SOTS+ Authentic Brands CEO Jamie Salter & Inter Miami CF Owner David Beckham 10/12/23

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Sara Eisen (0:32)

Pleasure to speak to you both. Thank you for taking the time.

It's an interesting deal. Jamie, just talk us through a little bit how this works, because you, last year, in a big deal, bought the global rights, basically, to David's brand.

Jamie Salter (0:43)

We didn't buy the global rights. We partnered with David Beckham.

We don't like to say buy when you partner up with a live celebrity or athlete.

Sara Eisen (0:54)

But you paid.

Jamie Salter (0:55)

But we definitely paid money to be partners with David Beckham in perpetuity. So it's just like a marriage, where you go into this transaction, where everything from A to Z, we are partners with David.

But what's interesting is David also took some of that money that we gave him and invested in Authentic Brands.

Sara Eisen (1:19)

What has the partnership allowed you to do in the what, year and a half since you've been partners?

David Beckham (1:24)

Well, I think spend more time with Jamie and the whole Salter family, which for me was a big part of obviously me giving part of my company up that I built over the years of my business life to someone that cares, that someone that works as hard as he does. And to be part of Authentic for me was the next step of the journey to build the brand and take it to the next level. I'd taken it to a certain point, and then I felt that I needed to partner and go into a marriage with someone that I trusted, that I knew that would make a difference and take it to the next level. And that's exactly what has happened in the last couple of years since we began this marriage.

Sara Eisen (2:04)

How did he earn your trust? What was the early stage of the relationship?

David Beckham (2:09)

I met Jamie about 9 and 1 half years ago. And at that point, my business wasn't at the point where I felt that I could give up part of it. So I know that I needed to kind of gain control of my business. And once I'd done that, I then built it up over the next few years.

And then, like I said, when I met Jamie 9 and 1 half years ago, I knew then that I would be in business with this person at some point. It wasn't right then. But then 2 and 1 half years ago, we started the talks again. And then we agreed to something. And it's been special so far.

Sara Eisen (2:45)

He's a good deal maker.

David Beckham (2:46)

He is.

Sara Eisen (2:47)

So, Jamie, what are you working on together? Clearly the documentary is the latest venture, right?

Jamie Salter (2:54)

Clearly the documentary. But really what we're trying to do is transform David's business from endorsements to the merchandising side of the business. So, yes, we'll continue to do endorsements and endorse other people's products.

But really getting David more into the merchandising side of his brand. So really building the Beckham brand beyond just doing endorsement for other brands.

Sara Eisen (3:21)

Which is what you do for so many of your other brands.

Jamie Salter (3:23)

Which is what we do for pretty much all of our other brands. And really it's making sure that the Beckham brand lives beyond David Beckham.

Sara Eisen (3:33)

So I do want to ask about the documentary because I did watch it on Netflix.

It's done remarkably well. What was the goal? Why did you set out to do this?

David Beckham (3:42)

Well, 10 years ago when I retired, people kept on turning around to me and saying, when are you going to do a life documentary? And at that point, I wasn't ready to look back. I was ready to kind of jump from being a soccer player for 22 years professionally into the business part of my life and then also build into Miami.

So obviously at that point, like I said, I wasn't ready to look back and process everything that had happened throughout my life and my career. But then about three years before the 10th year of my retirement, I thought maybe this is the right time. Then we sat down with the right people and we sat down with Netflix, someone that could stream it in the way that they could, and then finding the director and then talking through my whole career and my life, which was difficult. It was difficult to look back because I'd never looked back at my career and some of the difficult moments. And that was the tough part. I'd never processed it. I'd never kind of gone through the difficult times, like after the red card in 98