Goldfish, Mouse, The Chocolate Tour, Yeah Right! – an impressive catalogue of videos under the Girl Family umbrella, and Tony Ferguson's been in them all. He was on the original Girl roster when the company began in 1993; they turned him pro in '95, and he enjoyed a 10-year career on that level. Technically, he's since "retired", but that word is a bit misleading since he's still skating and progressing regularly.

"I just needed to do something else, and I had an opportunity to work with ALIFE, which is a full-time thing," says Ferguson, who's the Vancouver-based president of ALIFE footwear. "I still skate all the time, and bring my board whenever I travel to Asia and Europe for work."

The 35 year-old has been a part of some epic historical events in modern skateboarding, from being a part of the original Plan B team of the beginning-‘90s, to defecting with Rick Howard and company to form Girl, which still stands as one of the most popular board brands out there. I had the chance to sit down with Tony at his office in Vancouver's Gastown to discuss the smooth transition from career skateboarder to his current role with ALIFE footwear, where he finds enjoyment in "developing the product, and seeing it come to life."

Under what circumstances did you first get on Girl?
It was basically from Rick Howard. Guy [Mariano] and Tim [Gavin] wanted me to get on Blind, and Rick told me to chill because a new thing was starting, so I just chilled and he got me on Plan B in '92, then Virtual Reality [‘93] came out. When Rick left Plan B to start Girl in ‘93, I went along with him, and we did a video [Goldfish, ‘93] right away. It was all really quick back then. From '92 to '93 so much sh*t happened.

When did you wrap up your pro career?
About 4 years ago. I talked to Rick about it, and it was a mutual thing. It was just the right time to retire, instead of holding on and being "that guy". With Girl, it's family. It really is. We all grew up together, and I've known Rick since I was 16. Now it's better than ever; we still work on projects together, and I'll jump on a tour and meet up with them here and there – it's all good.

What do you miss most about being on Girl?
Going on all the tours with those guys. You skate so much more on tour, and you're just around everyone 24/7. When you go home, everyone's got their own lives, but on tour you're skating together all the time.

Spring 2010 ALIFE footwear samples.

How did you first get involved with ALIFE?
I started working with Marc Morisset and Nubile Distribution in 2005, and tried to bring brands in that we felt were missing in the market. ALIFE was one of the brands I brought in, and it stuck. I ended up building a good relationship with the company, and it went from there.

Can you briefly explain ALIFE and your role?
The company is from New York, and it started in 1999 with one retail store. They were so different at the time because they were bringing in all these lifestyle lines from Japan and Europe. Rob Cristarfaro and Arnaud Delecolle are great designers and they're the founders of ALIFE. We have stores in New York, LA, Vancouver, and Tokyo. The Vancouver store (411 West Cordova St.) opened 3 years ago; it's a smaller market in Vancouver, but people really support it. It's a lifestyle brand – it's everything, and it's influences from all types of cultures. That's why we can do skateboards, snowboards, shoes, watches, clothing and so on. I work really closely with the guys in New York to put a plan together and manage the footwear business ­– anything from design to development, production, and dealing with the international distributors. It's like 4 or 5 jobs in one [laughs].

2009 Girl/ALIFE collabo decks.

Is there a skateboard program at ALIFE?
Not yet. If we're going to do anything skate, I'd want to do it differently. Maybe like guest shoes, kind of how we do Girl/ALIFE decks, but not a like a traditional skate team or company. We're not trying to be a skate brand specifically.

How does your experience as a pro translate into what you do now?
So many things. For one, a lot of the relationships I've built over the years from traveling as a pro really helped with bringing people, like distributors, to ALIFE. The whole creative thought process of skateboarding definitely comes into play with ALIFE footwear, and even the work ethic from skating. People think skaters are lazy, but if you're filming for a video, you're definitely working and trying hard – that translates into business. Also, seeing what Rick, Megan [Baltimore], and Tim Gavin were up to was a huge influence on me.

What are some examples of the numerous ALIFE collabs?
When I wanted to do a line of skateboards, I obviously wanted to do it with Girl. They were initially designed as special product for the ALIFE flagship stores. We do collaborations with a lot of people. For example, we did a Burton/ALIFE snowboard, sunglasses with Super...we did a bunch of footwear collaborations, like the Reebok/ALIFE shoes, that did really well.

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