Tony Alva is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, musician, and skateboarding pioneer who has a net worth of $5 million. Tony Alva was one of the original members of the Zephyr Competition Team, better known as the Z-Boys, the group of young Dogtown skateboarders who helped transform skateboarding during the 1970s. Along with figures including Stacy Peralta and the late Jay Adams, Alva helped popularize a faster, more aggressive style influenced by surfing and became one of the pioneers of vertical and pool skating.

Alva was also unusually important to skateboarding as a business. In 1977, at age 19, he founded Alva Skates, becoming one of the first major professional skateboarders to own and operate his own skateboard company. The brand has remained active for decades. Alva also developed a historic relationship with Vans. He and Peralta helped design the Vans Era in 1976, one of the first shoes created specifically with skateboarders in mind. Fifty years later, Vans continued featuring Alva in campaigns celebrating the shoe and the company's skateboarding heritage.

Tony Alva was born on September 2, 1957, in Santa Monica, California.

He grew up surfing and skateboarding around Santa Monica and Venice during the period when the neighborhood's surf culture was developing into what became known as Dogtown.

Alva became associated with the Zephyr Surf Shop and joined the Zephyr Competition Team. The Z-Boys included Stacy Peralta, Jay Adams, and other young skaters who brought the low, aggressive movements of surfing onto concrete.

The Z-Boys attracted national attention at the 1975 Del Mar National Championships. Their unconventional style looked radically different from the upright freestyle skating common at the time.

When drought conditions in Southern California left swimming pools empty, Alva and other Dogtown skaters began riding their walls like waves.

Alva became particularly influential in the development of aerial and vertical skating. His speed, physicality, and willingness to push above the lip of pools helped redefine what was possible on a skateboard.

The Dogtown story was later chronicled in the acclaimed documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys," directed by Stacy Peralta. Alva was portrayed by Victor Rasuk in the 2005 feature film "Lords of Dogtown," which starred Heath Ledger as Skip Engblom.

Alva played an important role in the history of Vans.

In 1976, Alva and Stacy Peralta worked with the company to develop Style #95, later known as the Vans Era. The shoe added a padded collar and other features suited to skateboarding and became one of Vans' enduring designs.

Alva maintained a relationship with Vans across multiple generations.

In 2026, 50 years after the Era's introduction, Vans again featured Alva as part of a global campaign celebrating the model's return and its role in skateboarding history.

In 1977, Alva founded Alva Skates rather than continuing to rely entirely on sponsorship from established skateboard manufacturers.

The company became one of the earliest prominent skateboard businesses actually owned and controlled by a professional skater. Alva Skates also became known for experimenting with laminated maple construction as skateboard technology evolved.

Alva continued operating the brand across changing eras of skateboarding, producing decks, wheels, apparel, and other products.

His decision to create his own company anticipated the entrepreneurial model later followed by generations of skaters, including Tony Hawk and numerous other professionals who built businesses around their identities rather than relying solely on contest winnings and sponsorship checks.

Alva has also played music throughout his adult life, performing in punk, rock, and other bands while continuing to skate.

After struggling with drugs and alcohol, Alva entered recovery and became sober. His later life has included speaking openly about addiction and the changes that allowed him to continue skating into his 60s.

He has remained an active ambassador for skateboarding, appearing in documentaries, exhibitions, Vans events, and skate gatherings around the world.

More than half a century after joining the Z-Boys, Alva continues to skate and operate Alva Skates while serving as one of the sport's most recognizable links to its formative 1970s era.