Following the announcement that HUF was discontinuing its footwear line, Keith Hufnagel expands on why the decision was made, and his vision for the brand moving forward at the 1:06:17 mark of the latest episode of The Nine Club. It includes collaborations with other brands, and carrying their products in HUF stores. This explains the tease of a Converse project that we saw back in January, and harkens back to HUF’s roots as a sneaker boutique.

I am bummed, happy, sad; it’s mixed emotions because it’s like… It’s kind of cool to go out with a little bit of buzz instead of failing, and have it drain the company down. Maybe we made a mistake; and maybe it could have been this huge thing. But when you really analyze it, it’s a smart move for the company. We have plans to grow and be this strong company. Maybe we’ll do shoes with other people. Maybe we’ll partner with other people to do some shoes. And we want to support other people too. We want to put some other shoes in our stores if they [shoe companies] can put them in there, and keep giving back to the community of skateboarding. But we’re smarter now. We don’t need it as much. We don’t need to be owned by it. We want to design our line, and have things come in and be a part of the collection.

Watch the full interview above.