Background and career
Chadcherch Michael Muska (born May 20, 1977) is an American professional skateboarder. In November 2012, Skin Phillips, editor-in-chief of Transworld Skateboarding, described Muska as "one of the most marketable pros skateboarding has ever seen". Muska was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2020.
Chad Muska was born in Lorain, Ohio to Joel Kevin Muska and Deborah Ann Muska. He has a sister, Lyndsey who is two years younger than him. His father was of Hungarian and Swedish ancestry and his mother is of Serbian ancestry. Muska first became interested in skateboarding as a young person following a relocation to Phoenix, Arizona, where his father was residing at the time. Muska explained in a 2012 interview:
I was riding my BMX bike a lot and then there were some neighborhood kids that would, kinda, skate and I would check them out; and I used to come home from school every day and just stare at 'em, you know? And I would walk by and just watch them skate. They told me this story ... I guess I'd be, like, "Hey, let me try your board", and I would grab their board and would just try and boardslide the curb and go all crazy on it ... Something happened, my bike got stolen, and I got a board off one of the kids, and, from that moment on, it was just, like, full blown ... While in Arizona, Muska first met and spent time skateboarding with professional skateboarder Erik Ellington prior to both of their careers. Muska eventually moved to Mission Beach in San Diego, California, with very little money, a sketch book, and a portable cassette player to further pursue skateboarding and art.
Maple was Muska's first-ever skateboard deck company and he appeared in the 1994 video Rites of Passage. At the time, Muska was homeless and living on the beach, with no conception of what the future held for him. After parting ways with Maple, Muska joined Toy Machine, which is prestigious among professional skateboarders. Muska became a leading member of the Toy Machine team, facilitating Elissa Steamer's sponsorship, and was a team member alongside Ed Templeton, Mike Maldonado, Jamie Thomas, and Brian Anderson. According to skateboarding journalist Adam Salo, in 2009: "In '95–'96, Toy Machine was one of the most respected and emulated teams in skateboarding." Muska filmed for the Welcome to Hell video, a 1996 project primarily driven by Thomas, and he was expected to receive the highly regarded last part of the video. However, the video premiere was cancelled on the evening of, and his part was omitted from the public video release due to an altercation with both Templeton and Thomas that same night—a skull was placed over his face in the video case artwork.
Following the issues at Toy Machine, Muska joined the then-fledgling Shorty's brand. Muska was chosen to develop the Shorty's skateboard deck division and the company thrived as a result. He is popularly known for his part in the 1998 skateboarding video Fulfill The Dream, and he appeared in a total of four videos for the company. Muska was sponsored by the éS skate shoe company (manufactured and distributed by the Sole Technology, Inc. company) in the late 1990s. When the "éS Muska" signature model was released in 1998, it was a popular product in the footwear market, as Muska was an especially popular figure in skateboarding culture during the late 1990s (the shoe was designed with a hidden "stash pocket" in the tongue of the shoe for particularly valuable items). Muska explained in 2013 that he was heavily involved with every aspect of the shoe's design, which was the way he continued for his subsequent skate shoe designs, regardless of the brand. Following his time with éS, Muska joined the C1RCA footwear team in 1999 as the first pro skater for C1RCA and released numerous signature shoe models with the brand. Models such as the "CM901" and "CM902" were promoted in magazine advertisements, and Muska also continued with the hidden "stash pocket" design feature that he utilized at éS. Thomas was also with the brand at this time, but the previous issues at Toy Machine had been resolved by this time. Muska parted ways with Circa in 2005.
Muska then left Shorty's in early 2006, and selected Element Skateboards as his next skateboard deck sponsor in December. Following his move to Element, Muska stated, "I am very excited about joining the Element family! I look forward to this new chapter in my skateboarding career... And you can bet on it that we are going to make some big things happen." The company officially welcomed Muska with an advertisement in 2007 that featured a photograph of Muska performing a frontside flip on a street-based transitional structure—the byline for the promotion read "Welcome To The Family". After he left C1RCA, Muska subsequently founded the Supra footwear company in 2006 with Angel Cabada from One Distribution (owner of the KR3W apparel brand). The Supra footwear brand has been endorsed by Muska since the company's inception, and Muska's first Supra signature model—the "Skytop"—was one of the first team rider models that was released. The first Muska Supra advertisement appeared in 2006, while the inaugural official Skytop promotion appeared in 2007. Muska has designed the signature shoe models, the Skytop, "Skytop II" (2009), and "Skytop III"; a low-cut version was also released. All of the Skytop designs were created in collaboration with footwear designer Josh Brubaker and were initially perceived as outlandish by Muska's peers in the industry.
