Hobbies And Interests
History of the Inline Skate
The first known inline skate was worn by Belgian violinist Joseph Merlin in 1759. He attached wooden spools to the front and back center of his shoes, so that he could go to a costume party as an ice skater. Clever though his costume may have been, he crashed into a mirror at the party, and his strange skates were not a fad anyone wanted to emulate. By 1960, the Chicago Skate Co. was marketing inline skates to ice skaters in the off season.
Invention of Rollerblades
In 1980, hockey-playing brothers Scott and Brennan Olson in Minneapolis were looking for a way to practice skating in the summer. Scott bought a pair of inline skates, but found their design to be flawed. He and his brother added a heel brake to the skate, which allowed for quicker stopping and sharper turns. They also replaced the skate's blades with polyurethane rollers. When they began selling the skate, they called their company Ole's Innovative Sports, but when they sold the company to investors in 1984 the name was changed to Rollerblade.
Rollerblades Take Off
By 1986, the Rollerblade company was doing modest sales to off-season ice skaters in Minneapolis and Boston, and was barely profitable. Sports marketer Mary Horwath joined the company with the idea of marketing inline skating as its own sport, and sales began to take off among skaters in Southern California. These athletes found uses for Rollerblades that the Olson brothers never could have imagined, such as "grinding," or skating down a rail. Their cool image helped turn Rollerblade into a national, then an international, brand.
Rollerblades Today
While the Rollerblade company is not growing as fast as it did during its heyday in the early 1990s, the Olson brothers' design has become the gold standard for inline skates. No inline skate manufacturer today would think of building a skate without a rubber heel brake. The company sponsors skaters and events around the world, including the weekly Pari Roller 3-hour ride in Paris.