Building an Empire, or Two

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By Sam Schaust/Murphy News Service

Scott Olson created the Rollerblade, but his next project is even grander.

“The Rollerblade guy” is a common nickname affiliated with Scott Olson.

Carefully, Olson clarifies it as his “claim to fame,” but not an invention of his own creation.

Planted out in rural Waconia, Minn. is where Olson tackles all of his projects now. It’s where the history of the 56 year-old innovator’s life’s work resides; down two dirt and gravel roads and a dense patch of forest, all leading up to a grand, wooden farmhouse that feels as expansive inside as it does out.

His younger brother Todd stays there with him, someone who witnessed Olson bring the Rollerblade to life, only to have it all slip through his fingers.

At the age of 17, Olson was returning from Canada to his parent’s home in Bloomington, Minn. with a truck full of Siberian husky puppies. He had the hopes of turning the dogs around for a profit — an unusual practice not uncommon for Olson with his past “get rich quick” schemes.

While the puppies distracted his open-armed family, Olson noticed his eighth grade brother Brennan whizzing around on a pair of inline skates.

Brennan’s skates immediately grabbed Olson’s attention; and being the hockey fanatic that he was, it was settled that he needed a pair for himself.

By the next day, he had one, and became the envy of all his high school hockey friends. He even bought pairs for all of them (earning him a quick buck yet again).

Ultimately, Olson wasn’t satisfied with the design of the skates and put it upon himself to reach out to the manufacturer.

“That’s when I learned there were already hundreds of inline skate patents out there,” Olson said.

Upon conceptualizing his own model of what would later become the iconic Rollerblade, the Grand Rapids, Mich., native discovered his version matched closely to one created by a company called the Chicago Roller Skate Company.

To reach the Windy City, Olson hitchhiked and unwaveringly signed a licensing agreement with the company.

The news struck a chord with his family who teamed together to construct the skates, almost “like an assembly line,” Olson’s brother Todd said.

Word of mouth was doing wonders for Olson and the Rollerblade sales, as he eventually found himself switching roles from innovator to advertiser.

“My job was just to promote and sell,” he said.

Olson’s tactic of guerilla marketing spread from skating down Manhattan island, to nightclubs and even airplane concourses.

“We got loads of attention,” said Robert Aase, a longtime friend and Rollerblade salesman with Olson. “It was revolutionary and radical. People would stop what they were doing and stare.”

By the time 1984 hit, Olson was able to pay his family and friends regular paychecks for their work. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were earned by Olson’s innovation, until an unfortunate realization veered into Olson’s point of view.

“I lost [the Rollerblade] by entrusting part of the business to someone else,” Olson said. “He became greedy and took it basically from underneath me. That’s why you’ve got to cover up all of your bases.”

One of his best friends, working as the accountant, was embezzling money from the Rollerblade business, and soon enough they were far behind on tax payments.

Unsure of what to do, Olson turned to two wealthy businessmen to save him from his financial woe. Bob Naegele Jr., who once owned the Minnesota Wild, and a Los Angeles-based entertainment manager named Robert Sturgis bought every last share of Olson’s business.

For Olson, it was the end of the Rollerblade era.

To this day, Olson tries to shrug it off, but you can still see the discomfort in his eyes.

Instead of wallowing in the “what ifs,” Olson has embraced his creative engineering mind for new inventions. Some of these include the Lunar Bed—an outdoor pod with a transparent top, built for outdoor slumber and stargazing. Another is the Rowbike—a fitness machine that is exactly what the name idealizes it to be.

His latest pet project is the SkyRide. Its closest comparison is a rollercoaster, although it is entirely powered by the user who sits in an under-hanging cab.

Olson admits he “was rollerblading around the lake when it came it [him] somehow.”

He wanted to make another fitness product with a thrill.

“We want it to be exciting,” he said. “Really exciting where you want to do another lap… Speed and acceleration creates excitement, which will create a fitter body.”

Fellow engineer and friend, Thomas Green, has been working with Olson to develop the SkyRide. Together, they have created two separate tracks on Olson’s land in Waconia that situate the user well above the ground.

“This is one of the projects that I thought I could really bite into because it’s a neat project,” Green said. “I don’t think there’s another, well, I know there isn’t another one like it.”

With a Rollerblade-like aim of having fun while exercising, Olson has pushed the SkyRide everywhere he can. Since 2010, Olson has diligently worked his idea, even premiering the SkyRide on ABC’s Shark Tank in a May 2102 episode.

Most recently, KARE 11-Minneapolis/St. Paul showcased it, saying it had “amazing applications besides exercise.”

The most recent adopter of the SkyRide has been Carnival Cruise Lines. The company’s first ship with the SkyRide will be called the Carnival Vista, featuring an 800-foot track that is mounted 150 feet above the sea. It will provide the users with a sweeping view of the ocean line as they burn off the abundant calories gained from the buffet line.

Olson calculates that contract to be in the neighborhood of $2 million, and it’s not the only million dollar contract he’s earned with SkyRide.

The St. Paul Saints will be adding a track to their new stadium, CHS Field, in 2016—one year after its grand opening.

A parks and recreation company called Meglio Unionland, based in South Korea, has also expressed interest in their own application of a SkyRide.

“They’re building the track because it’s not cost effective to have us build it here and then ship it over there,” said Mike Guethling, operations manager for SkyRide Technology. “They don’t want anything to do with the actual technology of how it works, and they know that we’re going to have changes and upgrades to that and they want to sort of be involved with that.”

The agreement with Meglio Unionland will turn out to be a licensing contract, where those working for SkyRide Technology will split a cut of the costs associated with each track built.

So far, Olson seems to be on the right path, carrying with him lessons learned from his experiences building the Rollerblade brand.

“Anyone who wants to come over and give the SkyRide a go, please do,” Olson said. “Otherwise I just have to hope the entrepreneurial gods will stay on my side.”

Reporter Sam Schaust is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.

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