"Over his 30+ year career, Kelly Slater has changed the landscape of surfing."
The world’s winningest surfer, Kelly Slater, has just signed with powerhouse Hollywood talent agency WME. Based in Beverly Hills, California, the company is a combination of William Morris, the world’s first talent agency founded in 1898 representing vaudeville stars and later Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers and Mae West, and Endeavor, founded by Ari Emanuel (inspiration behind Ari Gold in HBO hit Entourage) in 1995.
Today’s stars include Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Dwayne Johnston and, now, Kelly Slater.
The PR team took to Instagram, today, to announce:
Welcome to WME, @kellyslater! ——— Over his 30+ year career, Kelly Slater has changed the landscape of surfing. He holds nearly every major record in the sport. With 11 World Surf League (WSL) titles and 56 WSL career victories, Kelly has the distinction of being both the youngest and oldest person to ever win a world title.
He is a five-time Laureus World Sports Award winner for Action Sportsperson of the Year, a two-time X Games gold medalist, a five-time ESPY nominee for Best Male Action Sports Athlete, and a 19-time Surfer Poll Awards winner.
Beyond surfing, Kelly has built a global platform around sustainability and wellness. In 2014, he founded @outerknown, a sustainable clothing brand committed to responsible production practices. He also acquired majority ownership of Firewire Surfboards—considered the most sustainable surfboard platform in the world—and later launched Slater Designs. In 2015, he introduced the Kelly Slater Wave Company, creators of the world’s most advanced wave technology.
Kelly has appeared in Baywatch, Surf’s Up, The Ultimate Surfer, Momentum Generation, Ballers, Carpool Karaoke, Make or Break, and more. He presented at the 94th Academy Awards and was the focus of the 2024 portrait book A Life of Waves. He is also the author of two bestselling books and was featured in the Activision video game Kelly Slater Pro Surfer.
I was very impressed and shouted the news to my wife, who happened to be in the other room on a work call. She is also a notable agent. I said, “Kelly Slater just signed with WME.”
She answered, “Why?”
Wondering, I suppose, what his current market value is/why he needs a talent agent.
I was crestfallen by her lack of interest or care.
She may be unaware of his music career.
Or those two bestselling books.
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I thought fire wire boards came from low paid workers
I’m no longer represented but had different agents for different pursuits.
have to say, the funnest thing was performance-driving gigs.
He’s become fat and cringey like the rest of us. He should fuck off to his millionaire life and let us cunts enjoy hating at a distance. not sure what he’s after now. more $$. better waves?
I thought WME was another wrestling gig owned by a grunge rocker.
The agent that signed him 100% just started surfing.
I have it on good authority he is in talks with Ben Stiller’s production company to star, direct and produce a Simple Jack full length presentation.
May turtle moon money rains down on Tao for ever. R. Kelly is the best freak of nature.
I had the same reaction as your wife, although in a manly way.
So best I could decipher, this is code for there is script in the works about Kelly….or he’s about to be cast as an older, not yet retired revision of Silver Surfer.
😂😂
how about a real live agent’s review of taj’s claim on that other website that agents are a waste of $$ ??
Hey Rocks,
one the first companies I owned in the 80’s was an agency and talent management company (OC & LA). Also, having been represented for many years by agent(s), I can say 100% that a solid agent is worth every penny.
In Kelly’s case it is mandatory. Whatever the naysayers say, Kelly is a still a marketable talent, valuable commodity and maintains celebrity status.
He is well spoken, intelligent and very successful in almost everything he has done in his life. He still has a lot of earning potential and with a solid agent like WME, he will have many more successes. It is actually perfect timing for an athlete who is on the downhill side of his Pro Athlete career to market his brand.
Bully for Kelly I guess. I wonder where we’ll see him next.
Car Commercial?
Could be, ey.
Minoxidil ads with Joe Rogan?
yeah happy, I don’t disagree that professional help is extremely valuable in the right context, and in fact it’s fairly closely related to what I do for a living. The 20% seems pretty wild to me though — the NFLPA caps agent fees at 3%. I understand NFL team negotiations vs surfing brand negotiations are apples and oranges, just wondering what extra value an agent brings in the surf world/brand negotiation context that would make it worth so much more (relatively speaking).
Agency fees are often based on the work involved.
haven’t been signed for a while but when I was, standard rate for Film, TV, and Commercials was 10%, Stills/Ads 20%. On the backside of the camera, rates vary dependent on the deal you have with the agent, standard 15-20%. Mother agency fees are standard 5%.
Managers usually charge 20% + dependent on level of management.
On the flip side the agency charges the client a 20% service fee.
that said, it is definitely worth it as they handle packaging, branding, marketing, promotions, fee negotiations, meetings, travel arrangements and more.
Craves attention doesn’t he
circe’s reaction lol
Slater hair extensions next
Think the guy has maybe done more to screw up surfing than anyone that’s ever lived.
Helped turn it from a fun and easy going joy and way of life, into a ego-driven win win pursuit with $$ and ego as the end goal.
Probably ruined many a groms early surf life, with visions of a career and $$, instead of just being stoked and carefree.
I was going to say Laird and Red Bull have done more harm as a knee jerk reaction but nope, you are correct. R. Kelly is all that is wrong with surfing. Win at all cost, artificial waves, Bay Watch, turtle moon sandals, 40+ years of making surfing competitive, and banana rockered 17 3/4″ wide unsurfable boards he made us all think we needed to ride.
fucking “wellness”.
Please please please, can someone just make him disappear…..
PS
I tune him out and then he pops-up.
Seriously, if I never heard another thing about him for the rest of my life, I would be fine with it.
A man for all seasons. Just biding his time till he rules all he surveys Ocean and especially the Pool. God blessed him. He’s the one always was always will be.
I wanted to be famous when I 14.
who says you’re not famous though?
WME not returning my emails.
you mean to tell me that Chas can’t convince Circe to be your agent when high performance longboard free surfing is going to be the next big industry trend?
Didn’t think of that! maybe my bitter internet hero angle has been well played.
high performance longboard free surfing – lol
Kelly should be paying them. And I suppose he is.
Kids don’t want to emulate anyone who’s bald unless he’s a black guy.
Bald actors don’t get cast unless they are a black guy.
wellness and baldness go together like oil and water.
what the fuck is this guy gonna sell that a younger guy with hair on his head can’t?
Face it egghead, you’re just a has been now fuck off and stfu.
Bald actors don’t get cast unless they are a black guy?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
🤣
SABC1 bru!
Turtle consultant
Turtle cunt!
You’re turtley out of line!