Soap was the brand name of shoes made for grinding, similar to aggressive inline skating. They were introduced by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. with the brand name "Soap" in 1997. They have a plastic concavity in the sole, which allows the wearer to grind on objects such as pipes, handrails, and stone ledges. The company and its product rapidly gained popularity through fansites, a video game and live demonstrations. Soap fell to legal vulnerabilities, and was sold twice, eventually bringing the brand to Heeling Sports Limited. History Soap shoes were essentially derived from rollerblades and aggressive skating. Chris Morris, a resident of California who worked at RollerBlade in Torrance for over sixteen years, worked to customize a simple shoe that had a ground plate embedded in the sole. The shoe was an average Nike, fitted for sliding. Concept 21 (a recently founded design firm) was called upon to design a sample so that the product could be finalized. They then formed Artemis Innovations, which would be the company the brand would be sold under for four years. In 2001, Mr. Morris lost control of the Soap license through legal problems. Activity within the company slowed down, and eventually, the remaining executives sold Soap. In-Stride, a company whose target market was primarily wrestling gear, purchased Soap. In-Stride went bankrupt in late 2002, and Soap was once again available for purchase. Heeling Sports Limited, the company behind the shoes with a wheel in the sole known as Heelys, realized that the ground plate could be very profitable when paired with their wheel, and acquired Soap later that year. In early 2003, six new Soap shoes were released, each in multiple color schemes; simultaneously, HSL was designing hybrid shoes to sell under the Heelys brand. HSL has been criticized for releasing too many new models at a single time, and not supplying requested stock to retailers frequently enough. There are currently no models of Soap shoes being produced by HSL. The sport never caught on to the mass market in comparison to, for instance, skateboarding, but the brand "Soap" did have a professional team mostly consisting of former professional inline skaters such as Ryan Jaunzemis, Bryndon Smith, Danny Lynch, Paul Cifuentes, Eddie Ramirez, and Ben Kelly (Head of Research & Development, and Soap Shoes' wear-testing team). Soap's heyday was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. when competing crews from across