Kelly Slater launches Outerknown and Instagram melts down.
Kelly Slater and team officially launched OuterKnown today and bravo to them and let us celebrate! Outerknown, according to the website:
Kelly announced via Instagram and the people went crazy with celebration!
“How can you sell something called the ‘Vagabond Cargo’ for $195? You know what vagabond means, right?”
“No one is going to buy a $120 shirt.”
“Way above my pay grade. Holy shit.”
“Nope. Keeping my dollars.”
“RIP OFF!!!!!!!! Good luck selling this overpriced crap.”
“I can use $100 to better someone’s life rather than blow it on a tshirt.”
“Outerknown? More like Outofmypricerange.”
And, come now, people. Why so sour? I will admit that to buy expensive just to look expensive is very very un-chic. The boys with designer scoop necked Ts at the bar are silly, they just don’t know it yet. “Updated Pauly Ds” as my wonderful friend calls them. Clothes, in fact, that say “look at me” are not good. But quality costs money. Fit costs money. Proper drape costs money. Sustainability costs money. Part of the reason this globe is sinking into a warmed abyss is because cheap consumer goods.
I really and truly hate defending the expensive t-shirt because it has become such a “thing” but you all made me do it.
So fuck you.
J/K
Come here to see Kelly’s shoot with Ben Watts, dressed in Ok, for GQ.
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I know I’m late to this conversation but I watch the contest and I had to look up outer known Kelly’s company his clothes look amazing I have to admit I really like him but I agree with some of the comments down here that state he’s been nothing but a fucking troll for Quicksilver for 20 years does not wear sunglasses has absolutely zero style and he expects me to buy his clothes like yeah dude is clothes are the shit but where’s the love
Proper drape takes a tailor. I have $20 tanks that have held up for 10+ years. It’s outerpriced. I saw none of it at Trestles last Saturday during the Slater/Fanning heat.
Perhaps all the haters should give Outerknown and Kelly benefit of the doubt. while it may seem expensive looks pretty good quality.
if it is made sustainably, made from recyclables as stated in many cases then the cost is going to far outweigh the sweatshop manufacture we all know the “surf brands” and others have done for years in Thailand China etc. Fuck we are all buying t shirts for $50 that probably made for $1 in Thailand – and just because it says Ripcurl, Quik or Volcom!!!
We are all buying $800 wetsuits that same factory can churn out at $200 – and still be turning a profit.
so have a think about it!!
all those big companies for years ripped everyone off because was cool to be seen wearing a Brand – now even worse they still fucked themselves up and barely survive!!!
So from economies of scale the profit to the traditional surf brands is likely to be far greater than Kelly and Outerknown will ever derive.
plenty of other exclusive brands that cost far more, and most likely made far less sustainably.
before everyone criticizes Kelly lets see what transpires – maybe he going to spin the profits back into the third world??
99% of those whinging on price are probably wearing a “brand” label right now!! was that made for $1 to be sold to you at $50 you whinging pricks – plus you were ripped off
lastly if you think too expensive don’t buy it
called “tall poppy” syndrome
good on him and good luck
I agree. But in the interest of transparency I’m a hard core capitalist so I don’t really have a problem with the Quik/Bong/Volcom approach either. If they can make a shirt for $1 and sell it for $50 then good on them. We can choose to spend our money where we want and, with the ridiculous amount of information at our finger tips, be able to research what it is we are spending our money on and where that money goes. You are 100% right…the major brands are far from financially healthy so maybe this is a paradigm shift in the industry. I’m a big Patagonia fan and customer (although not entirely a fan of their politics) and appreciate how they are trying to change how we consume. And yes, Chas, I know that they are shit stylistically but sometimes the only taste i have is in my mouth.
…strategy?
…money? Yes! We want! Are we really hotspotting? Please email [email protected] and tell me… how!
Surfers are collectively the most deluded bunch of fuckheads in the world about their own efforts both ethically and environmentally. Making the conversion to growing a beard and getting a single fin does not make you a surfing David Suzuki. The comments from surfers about all this are no surprise at all. Outer Known is not targeted to you fuckheads. It won’t appear in surfshops. In the real world the brand is very important and I’m psyched Kelly did it. Designs look great and prices aren’t actually that high. Will purchase.
I can’t even express how envious I am that noted writer Jamie Brisick got nailed as one of Ok’s brand ambassadors.
Brisick is the perfect mixture of masculine and intelligent. Mancrush.
Masculinity and intelligence casually slipped me by at birth…
what was he were they thinking.
I love the electric blues… I really do… I was terrified it was going to be a drab palette.
When I first saw the Outerknown gear, I thought that the prices were in Pesos. Then I realized I was looking at a $95 beanie and lost my shit.
What a collection of tight-asses, weeping about sub-$100 tees. What about those jackets. Have you ever seen Kelly look so good?
http://www.gq.com/story/kel…
Won’t be long before you’ll start finding this on the closeout racks at Jacks along with VSTR (Kelly’s other past venture into retail)
It got your attention, so the campaign worked, end of story,if people agrue about it,……….success. now back to watching the jbay dawn patrol..over and over and over in amazement…thats what really matters
This might be the first company every that launched it’s self into going out of business. The company has a glib vibe and completely out of touch with reality and that’s what you get when you launch a company out of NYC.
43 comments. Do you guys get some form of royalties for that?
…the feeling of readers being engaged is reward enough…
This will probably help all of us, surfers that is:
Made by a surfer. For non-surfers.
Now stop bitching about the price and keep polishing that bald head.
I have never, ever looked at Slater and thought…. “Man, that is one fashionable and stylish brother”. He’s up until very recently always dressed like a kook.
Say what you want about Chas, he at least has form in the high fashion stakes. Slater, I just don’t get why he did this. It’s reeks for all money like a vanity project borne out of the boredom of a highly successful millionaire sportsman, the kind which we will never understand. He has no qualification for fashion design and historically no obvious passion for clothing. Shit, he rode for Quiksilver for 20 years and they didn’t put out one decent item of clothing in that whole time.
Chas dresses like a beautiful lady.
I’ll wait until the end of season stock hits Trade Secret, my favourite shop, no shit, I was once too embarrassed to be seen it such places and now I fucking love hunting bargains in trade secret.
You can purchase three premium fitting, sweatshop free, and ultra sustainable t-shirts from Patagonia for the price of one Outerknown t-shirt so your arguments are crap.
As mentioned already, Patagonia stuff is functional and cheap but it’s absolute shit stylistically. If you want to wear a potato sack, go for it.
Oh, come on, it’s not all that ba- http://www.patagonia.com/us… okay never mind.
Exactly.
I’ll say this, in Patagonia’s defense: the Patagonia jacket is the one you wear, early in the morning. It’s covered in coffee drips and salt water spray from pre-dawn surf checks (with the matching knit hat, depending on your location), and it’s lasted for years, and years of those early mornings without fail. But when the sun starts to set, you’ve gotta have something better looking to keep the cold away, or risk foolishly outing yourself as a goon.
If y’never ever want to screw or enjoy even a fingernail of popularity, Patagonia is for you…
…but very boxy fits and the gloomiest of colours…
If I never hear to you talk about fashion in any capacity my life would be better
Maybe you and Chas should compare fits and see who rocks what better.
Shut your trap monkey
Clever girl
I’d rather continually undergo Chas’ bi-weekly pube tweezer marathon than shell out 700 bucks for a jacket.