call of Duty 4 on XBOX Live. The one thing I try to get myself up on is reading. Reading books is too difficult as I'd prefer to immerse myself in multiple topics. Hence I have like a massive backlog of articles I save via Instapaper and I just read it whenever I'm commuting and what not. NY Times dominates my Instapaper pretty much. I just find things most interesting when I can find some real-world relevance to streetwear. Life is a big bag of intertwined tricks, separating and finding the relevant relationship and exploring that is what makes things come full circle. Thanks a lot for the opportunity, I look forward to seeing you guys put together some solid, original content.