six people at a time could perform her leg-strengthening and aerobics movements on one bench. In 1988 when she heard about the Bench Blast project, she put together a video production company with Chris Williams, the owner of Four Seasons Health Spa in Glassboro, forming Step N Motion Videos. They produced their first step aerobics video in mid-1989, using wooden benches. Problems with the Bench Blast wooden benches included difficulty of storage, sideways instability, slippery upper surface when wet with sweat, dangerous sharp corners, and the heights were too challenging. Lyle Irwin, a shareholder of Sportslife gym, saw Williams and Miller struggling with these problems; he suggested the first adjustable-height step bench on June 19, 1989, with nesting stacked layers, and later patented the idea. Sportslife CEO Rich Boggs joined with Irwin to hire Industrial Design Associates (IDA) to fabricate an attractive plastic exercise aide in the form of an adjustable-height step. William J. Saunders and Samuel Crosby of IDA worked with QPI, a plastics molding company in Atlanta, to prepare a prototype step, which was first displayed in October 1989 in Chicago at a trade show. Reebok licensed "The Step" through Boggs and Irwin's new company, Sports Step. The step base unit was teal with a black non-skid upper surface. It came with two sets of risers in contrasting colors: purple and gray for health clubs, purple and pink for home users. The first official deliveries were in January 1990, carrying Reebok's name as well as The Step trademark. Early demonstration units were trialed by Step Reebok in select health clubs, including Mezzeplex in West Los Angeles in December 1989. Gin Miller taught the routines to local instructors. Mezzeplex began offering two to three step aerobics classes every day. Demand for the Step Reebok device quickly rose, requiring Boggs to add two more manufacturing plants in other cities, including one in Ontario, California. Combined, the three plants were making 50,000 steps every month. Sports Step extended their reach with manufacturing licenses in Japan and Europe. Two months after its introduction to the general public, step aerobics classes were attracting major media attention, starting with a March 1990 article published by The New York Times. Miller promoted Step Reebok in person, touring the U.S. and demonstrating it at hundreds of exercise studios. Step aerobics became widely popular, helping the company sell many thousands of step devices, and millions of lightweight,