Old man Slater has one last trick up his sleeve!
It’s true! Slater-brand OuterKnown has just signed a three-year deal with the WSL to become naming sponsor of the Fiji Pro. The OuterKnown Fiji Pro! Oh, and there are so many angles to this revelation…
The money
The first thing that struck me about this announcement was… where’s the money coming from? Rumor has it events take 3-5 mil to run on average, but Fiji is an outlier. Because there are no real spectators, the WSL doesn’t have to build an infrastructure, which will certainly cut costs.
Still, let’s assume it costs a mil to sponsor this event. How many $80 beanies is Kelly selling to cover that kind of spread? Math says 12,500, but I’m not buying it. I guess this is a (highly questionable) long-term investment on their end, or…..
The conspiracy
You know I can’t resist a jab at the King! Here’s the highly unlikely, somewhat comical theory behind this move: frustrated by his early-2017 performance, Kelly is looking for something, anything to get him back in contention. With his odds slim in Brazil, Kelly knows his only chance is to blitz the mid-season holy trinity — Fiji, Jbay, Chopes — and finish strong on the backend.
Sure Kelly’s capable in his own right, but a little pocket-greasing never hurt! With the WSL on Kelly’s side (thanks to a healthy donation from his company), Slater will get the nod on all of those Medina-at-Snapper close call situations. A win at Fiji will put him right back in the race, and the WSL will triple-down on the Slater v. John screenplay. Everyone wins!
Also, should he leave the tour after 2017, Kelly’s guaranteed a wildcard into the Fiji event for the next two years. Right?
The WSL
Signing three-year deals is not a bad sign for the WSL’s future. It sure as hell doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s a step in the right direction. Despite losing their title sponsor for 2017, the WSL now has a major backer for every event, which has gotta help keep the lights on. Long live Speaker’s inbred spawn!
The women
Is the WSL sexist? I like to think no but time and time again they prove me wrong. Of course they can always tie their sexist actions back to economics and they’d be right but still sexist.
And how have they plagued the women this time? With a seriously abbreviated waiting period! While the men get a savory 13-day window, the women are forced into a corner with just six. Granted it takes only two days to finish the women’s event and (I think) four for the men but still! I feel your pain Coco, Laura, and Silvana.
Bula vinaka OuterKnown!
Bahahaha Kanye West of surfing! So good, an so agonisingly true….
Beach grit paradox: they post ignorant articles like these, yet you can find people who actually know what they’re talking about in the comment section.
Conspiracy Theory: What if the Great Volcom Purge of 2016 was a preemptive move from the big dogs at Kering to shift some capital over to their little organic test-tube baby OuterKnown? What better (safer) way to shed their water wings and make a splash than sponsoring arguably the most alluring, exotic location on tour? The fact that the face/identity of the brand is the winningest WCT surfer in the history of the event, paired with his 20+ years of spending time surfing there and establishing life-long relationships with the local people, is merely coincidental.
now, that makes sense.
This article is a complete circle jerk. Been wondering why I don’t go to this site as often as I used to but the question is answered immediately when subjected to an article like this one. The ingredients on the side of a can of spam make for a better read than this brain fart conspiracy/sexism rant.
This’ll help https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Not sure what kinda’ $ are involved, there’s not a lot of transparency around the WSL and its activities (understatement really), however at least some fukka is putting their name to the comp and at least it’s an entity associated with the GOAT. There’s no conspiracy angle, that’s just sloppy thinking and a lack of journalistic investigation. It’s exposure for a brand that desperately needs it to gain any kinda’ traction beyond the narrowest of cliques and it is the GOAT’s most favoritest spot on the planet, a bit of giving back (suspect the location was lost without some kind of support, crumbs even) to a community to which I suspect he is singularly connected.
I see your GOAT and will raise you one SHEEP.
I reckon if I offered the WSL $100 to give a shout out to Wiggolly’s Paddling Style on Disqus every ad break they’d take it.
Please do! Hell I’ll chip in!
Everyone has missed the point. Slater sponsoring Fiji with Outer Known $ means that as the only team rider of the brand, he can give himself a wildcard slot for 2 years after her retires. That, if I were to guess, would be the real reason behind the deal. Not some kooky conspiracy theory to win a world title.
he’ll get wildcards to Fiji until they have to wheel him out of a nursing home and he can’t remember his own name regardless , so that theory is moot
Also this was mentioned in the post….
He’s 11 times World Champ, he will be getting wild cards into any event he wants for as long as he can catch a wave.
Apparently Scientologists are the only ones who can afford Outerknown clothing.
moved
OK is a minnow of a company, weird that this “non-surfing brand” is sponsoring a surfing event! You’d imagine that as it will be Kerings money they would have had Volcom sponsor it instead. Just makes me think that the WSL are totally desperate, when such a small company can be the title sponsor for an event!
Just makes me think Kelly Slater is running for Chief in the upcoming Fiji Elections 2017!
Kering ain’t giving the WSL shit unless they get to run the feed on their own site (Volcom). Same reason RedBull won’t give em shit.
Waste Shit League
OK will have a much greater reach than the Stone. Lets be real, volcom is holding on by a thread to its market. As soon as surfers/skaters grow up they arent stones target any more
the market for wealthy guys who think they are Jimmy Buffet might be even smaller….
No offense to Mike, but this feels like a post Chas should have written. So firmly in his wheelhouse.
hhhmmmm……I’m wondering whether any money changed hands at all……..Fiji blank for, what ?….4 or 5 years is a dud look. Better to give it to Kelly for nix than have nothing.
Maybe he swung Ziff’s Old lady a few alpaca beanies to sweeten the deal? Not that we’d ever know, because the WSL is more opaque than the vatican.
And Mike , you’re wrong about Fiji. Fiji and Tahiti are the most expensive events to run. Try doing anything on a South Pacific island that involves technology and logistics and you’ll see why.
i’d be shocked if Kelly didn’t get a sweetheart deal
I considered that but.. really? They literally don’t need to build anything, just transfer a few computers to a tower. What do you reckon is the price?
Uh, flying all the competitors/staff to those islands and housing/feeding them for 2 weeks, plus paying their salaries. I personally will be praying to fake gods that slater loses in round 2/3 every day until the contest starts.
Does the WSL pay for competitors’ food and lodging? If yes that’s news to me. But regardless none of those payments would make Fiji any more expensive than other events on tour.
Flights are cheap-ish from LA and Aus and accommodation on the mainland (for workers) is pennies. Also I assume they have some sorta deal with tavi/namotu…
They 100% pay for lodging for each competitor at every event on tour, and id imagine a few meals each day as well, probably at the contest site. I bet chopes and fiji are quite a bit more costly than other stops on tour. Regardless of this new shady sponsorship by the biggest man-child of them all slater, they are going to be cutting events next year. 1 for sure, possibly up to 3 from what I’ve heard. And the girls, they are going to get shafted hard in 2018.
Ha ha! The WSL does not pay for lodging for competitors anywhere. But they do pay for lodging for all the WSL’s on site employees. But really, costs? MC, there are SO MANY costs involved in running a CT event that you can’t see from where you are right now. It’s insane, like running a movie set. And every one of those line items is blown up with remarkable speed once you’re outside a conventional Western setting. Re OK’s deal, well there would not be a naming rights sponsor on tour paying a million bucks for the privilege, I doubt that figure is gonna be levied from a relatively small clothing label part owned by Kelly.
If you wanna watch an event this year btw, i.e. how it looks etc, I’d watch J-Bay. Corona’s taking that thing on. They’re gonna do all the presentation and marketing around it, not WSL. It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has on how we perceive the event, both up close and from a distance. Could events be growing back to more individuality again after three years of Speaker-style roboticness?
thank god for NC, I actually believed @lairdisadonkey:disqus for a second!
I’m ok with a Speaker-style roboticness revolution.
My suspicion is this: Kelly sold KSWC to the WSL for an “undisclosed” sum. This most likely entails some lump some fee up front as well as potential earn outs for Kelly should he help promote the technology along with any ensuing events. There is no way in hell that OK is doing anywhere near enough revenue to shell out a million plus bucks out of their corporate marketing budget. Kering is not a billion dollar business for nothing and they know that frivolously spending a million bucks on an event that will return little on that investment at the register is not likely. So that leads my theory back to the KSWC. I bet that Kelly has waived or possibly put all his future earn outs in escrow that could cover the next 3 years of Fiji title sponsorship. If the KSWC revenue doesn’t exceed goals and KS’s earnest do not surpass the $3 mil in the total 3 year, then perhaps KS or Kering may have to pay balance out of pocket.
Silos and shell games. It’s become a big fricken MLM scheme with Kelly at the top of the pyramid.
Well that’s your suspicion and you’re entitled to it.
So you are saying that the competitors have to pay for their own lodging at a place like tavi or namotu or WA or j-bay? For up to 2 weeks possibly? Airfare too? That would end up costing them way more money than they would make from getting knocked out in Rd2. I know sponsor pick up some of the bills, but what a crock. I was aware of the QS situation, but I could have sworn i heard a few years back that the WSL foots the bill to house the CT competitors at locations near the event site. I guess not.
Pfft come on. If you stay on Tavarua for two weeks, you’re in the final of the event. Depending on your deal with Tavarua, you might pay $350 a night. That’s close to five grand for winning $60,000, or $100g if you hit the victory jackpot. Most of the surfers will be there for a week or so and pay maybe three grand for winning $12,000. Some might stay longer for mate’s rates beyond the event waiting period. It’s all pretty flexible. But I would not be crying about the state of many CT surfers’ finances.
haaaah, they cover lodging and airfare?
No they don’t Donkey. CT and QS competitors are responsible for their own airfare, lodging and transportation. They DO provide food each day for the competitors, staff and vip’s. I’ve heard of stories of budget savvy, unsponsored surfers getting more than enough of their daily fill so they would not have to buy food their entire trip. Ever wonder why so many brazzos come to the event site even when they’re not surfing or have been eliminated already?
Scotty at Namotu states that all Namotu athletes pay their own way whilst Tavy hosts them free of charge.
Scotty’s feeding the annual slag off between Tavarua and Namotu guests. I recall one year over a couple of the renowned Skulldrags, planning a pirate midnight invasion of Tavarua. The vision still haunts me — Hoyo, Occy, AI and god knows who else charging crazily across the channel and up the beaches in a drunken idiot replay of the Normandy invasion which would almost certainly have turned into a drunken idiot replay of Gallipoli. thank god wiser heads prevailed. Though I still don’t know who the wiser heads actually were. Probably Scotty himself.
Talk to Globe! Apparently running that event is an utter nightmare. Like, the most nightmare of all tour stops. And crazy expensive.
Building a grandstand is a small price to pay for tens of thousands of dollars spent on merch by spectators, versus having to book out three tropical island and house one hundred staff. Ain’t no Kerrzy jerseys and event tees being sold on Tavarua.
Ziff a part owner of Outerknown? I bet yes!
Can I be so naive (just this once) to suggest it’s a good thing KS used his influence to bring some corporate $ to the table for once. Not just to line his own pockets
We can dream!
I don’t know shit about marketing or the surf industry, but Kelly is part owner in a business that has decided to advertise through event sponsorship to grow their brand. Isn’t outerknown backed by kering? Pretty simple/ straight forward investment In my view.
Agreed, i dont buy Outerknown but the Fiji event is absolute butter to their bread. Where else do rich world travellers who are seeking that Matisse like South Pac vision go? Tavi of cause
his jew tentacles spread far and wide
“Maybe he swung Ziff’s Old lady a few alpaca beanies”
In my day we just called it “whopee”.