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SPEAKER: You were really I think a lot of people were just stunned really at the success of Rollerblades, and probably you not the least of them. Can you take us back to that time when you were like, what were you, 19, 20 years old when you got the idea for those?

SCOTT OLSON: Yeah, just a young guy, fresh out of high school, pursuing a dream of mine of becoming a professional athlete, a goalie, happened to come across a pair of skates, inline skates. And I had the opportunity to try them out and realized in an instant that it was a dream come true of being able to basically ice skate wherever you want to go.

And growing up in Minneapolis, Saint Louis Park area, we were always the first to get on the ice. And we couldn't wait for the ice to come. So I always kind of dreamed of being able to skate for transportation, to go to school, to go to the store, all those kinds of things.

And then when I first put on my first pair of inline skates, it was unbelievable experience, something I'll always remember. At that moment, after skating around, I realized that, I mean, this was really a hot product. And traveling the country, I had never seen it before.

SPEAKER: Where did they come from?

SCOTT OLSON: The inline skates go back to the early 1800s. Actually they were invented before roller skates, the conventional roller skates that a lot of people grew up with. And at that time, the technology wasn't advanced enough to give the people the right kind of feel with the skates. So that's when they went to the conventional kind of skates.

So they go way back. And I found this out as I was being thrown into the entrepreneurialship mode because I realized that I had an opportunity to sell this product, which was at that time, being manufactured out in California. As I researched it, my brother and I found these skates in a sporting goods shop that was in the back room. And they practically gave us these skates.

So we got on them and then went back to this gentleman and offered to buy his inventory. And he said he didn't have any more. And so he luckily gave us a number of this company in California. And to make a long story short, I became their distributor, eventually invented my own concept because for a period of two years, I was out skating everywhere imaginable.

I mean, I was skating from Bloomington to downtown. It was just my transportation. And just loved it. I mean, it was excellent conditioning, but it was really just fun to be out skating wherever you could go. And I mean, this world now is made for skates with all the pavement.

During that time, people kept pulling me over, wanting to know where to get the skates. So I was selling skates basically right out of my back pocket. So that's how it started. It started on the grassroots out of the basement, where a lot of businesses start. Really a great place to start just because of the overhead and everything.

And then really got into my own design, and I've always been kind of a tinkerer and I always wanted-- I always wanted to develop stuff. So this really came into place and then just made the skates constantly better and better. Almost on a daily or weekly basis, I was improving them, and then I finally got my own patent. So I got that whole experience of what it really takes to go out and get a patent.

SPEAKER: Did you do all this on your own, or did you have anyone advising you, helping you out, a patent attorney, any kind of business mentor, or anything?

SCOTT OLSON: Well, keep in mind, I was in my early at that time, early 20s. And so I realized right away what my weaknesses were. And at that time, it was quite a few things. So I've never been afraid to ask for help. I got involved with a patent attorney over at 3M who helped me out. He saw my invention that we drew up, and he said, well, let's do a patent search.

Well, that's when I discovered all these other patents that date back into the early 1800s. So I got a really quick history lesson there, and discovered that my design at that time was really identical to another design that was in the marketplace at one time, which was owned by the biggest roller skate company in the world, which was Chicago Roller Skate.

So I spent six months negotiating with the president of that company who was in his mid-70s, and he just couldn't believe that I would even want this concept because they bombed with it, just like everybody else had tried to launch this inline concept in the early days. I kept pushing and pushing and pushing. And finally, I went down and faced him face to face. Then he realized how serious I was, and then he basically sold me the patent.

So that's when I got in business with my own design. Then I had the freedom to go anywhere in the world to sell this product. And then that's what I did, and then kept improving it with plastic boots. And I think that's what really made the skate real popular was its plastic boot that was at that time being made out of Italy.

SPEAKER: OK, now wait a minute. Because you told-- now, you said that you bought the patent, you had yourself a patent attorney. You're traveling around the world. How did you fund all this?

SCOTT OLSON: Well, I was selling skates from this company from California. With a little overhead, I was able to pocket quite a bit of money. I guess it's all relative. But that money I kept throwing back into the business and funding it that way. Of course, I hitchhiked to Chicago. And being a conservative guy, I would cut the corners every which way I could. And I mean, you had to.

And this patent attorney was really, really great to work with. He was working for 3M, and he was basically moonlighting and 3M approved of that. That helped me out a lot because patents aren't cheap. And then I negotiated the deal with Chicago Roller Skate, where I didn't have to pay any money up front, because I didn't have enough money at the time. So the guy was nice enough to just allow me to pay him a royalty over a period of years.

So then we just kept going out and promoting, and then getting a lot of the media involved helped out a lot because at that time, we didn't have a lot of money to advertise. So we got a lot of media attention. And of course, the media liked it because they're always looking for the human interest stories.

SPEAKER: Well, here's a couple of young local guys, looks like things are going well. And that's a story in and of itself, not to mention just the product.

SCOTT OLSON: Yeah, sure. Yeah. Well, we were both a couple of great guys back then. Still are. My brother Brennan, who helped me out in the early days, he's still working with the company that I founded, the Rollerblade Company, which is a couple hundred million dollar company right now. And during that time, starting up, I added more family members and more friends. And it seemed like every other week we had to put another person on staff.

So that brings a whole other element of the business into play that you got to deal with personnel. I mean, it was great in the beginning when I didn't have to really deal with a lot of people. But as you grow, you need to add people, and then more people to manage those people. And then it just keeps going and going. So I got thrown into that right away, just like everything else. And you get acclimated to it, and you make it work.