https://www.badbillys.com/tags/tony-alva/Recent content in Tony Alva on BadBillys.comHugo -- gohugo.ioenBadBillys.comSat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.badbillys.com/post/tony-alva-first-skater-owned-company/Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.badbillys.com/post/tony-alva-first-skater-owned-company/ <h2 id="turning-down-the-big-companies-1977">Turning Down the Big Companies: 1977</h2> <p>At nineteen, <a href="https://skateboardinghalloffame.org/shof-2009/tony-alva-2009/">Tony Alva</a> had already done enough to skate for whichever company he wanted. Instead, in 1977, he walked away from the sport's established brands and started his own. <strong><a href="https://alva-skates.com/">Alva Skates</a></strong> became, in the words of the Los Angeles Times' 2007 profile of Alva, the vehicle that made him &quot;the first skater to own and run his own brand, and one of the pioneers in what would become today's multibillion-dollar skate industry.&quot; The <strong><a href="https://skateboardinghalloffame.org/shof-2009/tony-alva-2009/">Skateboarding Hall of Fame</a></strong>, which later inducted Alva into its first class, credits the same year with a cluster of firsts: Alva was voted Skateboarder of the Year in Skateboarder Magazine's reader poll, and Guinness World Records recognized his barrel jump as the highest on record.</p>