In the skate world, Thomas was referred to as "The Chief". He was born on October 11, 1974 and started skating at the age of 11.He was first sponsored in 1992 by Deluxe (Thunder trucks, Spitfire wheels and as a flow rider for Real Skateboards). This motivated him to move to San Francisco with his friends Sean Young and Hurley. While living in San Francisco, Thomas turned pro for a short-lived company, Experience Skateboards. Thomas then went on to ride pro for Invisible Skateboards in Sad Diego. After relocating to Southern California in 1994, Thomas was featured on the cover of Transworld Skateboard magazine and had video parts in the Spitfire and Invisible videos. In 1995 Thomas joined Ed Templeton's Toy Machine. He filmed and directed two Toy Machine videos, the second one being Welcome To Hell. His section in "Welcome To Hell" is probably the biggest milestone of his career. He then went on to become the producer of the zero films. He was so into his career that he almost took part in a partnership with DC shoe company, another major brand in the industry to set out his own shoe design. However, Quiksilver bought DC and he was unable to complete the project, so instead he committed to his own company called the Black Box Distribution.
"Armee" was the first choice for naming his new skate shoe, but eventually just stuck with Fallen. Their design slogan was "Rise With The Fallen".
