American Entrepreneur

CHAPTER 1

Entrepreneurs: The Essence of Enterprise

Sometime in 2001, shoppers began to see an odd sight: Kids in malls would appear to walk a few steps and then strangely seem to glide on their heels. A closer look revealed they were wearing “Heelys,” athletic shoes with wheels in the heels. Heelys are the brainchild of Roger Adams, who invented the shoes while taking time off with “a midlife crisis.”¹ Adams was a manager who was constantly on call and “totally burned out,” and he was on vacation at Huntington Beach, California, in 1998 when he saw kids going up and down the sidewalk on their inline skates. Suddenly Adams had the idea for a ...