Company:Rollerblade
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Sporting Goods[1] |
| Founded | Minnesota, incorporated 1982 as Ole's Innovative Sports[2] |
| Founder | Brennan Olson Scott Olson[1] |
| Headquarters | West Lebanon, New Hampshire[1] |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Rollerblade USA Jeremy Stonier (Co-President) Stephen Charrier (Co-President) Pamela Kidder (CFO)[1] |
| Revenue |  ~US$ $20 million (2008)[1] |
Number of employees | 27 (2008)[1] |
| Parent | Tecnica Group[3] |
| Website | rollerblade.com |
Rollerblade is a brand of inline skates owned by Nordica, part of the Tecnica Group of Giavera del Montello, Treviso, Italy.[4][5]
The company was started by Scott Olson (b. 1960), Brennan Olson (b. 1964) and Christopher Middlebrook in Minneapolis as Ole's Innovative Sports; when they sold the company, it became Rollerblade, Inc.[6] and has changed hands over time between Nordica, Benetton Group and Tecnica.[7]
Inline-skates had been used for many years by ice speed skaters before they became mainstream. For the first few years after Rollerblade was developed, Rollerblade, Inc. were the only manufacturer of in-line skates that had worldwide distribution. This allowed the company to capitalize and grab a huge percentage of the world market share and almost total dominance of the North American market with aggressive advertising campaigns and sponsored in-line-only sporting events.[8]
Rollerblade, Inc. manufactures different types of skates, such as those for aggressive skating, fitness, or recreational use with removable "walkable" liners, as well as adjustable skates for younger users.[9]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Rollerblade USA Corp. Company Profile". Yahoo. http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/42/42850.html.
- ↑ "History of Rollerblade, Inc. – FundingUniverse". http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Rollerblade-Inc-Company-History.html.
- ↑ "Rollerblade brand skates over to Tecnica - Hardlines - Brief Article". DSN Retailing Today. 2013. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_6_42/ai_99289820/.
- ↑ U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (July 15, 1984). "Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval". http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=73491507.
- ↑ "Rollerblade: Good things come to those who skate". Philadelphia Inquirer: p. C11. 18 July 2005. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10B96C953A038830&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM.
- ↑ Lemelson-MIT (August 1997). "Inventor of the Week Archive:Jake golden & Scott & Brennan Olson (spelling corrected per rowbike.com)". MIT School of Engineering. http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/Inline.html.
- ↑ Skate Log (February 5, 2003). "Benetton Confirms Selling Rollerblade". http://www.skatelog.com/products/benetton-sells-rollerblade.htm. and DSN Retailing Today via Find Articles (March 24, 2003). "Rollerblade brand skates over to Tecnica". DSN Retailing Today. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is_6_42/ai_99289820.
- ↑ "Rollerblade - About Us - en - International". http://www.rollerblade.com/about-us/.
- ↑ "Skates". Tecnica Group S.p.A. http://www.rollerblade.com/usa/skates/.
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