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Scott B. Olson

Scott B. Olson is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and former hockey player. Olson developed and popularized the first modern inline skates trademarked as Rollerblade in the 1980s, launching a new recreational sport. Olson holds a dozen patent applications for skate- and sport-related innovations from 1982 through 2001. Olson subsequently built and marketed SwitchIt skates, Rowbike, and Skyride.

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Scott Olson
Born1959 (age 66–67)
Occupations
  • Inventor
  • entrepreneur
  • former hockey player
Known forFounder of Rollerblade

Scott B. Olson (born 1959)1 is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and former hockey player. Olson developed and popularized the first modern inline skates trademarked as Rollerblade in the 1980s,2 launching a new recreational sport.3 Olson holds a dozen patent applications for skate- and sport-related innovations from 1982 through 2001.4 Olson subsequently built and marketed SwitchIt skates, Rowbike, and Skyride.

Developing modern inline skates

CCM Tacks boot riveted to Super Street Skate ca. 1980 source ↗

For two centuries, inventors and entrepreneurs attempted to popularize skates with a single row of wheels. By the end of the 1970s, only Chicago Roller-Blade56A and Super Sport Skate78B managed to gain limited adoption for training, within a niche community of ice hockey players. It took Olson, his brothers, his family, his friends, and his company, Rollerblade, to perfect these skates, and to make them enjoyable as mainstream recreation for the general population.1011121314

Skates used by Mark Lipson and Scott Olson ca. 1980 in a 200-mile marketing tripC source ↗

In 1979, Scott Olson, then an ice hockey player, stumbled upon the Super Sport Skate (or Super Street Skate). Fascinated by these novelty skates, he soon made a living promoting and selling them to hockey players in Minneapolis.10 As a licensed distributor, Olson traveled on these skates through the city and around the state in guerrilla marketing tours to promote the product. Scott and his brother Brennan tinkered with these skates. They removed the wheel frames from Super Street Skate, and custom-fitted them to customers' old hockey boots for improved ankle support.1516C Wearing plastic Lange boots thus retrofitted, Scott and his friend Mark Lipson skated for 200 miles from Minneapolis to Grand Rapids, Minn., in a five-day marketing campaign.1718

Through further tinkering, prototyping and road testing everywhere he could, Olson eventually arrived at a skate design with an adjustable/expandable frame, polyurethane wheels and double ball bearings. The skate rolled faster, and remained more reliable on road surfaces.16CD But a patent search turned up the Chicago Roller-Blade, which claimed many of his design features.15 In 1981, Olson persuaded the Chicago Roller Skate Company to give him the patent, in exchange for a percentage of the profit.17

In 1981, Olson created a company called Ole's Innovative Sports, and made manufacturing arrangements. Soon, he marketed his own "Ultimate Street Skates" (or Ultimate Hockey Skates), a skate of his own design attached to a hard boot with thick liners, similar to plastic hockey boots that traced back to Lange ski boot designs. By then, skateboards had adopted polyurethane wheels made by roller skate manufacturers, with standard ISO 608 ball bearings. Olson similarly adopted polyurethane roller skate wheels from Kryptonics, shaving tens of thousands to fit them to his Ultimate skates.16520 These skates came with a toe brake and had the now-familiar Rollerblade logo imprinted on them, which Olson and his friend designed.21EF

Popularizing Rollerblade skates

In 1982, Scott Olson started to market his skates as a proper sport in itself, venturing out of the initial niche where they served as an off-season training tool for ice hockey. Scott organized Minnesota hockey players to fly east to play roller hockey teams in New York City, with his team skating on Ultimate Street Skates, and the NYC teams on traditional 2x2 skates.2320 Scott also started to advertise his skates to the masses, in print and in person, as everyday fun activities, where one could "roll over large sidewalk craters without feeling them".2410 Enthusiasts colloquially referred to these skates as "roller blades".25

Rollerblade skates with heel brakes - 1983

In 1983, Olson marketed a new generation of skates with heel brakes instead of toe brakes, under the trademark "Rollerblade". His company grew from one worker in 1980 to 25 employees in 1985, selling many thousands of units that year.17G In the same year, the company published a book, Rollerblades: Dryland Training for Ice Hockey, edited by Chris Middlebrook, with chapters written by Randy Gregg, Jack Blatherwick, Laura Stamm, Brad Buetow, Scott Olson, and Brennan Olson. This is the first book that elaborated on the equivalency of inline and ice hockey skates with respect to hockey moves, and the first book that documented wheel rockering adjustments, wheel wear, and wheel rotations.26

Around 1986, Ole's Innovative Sports was renamed "North American Sports Training Corporation" (NASTC). As the Rollerblade brand became more popular, the company was eventually renamed to Rollerblade Inc. around 1988.2027

Other notable ventures

SwitchIt

Scott Olson was forced to sell a majority stake in his company in 1984 due to financial difficulties,28 and within a few years he was pushed out of Rollerblade, the company he had founded.18 Undeterred, he continued to innovate, developing a skate with interchangeable steel blades for ice skating and wheels for inline skating.3 He initially called the product Switchblade under his new company, Innovative Sports Systems, but later renamed it SwitchIt to avoid legal conflicts with Rollerblade.13 After several years of development, the skate was available for purchase by around 1990.H Olson ultimately sold SwitchIt and Innovative Sports Systems to his business partner around 1992.13

Rowbike

Around 1991, Scott Olson began developing what would become the Rowbike, a hybrid of a low-slung recumbent bicycle and a rowing machine.2930 The rider’s feet rest on forward supports, while a handlebar connected to a power bar allows for a rowing motion that propels the bike.31 This design delivers a full-body workout, with coasting speeds reaching up to 17 mph.3230 After roughly four years of development, Rowbike entered production around 1995-1996 and received positive coverage from major news outlets and sports publications.2933 By 1999, the lineup had expanded to include multiple models, such as a speed shifter, a children’s version, and a three-wheeled variant.34 Olson licensed Rowbike in 2015,35 but still retains ownership of Rowbike as of 2026. 36

Skyride

Skyride originated in 1996 as an idea to combine fitness training with the experience of a roller coaster. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that Scott Olson began building early prototypes.37 The concept evolved into a human-powered monorail system, in which a suspended pod travels along an elevated track and is driven by the rider through interchangeable fitness mechanisms such as bicycle pedals or rowing-style handles.38

Olson later pitched the project on Shark Tank (Season 3, Episode 13, aired May 4, 2012), but did not secure a deal.10 Despite this, he continued developing and promoting the system.39

In 2016, Carnival Cruise Line introduced Skyride as a signature attraction aboard the Carnival Vista, featuring two elevated oval tracks positioned roughly 150 feet above sea level and spanning nearly a third of the ship’s length.403741 By 2020, Skyride was operating on three Vista-class ships: Vista, Horizon, and Panorama, traveling worldwide.4243

In 2024, South Korea-based adventure and attractions company Adventure Inc. became an international distributor for Skyride, showcasing the system at the 2024 Dubai Entertainment, Amusement & Leisure Expo (DEAL), further expanding its global visibility.4445

Notes

Notes

  1. See ads for the Chicago Roller-Blade in the 1965 Fall & Winter Montgomery Ward catalog, page 1082, archived here, and in the 1965 Spring & Summer Catalog, page 846, archived here.
  2. See ad for Super Sport Skates endorsed by Ralph Backstrom in "Faceoff" 73 / 74 season by World Hockey Association.9 Also see archived pictures one, two, three and four, from an antique listing.
  3. The MIA exhibit story from 2015 includes a picture showing Scott Olson holding two prototype skates: 1) Lange boot on Super Street Skate skate with cream-colored wheels (1979), and 2) CCM Tacks hockey skate boot on his own adjustable/expandable skate design with orange polyurethane wheels (1981).16 Said picture is archived here. The same two prototype skates are also seen in the main article picture of this Rollerblade article from 2019, archived here. The article picture is archived here.
  4. See pictures of early prototypes of Ultimate Street Skate with "Ole's Innovative Sports" stamped on their frames, from this page on Vintage Minnesota Hockey, such as this picture, this picture and this picture, plus this ad. Archived here, with picture, picture, picture and picture.19
  5. See a roadshow display of the Ultimate Hockey Skate here, archived here, from this article, archived here.
  6. A picture of the 1981 Ultimate Hockey Skate is shown under the headline: "Modern inline skate", on page 11 of the book Superguides: Inline Skating published by DK.22
  7. See pictures of the new generation of early Rollerblade skates with heel brakes, from Vintage Minnesota Hockey: picture, picture, picture and picture, archived here, here, here and here. These have a refined version of the adjustable frame from the Ultimate Street Skate, and a similar hard boot. These skates witnessed the transition of Scott Olson's company from "Ole's Innovative Sports", to "North American Sports Training Corp.", and finally to "Rollerblade", as attested by marketing materials.19
  8. See SwitchIt ad on page 11 of the premier issue of Skaters magazine in 1990.5
References

References

  1. "St. Louis Park Historical Society on Scott Olson". St. Louis Park Historical Society. 2015. Archived from the original on 2025-07-20.
  2. Proffitt, Michael, ed. (1997). Oxford English Dictionary: Additions Series. Vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 339. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  3. "A Craze May Outsprint Its Creator". New York Times. New York. 1990-08-07. Archived from the original on 2014-03-21. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  4. "Patents by Inventor Scott B. Olson". Justia Patents. Archived from the original on 2024-12-24.
  5. Paul A. Dunn and Sharry Beck Paprocki (June–July 1990). "Joseph Shevelson interviewed by Paul A. Dunn and Sharry Beck Paprocki on the Golden Days of Skating" (PDF). Skaters. Vol. 1, no. 1: Premier Issue. Mt. Morris, Ill.: CFW Enterprises, Inc. pp. 12–18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-06-19. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  6. "Chicago Roller Skate Co., est. 1905". Made In Chicago Museum. 28 November 2021. Archived from the original on 2024-12-03.
  7. US 3880441, Silver, Morris L, "Tandem roller hockey skate", published 1975-04-29, issued 1975-04-29 
  8. Pelletier, Joe (2007-05-07). "Ralph Backstrom". Greatest Hockey Legends. Archived from the original on 2024-06-23.
  9. "Ad for Super Sport Skates by Super Skate Inc. sponsored by Ralph Backstrom". Faceoff 73 / 74 season. World Hockey Association. 1973. Archived from the original on 18 December 2024. Retrieved 2024-12-21.
  10. Erika Wolf (November 21–27, 2012). "Reinventing the Wheel" (PDF). City Pages. Minneapolis, Minn. pp. 8–14. Archived from the original on 2024-12-24. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  11. Hahn, Steve (2012-02-06). Steve Hahn interviews Scott Olson ( Rollerblade Founder ) (video). Steven Hahn – via YouTube. Refer to the video transcript for this long interview, a part of the "Hockey in the Park" Series.
  12. Paula Schroeder (host) (1995-07-31). Voices of Minnesota: Interview with Scott Olson (Part 1 of 3) (audio). Minnesota: Minnesota Public Radio. Transcript 1/3 in PDF (PDF). Retrieved 2024-12-25.
  13. Paula Schroeder (host) (1995-07-31). Voices of Minnesota: Interview with Scott Olson (Part 2 of 3) (audio). Minnesota: Minnesota Public Radio. Transcript 2/3 in PDF (PDF). Retrieved 2024-12-25.
  14. Burnson, Robert (2005). "Scott Olson". The Inline Planet. Archived from the original on 2017-03-22. But I know now, after weeks of research and interviews, that it can't be taken literally, and that much of the popular history of inline skating should, in fact, be rewritten.
  15. Ross, Emily; Holland, Angus (2006). "Rollerblade - Live your product". 100 Great Businesses and the Minds Behind Them. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, Inc. pp. 151–155. ISBN 978-1402206313. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  16. "Mind in motion: The MIA's Leonardo show traces Scott Olson's inventive impulse". Minneapolis Institute of Art. Archived from the original on 2024-02-27.
  17. "A Business That's On a Roll". Star Tribune (Minneapolis). Minneapolis. 1985-11-17. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  18. Peippo, Kathleen; Rhodes, Nelson (2000). "Rollerblade, Inc.". International Directory of Company Histories. Vol. 34. Detroit: St. James Press. pp. 388–392. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  19. Bernstein, Ross (2007). "In-Line Hockey In Minnesota". More... Frozen Memories: Celebrating a Century of Minnesota Hockey. Minneapolis, Minn.: Nodin Press. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-1932472493. Retrieved 2024-12-24.
  20. Anthony D. Chen (1993-11-04). "Q: What are the origins of in-line skates?". Newsgroup: rec.skate. Archived from the original on 2024-12-23. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
  21. Irwin, Dawn (2000). Superguides: Inline Skating. London: DK Pub. ISBN 0789465426. Retrieved 2024-12-29. p. 11: A picture of 1981 Ultimate Hockey Skate is shown under the headline: Modern inline skate
  22. Profile on Scott Olson and Rollerblade 1982 (video). WTOK NewsCenter 11. 1982. Archived from the original on 2025-01-23. Retrieved 2025-05-04 – via YouTube. In 1982, Jeff Passolt from NewsCenter 11 interviewed Scott Olson, and played street hockey with his team wearing Olson's new roller skate invention, the "Ultimate Street Skates".
  23. "Product placement ad for Ultimate Street Skates". Playboy Magazine. August 1982. pp. 144–145.
  24. Joyner, Stephen Christopher (1993). "Profile: Scott Olson". The complete guide & resource to in-line skating. Cincinnati, Ohio: Betterway Books. pp. 22–24. ISBN 155870289X. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
  25. Middlebrook, Chris, ed. (1985). Rollerblades: Dryland Training for Ice Hockey. Chapters by Randy Gregg, Jack Blatherwick, Laura Stamm, Brad Buetow, Scott Olson, Brennan Olson. Minneapolis, Minn.: Ole's Innovative Sports. Archived from the original on 2025-01-08. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  26. "Trademark Assignment Abstract of Title: ROLLERBLADE". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2025-01-08. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
  27. "Blading On Thin Ice". Newsweek. New York. 1994-11-11. Archived from the original on 2014-11-14. Retrieved 2024-12-22.
  28. Tom Dunkel (1996-08-26). "Row, Row, Row Your Bike - the man who brought you in-line skates has invented yet another hybrid". Sports Illustrated. New York City: Minute Media. Archived from the original on 2022-06-25. Retrieved 2022-06-25.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  29. "Row, Row, Row Your Bike". Playboy Magazine. July 1997. p. 36.
  30. Dan Rather (1994). "CBS News 48 Hours - The American Dream - Dan Rather interviewed Scott Olson". CBS News 48 Hours. Retrieved 2026-04-11.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. "Row, Row, Row Your Bike". Wired Blog. Condé Nast Publications. 2006. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  32. "Rowbike Media Hits From Around The World". Rowbike. 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-06-15. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  33. "Rowbike models". Rowbike. 2000. Archived from the original on 2000-06-08. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  34. Bill Hudson (2015-05-12). "Rollerblade Inventor Brings Rowing Workout To Pavement". CBS Minnesota. Minnesota. Archived from the original on 2022-06-26. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  35. "Trademark record: ROWBIKE". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 2026-04-15. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
  36. Gabriel Sanchez (2017-02-18). "Rollerblade inventor now creates SkyRide, a human-powered roller coaster". Star Tribune (Minneapolis). Minneapolis. Archived from the original on 2024-11-15. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  37. "Skyride official brochure" (PDF). SkyRide Technology. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-10-04. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  38. "Compulsive Perfection: on Scott Olson". Fanatic - Why We Love the Things We Love. UK: Oxford University Press. 2024. pp. 136–137. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  39. "Minnesota-Invention SkyRide Arrives in New York City November 3 on Carnival Vista" (Press release). Waconia, Minnesota: SkyRide Technology. PR Newswire. 2016-10-26. Archived from the original on 2016-10-29. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  40. Scott Olson and Jeff Borg in NYC at Carnival Vista Skyride launch (video). SkyRide Technology. 2016-11-04 – via YouTube.
  41. Saltzman, Dori; Pirola, Carolina (2023-07-27). "SkyRide on Carnival Cruise Line: Everything You Need to Know". Cruise Critic. Archived from the original on 2024-08-07. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  42. Carnival SkyRide What You May Not Know?! (video). Coastal Cruise Control. 2020-07-17 – via YouTube.
  43. Victorino, Corazon (2025-06-07). "What Happened to Skyride from Shark Tank Season 3?". SlashGear. SlashGear. Archived from the original on 2025-06-09. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  44. "Skyride by Adventure Inc". Adventure Inc. Archived from the original on 2026-04-12. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
External links