Kyle Doerksen, creator of the futuristic one-wheel skateboard, was born in 1987. During his childhood he gained prestige by winning the Canada wide science fair, and he learned to snowboard which became crucial to his future life. He had a love of LEGOs and a knack for taking apart and rebuilding his parents appliances.
He attended Stanford university, and instead of deciding on one major, he chose to combine computer science, electrical engineering, and biology, wrapping them into a degree he called neuroengineering. During his first interdisciplinary degree he realized that it would be helpful for him to get another degree, this time in mechanical engineering.
Although Kyle had a wide range of interests and ideas including a work on a radar system that could “see” underground, he eventually landed on the concept of electric transportation. He worked for a time in a company called Farady bikes, an electric bike company. He was important to the company, but it wasn’t what he ultimately wanted to do. Before he had even started at Faraday bikes, he had been working on another idea, one that would eventually become an incredible reality.
This was his design for a one-wheeled, gyroscopic, electric skateboard: the Onewheel. His daily walk to work was long and somewhat mundane and he began to investigate types of transportation. His earlier love of snowboarding paired with his knack for electrical vehicles birthed the Onewheel. After making a few prototypes he decided to put his idea on Kickstarter. The idea achieved massive success gaining the required 100,000 dollars in backing in less than 4 days. He launched the idea, made the boards, and achieved great success.
Ultimately Kyle Doerksen could be considered more of an inventor than a businessman, but his innovation in the world of transportation is incredible. His innovation was not only designed to fulfill a transportation need though, his product is interesting, suave, and brings genuine joy to the riders. His futuristic Onewheel was an incredible innovation in the realm of transportation.
It’s awesome to see when people are able to combine some passions that they have had since childhood into a profitable business. I think this goes along well with what we have been talking about in class lately. He took his enjoyment of snowboarding, interest in science and experience with bikes to create a completely new and innovative product.
It’s cool to see that his walk to work helped him want to find something to help transportation, he experienced an issue and took action to fix it. I also like that he did a ‘mash-up’ by combining two things he enjoyed in snowboarding and electric vehicles. I also agree that he had a futrurestic mind to combine these things and look into new ways of transportation.
He could be considered more of an inventor than a businessman, but he was able to take his invention and make it a successful business. This shows how anyone can be an entrepreneur. I like that he was able to combine two of his passions to solve a need that he had, and he recognized that he could solve other peoples needs with his invention.
It’s really cool how a problem can arise from something so simple like walking to work. In terms of commuting, he created a very uniquely design hoverboard essentially. Especially because of its design, it has attracted a lot of users who love to skateboard and longboard.