Rollerblade is a brand of inline skates owned by Nordica, part of the Tecnica Group of Giavera del Montello, Treviso, Italy.

[5][6] The company was started by Scott Olson (b.

1960) in Minneapolis as Ole's Innovative Sports; when they sold the company, it became Rollerblade, Inc.[7] and has changed hands over time between Nordica, Benetton Group and Tecnica.

[8] Inline-skates had been used for many years by ice speed skaters before they became mainstream.

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.