Turning Down the Big Companies: 1977 At nineteen, Tony Alva 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. Alva Skates became, in the words of the Los Angeles Times' 2007 profile of Alva, the vehicle that made …

The Anaheim Storefront That Became Vans On opening day at 704 East Broadway in Anaheim, the shoe boxes were stocked and color-coded — blue for men, orange for boys, red for kids, green for women — but the cash register held nothing at all. The owners had forgotten to put money in it. When customers arrived, they picked …