Last month, Outerknown, a sustainable clothing brand founded by pro surfer Kelly Slater, moved its headquarters from Culver City to Carlsbad.
The privately held brand, which was has been around for a decade, has undergone several changes in the past year. In May of last year, a holding company was created to house three brands: Outerknown, Firewire Surfboards and Slater Designs. Kelly Slater is the majority shareholder of Firewire and Slater Designs, which includes the fin business Endorfins. Firewire and Slater Designs were already based out of Carlsbad when the decision was made for Outerknown to move south to join them.
“A more ocean-inspired environment made a lot more sense, especially having that opportunity to combine with the Firewire and Slater Design teams and working together across different channels and across different products,” said Dylan Slater, who is CEO of all three brands. (Dylan Slater is not related to Kelly Slater.)
About 60 employees from the three brands work out of the Carlsbad headquarters, according to Dylan Slater. Firewire was founded in 2006 and Slater Designs was founded in 2016 by the 11-time World Surf League champion Kelly Slater.
This past March, Outerknown launched its $168 Apex Evolution trunk. It teamed up with a company called Bureo for its NetPlus material made from recycled fishing nets. This is the second iteration of the boardshorts, which were initially launched in 2018 but made with a different type of recycled material. Last winter, Outerknown rolled out a $348 puffer jacket with a shell completely made with NetPlus.
Below, Dylan Slater, who lives in Cardiff, chats about Outerknown’s upcoming product launches and its retail and wholesale strategies. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Are you targeting wholesale?
A: We’re actually right in the beginning phase of reintroducing Outerknown to the wholesale channel. So we made a strategic pause just over a year ago to sort of recalibrate that strategy and make sure that we were doing the right things to ensure we would be successful, including making sure our product assortments are right. Our whole strategy has been to reintroduce Outerknown, particularly in the independent surf specialty retail channel so we can really tap into that audience that has been influenced and inspired by Kelly Slater for so long.
Q: Who are some of these surf retailers?
A: Hansen Surfboards. They’re one of our No. 1 partners. They are the largest single doorway for the surf channel in all of San Diego and probably one of the largest single doorways for the surf channel in all of California. And we worked with them closely to establish a partnership in which there was a shop-in-shop for Outerknown. It essentially has its own entryway and is a great showcase of our brand. They’re located right there in downtown Encinitas, which is a very important area for the industry and for us. If you go up the coast a little bit, there’s Hobie, which has locations in San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Beach and Dana Point. They’re a key partner of ours moving forward as well. They have a lot of history and a lot of authenticity.
Q: What about your own Outerknown stores? You have eight in locations like Soho in New York, Malibu and Palo Alto. Are you planning to open more?
A: We’re certainly not ruling it out for the future. Vertical retail is an important piece of our strategy, but it’s definitely not something we’re looking to aggressively expand, at least not in the short term. We’re just focusing on making the stores that we have really work and really building community around our existing stores. That takes a lot of work. That takes strategy. That takes time. That takes investments.
We have one in The Forum Carlsbad. It’s about 1 1/2 years old now. Since we opened it up, we’ve seen this great lift of the brand in that area because we have built the community there and have worked on strengthening our presence. But ultimately when it comes to vertical retail, we’re not looking to go from 0 to 100 overnight. It’s going to be a long, thoughtful process on any additions or expansion beyond what we currently have.
Q: How is your Carlsbad store different from your other stores?
A: When we think about the Carlsbad store, for example, we know there’s a more surf-inspired audience there. If you look at the number of surfing spots across San Diego County, it’s seemingly endless from Oceanside all the way down to Point Loma and beyond. So we’re going to have definitely some more surf-inspired products to lend to the needs of that customer. We really made a concerted effort to have additional exposure of our trunks or boardshorts. The Apex Evolution, for example, is the latest Kelly Slater signature style. It was in the works for over three years. We’ve made a special story and feature of that particular product there.
Q: Are you offering Outerknown products at lower prices?
A: I’m about 14 months into my tenure as CEO of Outerknown. One of the things I heard was that people were very interested in the brand, but they weren’t always able to access the brand because of price resistance to certain categories, which typically serve as an entry point. So one thing we wanted to do was provide some more accessibility to our products in specific categories, especially as we look to cater to the surf specialty retail channel. So the T-shirt was one of those key categories. One of the most important things was ensuring that we didn’t sacrifice our standards and values on responsible product development, raw material sourcing, fair labor and all the things that sort of make up the secret sauce or the magic of Outerknown. We’ve actually offered the tee at $42 and it’s still made with regenerative organic certified cotton, which is essentially the gold standard. (Its other tees sell for $58 and $68.) Also, we will introduce a crew-neck fleece in fall, winter 2025. That’s going to be $78. Our sharpest price point before was over $100.
Q: Can you share details of the Kelly Slater line to launch next year?
A: Kelly is not just a co-founder. We’re also partnering with Kelly to really drive a lot of product inspiration. It was really important that we develop a line of products that cater to the lifestyle and what he needs in a day. He goes from surfing to different types of social situations that require a lot of versatility. We obviously want to make sure it’s extremely comfortable. It’s made with the best fabrics that are durable. We want to ensure that it’s responsibly developed at the higher standard. We are introducing this collection spring, summer 2026, which will begin to arrive to market next February. Our goal is that we’re going to make this available everywhere, but specifically in that surf specialty channel where he has maximum relevance.
Q: What types of products will the Kelly Slater line offer?
A: We’ll have a polo shirt that has sun protection and will work great on the golf course. We’ll have all-terrain bottoms that allow for some stretch that can work on the golf course or for travel. We’re going to have a really beautiful sweater that he can wear from the golf course to a nice dinner or lunch.
We have his Apex Evolution signature trunk in there. It’s made with recycled fishing nets. We released that to market this year and have had a tremendous response to it so far. So we’re looking to build from that and just cater to additional categories that lend to his lifestyle.
Q: How has teaming up with Firewire and Slater Designs, which are distributed in 60 countries, helped Outerknown?
A: Firewire and Slater Designs are leaders in the premium board and surf accessory category, but they’re largely a global wholesale business, while Outerknown is more of a U.S.-focused, direct-to-consumer business. So, we’re really looking at how we can leverage each other’s strengths and we’re proud to share that Outerknown will be globally distributed throughout Europe and Australia starting at the beginning of next year. That’s a key note on how we’re working together as one team.
Hang Nguyen is a freelance writer for the U-T.
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