Alva The Company
In 1977, at the age of 19, Tony Alva shunned the major skate companies to form his own, Alva Skates. It was the first company ever run and owned by a skateboarder, as well as being one of the first to use layered Canadian maple plywood in skate decks. In December 2005, Alva opened two stores in Southern California locations—Oceanside near San Diego, and on Fairfax Ave in Los Angeles. In December 2006, he celebrated the first anniversary of the stores with a party at the Los Angeles shop, which was attended by some of the old Z-Boys, current Alva Team members, MySpace friends, skate fans, and other minor celebrities. Tony signed autographs and served as DJ for the catered event. The bad boy image of the legendary Z-Boy was present in the publicity postcard invitation, which featured a drawing of a hand flipping the bird with a lit wick coming off of the end of the middle finger as if it were a birthday candle. Tony Alva also pioneered the first Rip Grip product, a material that could stick onto the underside of a skateboarder's deck making it easier to maintain grip.
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“The delicious faces of children, the beauty of school-girls, “the sweet seriousness of sixteen,” the lofty air of well-born, well-bred boys, the passionate histories in the looks and manners of youth and early manhood, and the varied power in all that well-known company that escort us through life,—we know how these forms thrill, paralyze, provoke, inspire, and enlarge us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)