Skateboarding icon Tony Hawk explains that his company, Birdhouse Skateboards, is currently unprofitable and kept alive through his personal subsidization.
“Yes, Rob's right, it is not a profitable business but I don't care.”
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More from Tony Hawk
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Hawk says declining Activision's $500,000 royalty buyout led to his first million
“Right before the release, they called me and said, we want to offer you a buyout of future royalties. I said, what does that mean? They said, we want to offer you half a million dollars, and then you won't get royalties going forward. At that time in my life, …”
Tony HawkSep 9, 2026▶ 43:48Tony Hawk inspiring us for 72 minutes straight
Disclosure
Tony Hawk: Activision gave him a $4.5M check for Pro Skater
“When the fourth game was released, if I have this right, I had lunch with my connection at Activision. I actually went up to LA. He's like, I really want to talk to you about the game and the future of it. And fourth game just got released. It got to be in the…”
Tony HawkSep 9, 2026▶ 45:39Tony Hawk inspiring us for 72 minutes straight
Insight
Tony Hawk: Skaters often lose motivation after reaching milestone accolades
“There's a mindset, especially in skateboarding, where you want to make it, right? You want to get on the cover of Thrasher, or you want to have a good video part, or you want to win a contest, and if you get to that goal, you might lose your incentives.”
Tony HawkSep 9, 2026▶ 10:47Tony Hawk inspiring us for 72 minutes straight
Opinion
Hawk says Back to the Future sparked a 1986-1990 skate boom
“When Back to the Future came out in 85, kids wanted skateboards. I mean, Marty McFly invented the skateboard, and a lot of kids, that was their first glimpse of what's possible. So there was this sort of wave of popularity that happened, like, 86 to ninety-ish”
Tony HawkSep 9, 2026▶ 17:29Tony Hawk inspiring us for 72 minutes straight
Insight
Tony Hawk: Great skaters show fierce intensity rather than joy
“There's a, they can't quench their desire, and they do some of the craziest stuff. They do some of the hardest things, and they just have this look of intensity, not joy, It doesn't look joyous. That's what it is.”
Tony HawkSep 9, 2026▶ 25:59Tony Hawk inspiring us for 72 minutes straight
AssertionSupported
Tony Hawk: No skateboarder had landed a 900 before 1999
“No one had made it completely and ridden away.”
Tony HawkSep 9, 2026▶ 28:53Tony Hawk inspiring us for 72 minutes straight
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