How Heelys Rolled Into Millions of Dollars - And Then Crashed in an Instant

Roger Adams came up with the idea of a shoe that had a wheel in the heel, so that you could just raise your toe and ride them like skates. He enlisted Mike Staffaroni, who had experience selling both shoes and skates, to market them. Staffaroni knew Heelys were a good idea, but had some conservative estimates of the company's first year sales. They launched the product at the Action Sports Retailer Trade Show in San Diego in 2000.  

Sitting at a booth made from card tables and a couple signs, Staffaroni and sales rep Gary Golden armed themselves with printed out Excel sheets and credit forms, anything to make it “at least look like we were in business and ready to go.” They hoped by the end of the convention they’d leave with a few sales scribbled down.

But when the pair enlisted a couple skaters to demonstrate the Heelys prototypes, the entire convention took notice. Similar to Staffaroni himself, actually seeing Heelys in motion got people to buy in. “It has a stealth nature to it that grabs people’s attention: It looks like a normal shoe, but you can lift your toe and roll. So there was the wow factor that comes with it.”  

Heelys succeeded beyond their wildest dreams -but the company fell just as fast as it rose. Read how that happened at Mel magazine.


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So that's how TSA does it. Thing is, you're no longer allowed to lock a suitcase. There are warnings at airports that TSA will cut the locks to inspect luggage.
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Actually you can still lock your suitcases. It's not illegal. However, TSA does have the right to cut the locks at any time to gain access to the bag for security checks. In order to avoid having your locks destroyed, you can purchase special TSA approved locks that are able to be opened by TSA agents without being broken. You can find info about this on the TSA website and other places. I had them on my bag for a trip to Chicago from Los Angeles and agents at multiple airports commented positively about them. It seems many people dont even know they're available.
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"special TSA approved locks that are able to be opened by TSA agents without being broken"

OK, but what if it's the TSA agents I'm worried about? They've been caught stealing from people's luggage.
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My aunt went to Trinidad and Tobago to check out a fabric distributer. While there she was given a "gift" of two bottles of wine, which she put into her luggage before boarding a plane back to Canada. Once seated on the plane she was confronted by T&T officials who removed her from the plan stating she was smuggling two bottles of liquid cocaine. She spent two years in prison in Trinidad and Tobago for drug trafficking, but claims she had no idea the "wine" was liquid cocaine. Be careful out there.
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One way is to stabilize your lock in place. You can zip it up to the area around the handle, and then rope it, chain it, secure the lock to the handle. This way IF it were to be tempered with, then can't reseal it unless they shift the lock around. Now you have some sort of evidence of tempering.
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