About Us

Micro Mobility Systems, Switzerland

The Micro story began just 15 years ago when founder Wim Ouboter was 30 years old and living in Zurich. Wim encountered a small problem - his favourite sausage shop was too far away to walk to, but not far enough away to drive to; 'I called it a microdistance,' he says. A former banker turned inventor, Wim decided he needed a new mode of mobility suited to traveling the microdistance to get his daily sausage. Remembering the scooters of his youth, he set about making an adult version, a primitive scooter using the wheels of some inline skates -- it worked well, but 'people laughed at me.' With his characteristic mixture of a kid's desire to be cool and a grown-up's application of technology, Wim worked at the scooter until it was small enough to hide in his backpack. It took another 10 years, with the constant advice and encouragement of his wife Janine, to get the invention on the road.  Joined in 1999 by his partner and now CEO of Micro®, Hans-Peter Bolliger, the two attended trade shows with the first professionally developed scooter. It was 3-wheeled and they called it a kickboard®.  Winning the Stuttgart Design Centre Design Prize, they proceeded to sell more than 9 million scooters by the end of 2000.

Following the introduction of the kickboard, Micro introduced several other award-winning, best-selling 2-and 3-wheel scooters and kickboards, which can now be found at highest quality leading retailers worldwide. Micro continues to employ a combination of Swiss design and cutting edge technology, its formula for setting the standard for innovative, compact and portable lifestyle mobility products. Today Micro continues to deliver quality and innovation and is recognized as the leading brand for quality scooters and kickboards.

In 2008 Micro® re-introduced kickboard® as its brand in the United States. The decision was taken by the founder and the CEO of Micro, following the discovery that another company had registered the micro name in 2000, following Micro's own international registration of the micro® brand in 1999. Confusion in the marketplace over these and other similarly named products, Micro-Mobility decided to return to the name kick® and kickboard®, brands that represent their high-quality, award-winning scooters and 3-wheel kickboards.

Kickboard USA

Kickboard USA is the exclusive US distributor for micro products. Kickboard USA imports and distributes through about 400 stores in the USA as well as on their website and on amazon.com.  

Julie came about the business in an organic sort of way.  She was living in London when she first spotted a commuter on a micro® scooter, and it was love at first sight (with the scooter).  She marveled at it’s beauty (the scooter’s) and was so impressed with its design and evident quality, that she went home and ordered the flex scooter by micro®, which she promptly shared with her daughter Sophie, 5, who rode it to school.  Julie always rode the scooter home from school, and was amazed at how smooth the glide was, even on the urban pavements of London. Admiring her scooter, two friends/neighbours purchased and became big advocates of the mini micro, Micro's 3-wheel kickboard for young children. The two approached micro in Switzerland, asking to become the UK distributors of the mini micro. Julie looked on as the friends developed their business, selling one mini at a time, to one mum and then to another and another. Within a short time, they had successfully populated the London parks with mini-micro scooters, and have since sold hundreds of thousands across the UK.  A short time after, Jule and her husband (of English extraction) decided to return to live in Julie’s childhood home in Michigan. With their daughter from China and their son from Russia, Julie’s husband Geoff likened her to a pirate bringing home treasures from England, China and Russia!

Because of, or maybe in spite of, Julie’s management experience as an executive in the financial markets, the Micro Mums in London, Anna and Philippa, asked if she would like to work with Micro to distribute micro's products in the USA, using their formula of selling mum to mum. She said YES! To help her in this venture, Julie needed at least two people to help her and they all would both need to be organized, smart, creative and fun….

Sara joined the Kickboard team in May 2008 and Nicole joined in August 2008. Both marveled at the opportunity to work in the toy industry selling such delightful products. Sara, with her degree in marketing and management, and her retail experience, combined with fantastic organizational abilities made a perfect addition to the team. She is surrounded by nieces and nephews on scooters and has been able to watch first hand how much kids love the scooters. Nicole. our California transplant, working on a masters degree in accounting, completes the small team. A wizard with numbers, she keeps the books in perfect shape, and although she is supposed to be an accountant, she's been hugely helpful with ideas on how to promote the scooters in California!