Just off the heels of announcing the direction of his new, sustainable-driven apparel brand Outerknown, Kelly Slater, the 11-time Association of Surfing Professionals World Champion, has told Slab Magazine, his intentions for buying a majority stake in Firewire, the surfboard brand.
Firewire is one of the few surfboard brands in the industry that have been trying to achieve a level of sustainability, working, for example, with Sustainable Surf on using recycled styrofoam for boards—some of which Slater and others like Rob Machado have added to their quivers.
First, after ending a 23-year relationship with Quiksilver in April in 2014, Kelly Slater moved on to create his own lifestyle fashion brand, Outerknown. As we’ve written about before, Outerknown is one of those highly anticipated new brands that’s changing the course fashion for many reasons.
While surfing is obviously at the heart of Slater’s lifestyle, Outerknown is taking a tack that includes so much more than surf-inspired wear, including sustainability. As we’ve noted in our 3rd Annual Sustainability and the State of the Future Youth Culture Study 2014, sustainability in fashion is becoming a key pillar for youth consumers today.
With Firewire, Slater is taking another step into a more sustainable world. As he told Stab, “There’s a certain irony to all of our environmental talk and chemical walk. That’s not to point fingers at anyone but myself. I just think it’s time to do something about my residue that’s built up. The industry focus has been on perfecting the shapes and performance of what we are all used to for a long while now. I’m fond of tinkering and experimenting and evolving. Lessening materials impact is an obligation for me. So… my partners and I are working on something.”
Stay tuned for more.
