corporation industry sportsgoods toys electric vehicles founded 1999 headquarters k snacht switzerland key people wim ouboter revenue 60 mil . chf gj 2014 1 number of employees 57 2 september 2015 website 1 micro mobility systems ltd known as micro is a company in switzerland dedicated to invent urban mobility solutions like the kickscooter or the microlino an electric car which was first presented at the geneva motor show in 2016 . in the united states micro s products are sold under the brand kick for trademark reasons . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 idea 1.2 formation of micro mobility systems 1.3 becoming a lifestyle brand 2 references 3 external links history edit idea edit wim ouboter born in 1960 invented the kickscooter out of laziness . he states that the way from his apartement to his favorite restaurant was too far to go by foot and yet too close to use a bike . he then invented a foldable two wheeled scooter for those kind of distances that could easily be folded anytime and placed in a backpack . he pitched his idea to smart and they were willing to put one scooter in every single car . ouboter then tried to find a manufacturer for his innovation but soon realized that europe simply was too expensive . in taiwan he could convince the owner of a factory to produce the scooter also because he had proof that smart liked his idea . just before the production could start smart failed the moose test and so the project was put on hold since smart had to solve that problem . 4 formation of micro mobility systems edit but ouboter had another idea a three wheeled scooter called the kickboard . he teamed up with k2 and presented his idea at the international sports fair ispo in munich in 1998 very successfully . with the earned money he founded micro mobility systems in 1999 and started producing the two wheeled scooter which was an even bigger success . because of the excessive demand he allowed his partner in taiwan to distribute the scooter in the united states with the name razor for a commission . after having sold about one million scooters in 2000 the sales decreased rapidly in 2001 . 5 6 becoming a lifestyle brand edit in the subsequent years the company continued to invent new products designed for urban mobility like the mini micro for kids the scooter luggage or the electric emicro one . in addition micro has teamed up with other brands like peugeot suitsupply or vibram to name a few . many celebrities and their kids like david beckham and his children alessandra ambrosio or hugh jackman have been spotted riding a micro scooter . 7 8 with micro xtreme the brand also went into freestyle sports and works closely with professional athletes like benjamin friant . after the huge success in 2000 and the rapid downfall in 2001 micro has grown organically with a gross revenue in 2014 of 60 million swiss francs . 9 the evolution of micro into a lifestyle brand that invents mobility solutions for children teenagers and adults was honoured by ernest and young in 2015 when wim ouboter was nominated as entrepreneur of the year . 10 the microlino was first presented in 2016 at the geneva car show . based on the concept of the iso rivolta from 1950 also known as the bmw isetta which was sold over 160 000 times the microlino was born . with a new design and an electric engine the small bubble car is designed for urban mobility . the car is expected to be on the market by the end of 2017 with an estimated price of around 10 000 swiss francs . 11 12 references edit http www.sonntagszeitung.ch read sz 06 09 2015 wirtschaft die rueckkehr der knutschkugel 42448 http www.ey.com ch de newsroom news releases ey medienmitteilung entrepreneur of the year 2015 finalisten about us kickboard usa 2011 06 10 verlagsgruppe handelszeitung . www.schweizerversicherung.ch . retrieved 2016 04 13 . rz online der tretroller ist den kinderschuhen entwachsen . archiv.rhein zeitung.de . retrieved 2016 04 13 . simonian haig 2010 12 21 . scooter pioneer that survived to ride again . financial times . issn 0307 1766 . retrieved 2016 04 13 . micro scooter worldwide headoffice blog view . www.micro.ms . retrieved 2016 04 13 . david beckham s london sunset scooting adventure at micro scooters australia . www.microscooters.com.au . retrieved 2016 04 13 . die r ckkehr der knutschkugel . www.sonntagszeitung.ch . retrieved 2016 04 13 . ey medienmitteilung entrepreneur of the year 2015 finalisten stehen fest . www.ey.com . retrieved 2016 04 13 . sonntagszeitung . www.sonntagszeitung.ch . retrieved 2016 04 13 . steve urkel s isetta finds second life as a teensy electric car . wired . retrieved 2016 04 13 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to micro mobility systems . micro mobility systems micro scooters uk distributor micro scooters dk distributor micro scooters de distributor micro kolob ky cz distributor bruch h. et al. 2003 . micro mobility systems . realizing the scooter dream . case study university of st. gallen st. gallen . 2003 culture.bicycle.birdybike.general folding scooter story msg 00015 osdir 2000 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title micro mobility systems & oldid 735789135 categories kick scootersmanufacturing companies of switzerlandhidden categories commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschsvenska edit links this page was last modified on 23 august 2016 at 03 26 . text is available under the creative 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