Chany was one of the first Europeans to make it in the US back in the early 90’s—a vert skater skating street because there was no other option. If you’re curious about how it all happened, Free did a long interview with him in 2021 where he told the full story. So maybe it would be good to read it before the one below, where we mainly chatted about money.
Interview by David Turakiewicz
„WE USED TO GET 100 BUCKS FOR A WEEKEND“
Do you remember the first pay check you ever got from skateboarding?
Hmmm… The first pay check from being a professional skateboarder?
No, I mean before, let’s say the first time you got money from skateboarding.
I think it had to be traveling money, not necessarily “money”.
Or contest money?
I don’t think I won contest money either… My first memory of getting money from skateboarding was 800 bucks from Real skateboards that offered me to do some demos in China for two or three weeks. At the time it was a lot of money! And I don’t remember getting anything before that.
To do demos for 3 weeks in China, it’s not so much!
No, it’s not so much! Actually we did demos with Oli Buergin in Switzerland before that and we used to get 100 bucks for a weekend. It was really cool because it was like practice sessions on vert for us!
Around 91 or 92?
Yes, or maybe even before.
You were like 13 years old!
Yeah, like 14, 15… probably around 15. So I started with 100 bucks demos on weekends in Switzerland and 800 demos in China! I can’t remember if there’s something in between. And then I turned pro, and the first pay check on Planet Earth was 1200$ a month.
So that was like the minimum you would get from the board company. Did you get some extra money with photo incentives?
Yeah, actually as an am I did get photo incentives, when you had photos in a mag where it would show logos. I would get around 200 bucks, and a cover could have been a thousand or something. Which I did get a cover as an amateur!
The Transworld one?
Yeah. And at the time I was working at Planet Earth for 5 bucks an hour in the back of the warehouse so that was huge!
But you had other sponsors too?
None of them paid. Airwalk would just send me shoes, free stuff.
For how long did you live exclusively off your skating?
Well I turned pro in 94 and towards the end it was kind of a mix of things because I was running Expedition, company owner, manager, and rider. So I did have a salary that was supposed to be half and half, and I didn’t have any other sponsor that paid me. In 2008, I got knee surgery, so after that I wasn’t feeling well on my skateboard, I wasn’t able to be good skating good again and confident to get new sponsors…
When did you start investing into the company?
We started in 97.
So you were already anticipating life after skateboarding.
Yes, we started Expedition in 97. Since we invested into the company I actually didn’t get paid in my highest days in skateboarding where I could have made the most money. It took a year or two to earn a pay check from that, which was 500 bucks, where I used to make more and had better offers to ride for other companies and could have made a lot more than what I was getting at Expedition.
„I SIGNED A CONTRACT WITH CONVERSE FOR 100.000 DOLLARS BUT CONVERSE WENT BANKRUPT“
But let’s say, at the peak of your career, with Converse and everything, how much would you make?
I think I made around 120 000$ in one year between 99 and 2001 and the dollar was stronger at the time! I signed a contract with Converse for 100 000 dollars but Converse went bankrupt and I never got the full amount that I was supposed to get. When I signed it was this plus royalties on the shoes. I had 2 shoes and I had a minimum of 100 000$ and the same year they went out of business. I made a penny to the dollar of it, a few years after the settlement I received 2500$ which means it should have been 250 000! So that would have been a lot at my peak!
So that would have been just with the royalties on the shoes.
Yeah, I would have made like 1,5 or 2 dollars on each pair. I’m not gonna complain but I didn’t get to capitalise fully in my top years and when I did make some nice money it didn’t last very long. But I was able to live off my skating for over 20 years so I’m thankful for that, as I said after 2008 I took more of the team manager role than a professional skateboarder and earned a normal pay check.
You never had an agent or a coach or something?
No, just team managers.
No one to look over the contracts?
Well that year with Converse, I did hire an attorney to look over the contract, and he did that proposal with me.
Which was accepted, and you pretty much ruined the company!
Ha ha, ha I think it was more because of Master P…
Because of him?
That’s what I heard. Converse wasn’t doing so well. We’d go to business meetings and we’d see the action sports were doing really well, but basketball was not. We’d see the numbers in sales meetings, and I think that what happened in the end is something went wrong with Master P who had this huge contract and a whole line of shoes. He sued them for the benefits that he would have made and that was the last straw for Converse at the time.
Did you have any input into the shoe? That must have been a great experience.
That was really cool. Converse was getting into the skate shoe market and they had no clue how to really do it. They had a team manager and a designer but there’s wasn’t any skater involved so they hired me and I got my friends to join: Kenny Anderson, Felix Argueles, Stéphane Larance… We built a team, and we would tell them how shoes should look like and how advertisement should be. We were riders but we were also developing the brand as a skate oriented shoe company. They would fly us to Boston and they had all these designs of shoes, tons of stuff and were asking “What do you think of this? Or this?” And I was like “I like this but the sole is too thick”, etc.
It’s like the dream of most skaters.
Yeah it was an amazing time! They would pick us up in limo… but it wasn’t that exotic as other brands did later on! It was actually early on to the game when I don’t think skaters made much money yet from shoes. Because there was a threshold without the shoe deal that was 3000$ a month that was pretty good for a skater in the mid 90s, if you would get 500$ with the bearing, 500 there, 500 with the trucks… Funny enough when I left Expedition I lost the whole deck sale check which could have been 2000 or more just from the decks at the time. So I started to make up to 3000$. I remember Chris Ortiz, the famous photographer telling me “You’re making good money!”, but it wasn’t that much especially as time went on.
„MAKING MORE THAN 30.000 DOLLARS A YEAR WHEN SKATING WAS DOWN AND BOARD ROYALTIES WEREN’T GOOD WAS KIND OF A DECENT SALARY“
Would you be aware of what other guys would get?
Not really, but when Chris Ortiz what saying “You’re up in that rag, you’re getting big time!” I would have an idea, and I was coming off from making 5 bucks an hour working at Planet Earth and living on couches for 2,5 years and even stayed at homeless shelters and I was 19… It was definitely enough for me to live but skaters in the 80’s, they were making 60 or 90 000$ a year, maybe more and that was old dollars, which was at least 2,5 times higher. Back then you could buy a house on the beach with 50 000$, and now these houses are worth 3 million! In one year they could buy a house on the beach, so they were making a gigantic amount of money… So making more than 30 000$ a year when skating was down and board royalties weren’t that good was kind of a decent salary. From there the shoe business started to be involved, Converse was one of the first ones that started doing a lot of trips internationally and gave me a pro shoe, all this was kind of new at the time. Funny enough, I got to hang out with Rob Dyrdek in my hay days and he got me to buy my first house! It wasn’t a common thing to do yet as a skater. I remember Eric Koston and other amazing skateboarders talking to me about buying houses! Like, I was ahead of them! It’s funny looking back and how successful they are now. I know now that the top pro have signed 500 000$ contract, some are making even more but also a lots of pro now are struggling and have to work to keep up with expenses.
Maybe that Swiss background helped!
Maybe! Ha ha! No, I wasn’t like that, skating wasn’t about money for me and I had no expectations. I remember that question from my parents early on “How much a skater can make?”, and I didn’t know what to say, I had no clue, and it wasn’t even crossing my mind. All I wanted was to be able to skate, and I never thought about the money. I was so happy sleeping on the floor and skating every day, eating ramens and burritos! It was probably the best time of my life! Would I go back to it? No! Ha ha ha! I was 17, 18, living in California, connecting with amazing skaters, having a pro board… After my first salary I couldn’t believe I could order a pizza every day if I wanted! So when I started getting money, looking back, I wish I was even more professional, hired a manager that kind of took care of my career… But whatever, I had some good time with Converse and I invested all the money into Expedition, thinking of selling the company in the future and get a big chunk which was the idea of a Swiss mind! Ha ha ha! But it didn’t work either! Looking back I don’t think I got lucky with the money but I was able to make a living and invest some for my future. In addition to skating I also I did commercial work that paid really well too!
Like TV ads?
Yes, that industry pays way better!
How much would it be? 100 000$ for an ad?
No, not that much, no, but potentially… I did maybe 3 or 4 commercials and it would vary between 2000$ to 10 000$. Like the most I made was a Propel water commercial which was owned by Gatorade where you get residuals every time they play it on TV… In total with the residuals I think I got like 30 000$ with Propel over a year, so I was lucky I got these deals since I wasn’t making any money with Expedition and lost my contract with Converse, and when September 11, hit…
What’s your income today? Does skateboarding still bring anything?
Skateboarding is still my main source of income, not from behind sponsors but I teach skateboarding in a art school where we also do skate performances. I judge, I do personal coaching and will also start to coach the Swiss national team. So skateboarding is still taking care of me and I am very thankful for it. Thanks skateboarding.
Interview took place in Switzerland in December 2024. Chany’s parts are on YouTube.