It all started with a kid from Ventura.

He surfed good. So good, in fact, that he single handedly re-wrote the criteria for how contest surfing is judged, as well as the criteria of the sponsor-surfer relationship. He started his own clothing company, with the help of his clothing company sponsor, to create a brand within a brand.

Dane Reynolds has Summer Teeth. Some are over here, and some are over there.

Now Kelly Slater has followed suit with his own Quik-backed line which, again, has an identity all it's own.

It's called VSTR, pronounced Visitor, and let's hear what the great one has to say :

"It's about how to put your passions and beliefs into something that wasn't seen as just a product for mass sale, the line and Web site are ways to express that in a different forum. Of course, we're still a company and we're backed by (quik) , just to be transparent about that, but we can quickly change direction or make decisions without all the red tape."

Check er out here.