Keith Hufnagel interview
These days, it seems that skaters fall into either the fresh, hesh or flannel/Dickies sectors with little originality within each. But when it comes to standout style, Keith Hufnagel is one of the originators.
Since turning pro in 1992, Keith’s skill, unique-as-hell style, trick selection and on-board originality has made him one of those skaters that’s not only progressive but enjoyable to watch too. Hell, just watching Huf push down the street is enough to get you psyched.
In the early part of this decade, Keith’s career as a skateboarder had no obvious bumps that might lead him to seek out a backup plan or use his time for anything else but skating. But in August 2002, Keith Hufnagel added business owner to his job description when he opened the very first HUF store—a boutique-style shop specialising in hard to find apparel.
Today, there are two HUF stores in San Francisco and a newly opened one in Los Angeles. And as his stores flourish with limited edition collaborations and hard to find gems, Keith continues to push the HUF line to new levels of innovation, originality and style.
HUCK: So you grew up in New York City. How did you find yourself living in California?
I moved to California when I was 18 back in 1992 and I ended up going to college at San Francisco state.
What was the transition like?
I mean, I was pretty much obsessed with skateboarding at the time so San Francisco at that point and time was the capital for it. So for me, it was awesome. San Francisco had a New York feel to it. I could pretty much skate everywhere and all of the best skaters were there at that point, so it was pretty much a dream come true more than anything.
How did HUF come about?
In the beginning we wanted to host a lot of our friends brands and carry harder to find brands all under one roof. You know the Nike SBs, Supreme, Stussy, Adidas; those kinds of things because it wasn’t really like that in San Francisco. At that point, it was all scattered around the city. We also wanted to bring the New York feel to San Francisco. So we had a lot of the local New York brands in our store and that was kind of how it started.
It’s crazy how you transitioned from pro skater to business owner, what was that like?
Basically, in my early days I could just skate everyday with no worries and just do whatever - go out skating, take photos, hang out with friends, play golf. Now I have a real job with employees and all that where I have to perform. There’s so much work. Having this kind of job is a real job. You have lots and lots of responsibilities that you have to fulfill everyday. It’s a little more intense than being a pro skater.
It’s almost like, 'Why would you even want to do it? You’re still a pro skater; you can easily keep doing what you’re doing.'
Exactly. I guess if you can do it while you’re doing another job, you can have your career last longer and turn it into another job. It’s like what do you do after you’re a professional skater? What’s your talent after your talent has disappeared?
Did you open HUF with that idea in mind…a career after skateboarding?
Yeah, it was definitely something where it was like, 'ok, let’s build something and this is something you can lean on after you’re done skateboarding and have something to do'. Skateboarding is the absolute best job in the world but it’s also, if you don’t turn it into anything, a dead-end job. Unless you make so much money that you can retire which isn’t for everyone. There’s probably only a handful of people out there that can probably retire from skateboarding.
Going to work everyday is it full time? How do you juggle the business with being a pro skater?
I have people now who pretty much run the stores so I don’t really touch that. And then I just deal with the brand and my skating. So when you’re feeling good, you go out and skate and then come back and deal with your work. You just have to do it, whenever you’re feeling it, go skate!
Did you have any idea that HUF would grow into a full-on brand?
You know, you’re always making t-shirts, to hats, to sweatshirts, to pants to button ups. You know it was a very grassroots way of building a brand. It was very slow and soon everything just evolved.
What are some of the challenges of running a business in a shitty economy?
It’s really just comes down to keeping it fresh and keeping your customers coming in really. It’s definitely a change from when we started the business. It’s a whole new path to make sure you can continue sales, bring the right product in, bring other brands in and not buy too much or too little. There’s the whole strategy to it.
Have any of the collaborations been weird when it crosses over to your sponsor’s territory?
I’ve had those conversations with my sponsors and it’s more of just a shop thing and they’re all cool with that. And at the same time, we do a lot of collaborations with my sponsors whether it be Real, DVS or whatever.
So let’s talk about skateboarding. How’s filming for the new Real video?
It’s up and down. It’s been good. We’ve gotten some good footage and the guys on the team are beyond amazing so I think it’s gonna be a really good video. It comes out next year so we still have a lot of time to film. But right now just try to go out and skate with everyone and have a good time, and hopefully you can perform that day and get a cool trick.
Anything that you’re trying to do different with your part?
I mean I’m definitely trying to make it….hitting random spots and skating things different than other people skate it. So kind of trying to go against the grain a little bit.
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Comments (5)
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That hipster is wearing a f*ckin flannel!
my friends (joey kallatch) house burned down the other day and he lost everything! and I know he is a HUGE skateboarder. but cause of the fire he lost everything including his skateboarding stuff. when I heard of his lost I wanted to do something for him so I wanted to get him a skateboard. so I was woundering if you could get him an autographed skateboard. that would be awesome........please write back.
sincerelly
stephen crooks