Fausto Vitello

Born in Argentina in 1946 to Italian parents and raised in San Francisco, Fausto Vitello co-founded Ermico Enterprises in the late 1970s and in 1978 launched Independent Truck Company with Richard Novak, Jay Shuirman and Eric Swenson, introducing the geometry that quickly became the industry benchmark for vertical and street skating. In 1981 he and Swenson founded Thrasher Magazine to chronicle skate culture independently of surf media, building it into the most influential skateboarding publication in the world through contests like the SOTY award and the King of the Road series. He remained at the helm of both Independent and Thrasher until his death in 2006, and is regarded as one of the principal architects of American skateboard industry infrastructure.