How Tony Hawk Created His Business Empire by Turning Skateboarding Into a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk is synonymous with the sport itself. Hawk retired in 2003, and put an end to a decorated career, where he dominated the ESPN X-Games for several years.

Not only was Hawk a sportsman, but he is also an entrepreneur. In fact, he owns his own skateboarding company called ‘Birdhouse’. For all intents and purposes, Hawk truly reinvented skateboarding vertically with his grace and skills.

A legend as decorated as Tony Hawk had a career to match. Over the course of his career, he secured many sponsorships and endorsements, which contributed to the creation of his massive financial business empire.

Tony Hawk turned skateboarding into a multibillion-dollar industry

Much like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, Tony Hawk became a name that transcended his sport. He became, and remains, a mainstream icon in popular culture today.

In fact, even after retiring nineteen years ago, he continues to make millions through his popular Tony Hawk Pro Skater video games. Moreover, his brand endorsement deals and cameos in TV shows and movies, too, contribute to his $140 million net worth.

Furthermore, it helped that his looks quite fit the bill for the perfect marketing campaign, through which he made skateboarding mainstream. Undoubtedly, he always remained ahead of his time. After all, when many brands were still printing flyers, Tony had already invested in video games and viral videos.

At just the age of sixteen, Hawk had already earned the title of the best skateboarder on the planet. However, in the early nineties, skateboarding began diminishing as a sport, and the entire industry suffered,  including Hawk.

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It was through the ESPN X-Games that Hawk resuscitated not just his career, but skateboarding itself. In 1999, at the fifth X-Games, Hawk tried to entertain a waiting crowd by attempting the unprecedented ‘900’ move.

He had himself failed to land that move successfully for a decade. On that day, the world saw Tony Hawk relentlessly fall and retry the 900 a total of ten times.

When he finally succeeded, his tenacity struck a chord with the mainstream public watching. Thus, skateboarding became mainstream, got ingrained into popular culture, and Tony Hawk became the face of it. Consequently, the hype around that move and the nineties’ revival of skateboarding sparked entire industries of clothing and video games.

Hawk’s business empire

After retiring, Tony Hawk continued to grow as a businessman. He nurtured his personal brand as a growing force in the media through endorsements and business ventures.

In fact, he even had two rides to his name in Six Flags, the amusement park chain. Despite retiring, he continued to make millions from his licensing deals with Activision, who developed Hawk’s skateboarding games since the 1990s.

The latest release in his video game line was the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2, in 2020. In the early 2000s, the video game series earned Hawk an estimated $6 million a year. In 1992, Hawk co-founded ‘Birdhouse Projects‘, a skateboarding company with former Powell Peralta colleague Per Welinder.

The name was a reference to Hawk’s iconic nickname, the ‘Birdman’. Additionally, over the years, Hawk also invested across various industries, including a coffee chain, and tech companies like DocuSign.

Alongside Birdhouse, Hawk also owns ‘900 Films’, a company he founded in 1999 to produce video games. However, the company changed with the times and now produces action sports content.

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As an early investor in California-based Blue Bottle Coffee chain, Hawk must have received a hefty payout when Nestle bought the coffee chain. Moreover, he also had put down stakes in a San Diego brewery, called the Black Plague.

Hawk remains a pop culture mainstay

Ever since the X-Games permanently popularized skateboarding and Tony Hawk, he has been a mainstay in pop culture and mainstream entertainment.

Over the years, he appeared in many TV shows and movies for cameos. However, the one that easily stands out the most, by far, was his 2003 cameo in The Simpsons.

Hawk himself admitted to feeling like he became truly successful the day he appeared on the show. Even though he will complete twenty years of retirement next year, Hawk’s skating video games continue to be popular.

In 2020, a remastered version of his Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games came out. In fact, there are even rumors about a new Tony Hawk game in the works. People will also be seeing Hawk as a presenter at the 2022 Academy Awards.

Anthony Hawk remains one of the most popular and richest skateboarders ever in history. Undoubtedly, he has earned his keep in mainstream media, as well as his evergreen popularity which will go down in history forever.

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