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Before the days of X-Games and Tony Hawk, the skateboarding movement was merely another armpit stain of American youth pop culture. Like my mom used to say, "Skateboarding won't take you anywhere." Well, for Felix Argüelles, it's taken him around the world and opened up opportunities that he could never have fathomed. The son of Cuban refugees, Argüelles was raised in New York and is a self-professed "jock" who approaches his skateboarding with hard work and self-discipline. Argüelles realized he had the talent to go along with the work ethic, and together the two attributes would guide him into the still young world of professional skateboarding.

In 2005, the world was formally introduced to Argüelles via Tommy Hilfiger's CBS reality show, The Cut. The formula for the show was simple: get 12 fashion-forward individuals, make them jump through hoops and vote off one person each episode until you reach the final two contestants. Fast forward a couple of years and Argüelles is working alongside Travis Barker, formerly of Blink 182, on his clothing label Famous Stars and Straps. Not bad for a guy whose career path wasn't supposed to take him anywhere.

Rego: How did you first get into skating?
Felix Argüelles: I had toys in the closet and one of them was a skateboard. I ran into some kids at a party who actually knew what was going on and they invited me to go out skating with them. So I showed up with my Duane Peters in the ‘80s. They were blown away that I had a nostalgic skateboard and didn't know how to skate. So one of the guys took my board, did a couple 360 bonelesses and cracked my tail. I was devastated, but they invited me over their house the next day and they gave me a new board, showed me their half-pipe and took me under their wing. The first video I ever saw was in 1985.

Rego: Talk about your experience on the Tommy Hilfiger reality show.
FA: I was skating and freelance designing at the time. I'd always had a lot of respect for Hilfiger, [and] what he's done, so I submitted board and clothing designs that I guess stood out from the rest. The whole casting process was all about testing our sanity and creativity. They went from 20,000 people down to 60, and eventually down to 16. During the interview process they were asking me questions like, "What gets under your skin?" I told them nothing gets under my skin, and nobody would vote me off of this show except Hilfiger himself. They called me back two weeks later to book me.

Rego: How did you build an affiliation with Famous Stars and Straps?
FA: Thanks to some friends, my designs made their way to Travis, who liked a couple of them and used them. So I started to design some more stuff and pretty soon started thinking about where I could take Famous down the road. After meeting with Travis, we clicked and saw the future of the brand in the same way. He gave me the opportunity to work with him and represent Famous as a skateboarder. Now we've created this tour to promote the brand, something new and different, like a skate park tour with a major music influence.

Rego: What does "selling-out" mean to you?
FA: I think "sell-out" has a real simple definition: doing something that you're not about. You're never going to stop the critics and there will always be haters, but all that matters is that you don't hate yourself. You'll feel it in your stomach if you sell out, and the kids on the street will pick up on it too, and that doesn't go away.

Photos by Paul Chan