Why doesn't Kelly Slater use any of his own products? Is it dumb or genius? Maybe genius!
What if you were set to launch a new product? It was yours all yours and its success depended on you talking about it, thinking about it but, most of all, using it. Of course you would toe the line right? Of course! Because the new product’s success would directly affect your own bottom line! And so you would dutifully strap on and enjoy the ride. That is what good pitch men do and their bank accounts swell because of it.
And yet look at the great mystery of Kelly Slater, the most recognizable and marketable creature surf has ever dreamed up. At 40-whatever he is dynamic, bronzed and handsome. Jettisoning from Quiksilver he is also launching so many new products!
Except.
Have you ever seen the man wear his own label OuterKnown? Maybe on the website, sure, but in life Kelly is more likely to be found in weird free Volcom things. Volcom’s parent company is also OuterKnown’s but weird right? Why isn’t Kelly Slater living the OK ideals? Why isn’t he pulling on an organic, sustainable, virgin wool hoodie knitted by Peruvian monks after every single surf, looking at the WSL camera and saying, “I don’t always like to get warm after I surf, but when I do I prefer OuterKnown. It’s sustainable.”
And in J-Bay. Kelly wins his first heat in grand fashion but is it on one of his eponymous boards shaped by Tomo or Greg Webber? No! It’s an old board shaped by and older Hawaiian. Great and a good story but in no way does Kelly see any kick from it. In fact, it directly cannibalizes his business.
Does Kelly drink Purps? Who knows? Not me because I don’t see him doing it and I don’t even see Purps stickers on his fresh, white non-KS Surfboards surfboard.
The whole business literally makes no sense. It’s like Kelly wants all of his businesses to fail. But why? Is he not a real belieber? Does he think marketing cheapens the OK/surfboard/Purps?
Wait.
Is him not pushing his medicine on the masses actually brilliant marketing? In our oversaturated landscape is his silence the assured brushstroke of a genius?
Oh. Probably.
I thought he always wore OK clothing? That’s why he looks like such an old man no?
The thing that stood out for me about Keone Downing’s shape for Kelly at J-Bay was the extra weight – which would help to give the board more grip and momentum in the windy conditions.
In J-Bay type conditions with more open face power and 20 knot winds, Kelly’s own label epoxy boards can’t hold momentum and penetrate the water through turns the same way that a heavier glassed PU board can.
Having surfed Tomo’s myself in Firewire construction, I have found (in my humble Average Joe experience) that semi-lined up waves without a heap of power or wind are exactly the conditions – think Snapper comp this year – in which the Tomo’s (and indeed the Firewire tech) really shine. The Trestles comp should suit those boards perfectly too.
Stu Kennedy’s performance at Snapper did way more to enhance the rep of Kelly’s Tomo Sci Phi model than anything Kelly has done. Anybody tried out Kelly’s Webber model yet?
Bargain bin buy?
Question… Has anyone ever brought a Slater endorsed line or brand? He seems to transcend the product’s he’s repping.
I guess to me his surfing has always done the talking. Thinking back to when I was a sticker freak grommet and he was one of my favourite surfers. Even then, I can’t say I ever brought anything Slater related.
Agree, the only thing I did buy was those slater fcs fins, but that was less about him and more about them just being a really good template.
nothing because most people think they are too core for slater…when its the opposite
I have a Kommunity board bag. Worst fucking thing i ever bought, pretty sure Kelly doesn’t use em coz there’s no way you could check that piece of shit in Business Class
Yes, I’ve seen him wear OK. He wore a sweatshirt in that one multi-part interview that came out recently.
OuterKnown it’s OK… That’s one the marketing team wont be releasing.
In my marketing classes (an unsurprisingly useless degree!) they used to tell us: “Sell the sizzle, and not the steak.” I still don’t really understand what that means, but maybe Kelly is doing just that?
I find that strange as well…maybe he feels somewhat embarrassed by the high prices of his OK togs? Either way…Chas used “belieber” in his story so I’m off to kill myself.
is that a subliminal Beiber?
Try telling that to Rory!
He refuses to wear his size 24 BG boardies. Always complaining about them being too tight, but he could always just wear a pair on each leg if he really cared about Chas, Derek, or BG as a whole. smh
hahaha
Oh what boring…
Slat er is doing the same path, as always, Curren did!
Almost the same path… number of victories… music… guitars… ride taller waves with the smaller boards… contests with boards without sponsors… experimental surfboards… the same path!
Does anyone here remember what Curren did with Matt Hoy in France 1993, event in the former ASP? Tom rode a fish, which he had purchased secondhand from a New Jersey surf shop, at ASP contest in France 1993 and sliced and destroyed Matt Hoy, in peak form, current number eight in the world at that time … Curren was already retired fom the circuit, 3x world champion, completely uninterested in the world circuit, and returned to experiments with boards… poor Mat Hoy.
After the heat, after being butchered in front of a crowd on the sands, he said:
“You had to do this just with me?”
The problem with Kelly is the ghost of Curren .. always been.
The only difference is that Curren not seek the spotlight … the spotlight comes to him … effortlessly.
The bottom line is both these guys created careers around performance and have kept their noses clean enough along the way to continue to be darlings. Many of talented surfer’s have stumbled.
now there’s a memory , I remember Tom turning up with the 1972 huge plastic Twin fins , asked if he was serious , he smirked back oh yeah. Hoyo nearly had a heart attack when he saw Tom up the beach with the Twin , at the end of the heat , Hoyo , pushed Tom off the board , and rode a board. I have always wondered if that was also an interference , taking someones board off them in a heat? Curren was always a better power surfer , when you watch Curren 25 years ago and some of the performances at J Bay the other day , he would still be in the top 5 . Curren never tried to be , he just was!
hoy was overrated
still had and has a hack that most pros still dream of!
Maybe he doesn’t want to look like a Bavarian Pro Surfer