Every generation has a great, history making inventor. Nearly a century ago, Henry Ford invented the assembly line. From the baby boom, the late Steve Jobs, who pioneered the smartphone, was the stand out. He may not be a household name yet, but Alexie Novitzky, owner of LooshesLabs LLC, is well on his way to being the number one inven- tor from the children of the 1980’s.

  Russian, but born in South Africa while his father was studying cardi- ology, Novitzky’s family moved to Tampa when he was six years old. At 18, Novitzky moved to Colorado to pursue an undergraduate degree in the astrophysics and a minor in geology from the planetary science
department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Not long into his time in Colorado, Novitzky’s bicycle got stolen. It was then that he resorted to skateboarding everywhere. During his four years at Boulder, Novitzky had the same roommate, who happened to be a mechanical engineering major and noticed how innovative Novitzky was, and how good he was at build- ing prototypes, and urged him to change majors. “He said to me ‘what are you doing majoring in astron- omy? You need to be in engineering.’” That’s exactly what he did.

  In 2009, Novitzky made his way back to Florida to get his master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of South Florida. “It wasn’t until I was at USF that I only had a notebook, a couple of pencils and maybe a tablet computer. I was tired of having a skateboard and a backpack.

  ” This is when Novitzky invented folding skateboards.  “You could put it in your backpack when you got to class.”

  But this didn’t last very long. “I didn’t like them,” he admits “they didn’t ride very well.” Soon after this, Novitzky decided to
turn his skateboard into a backpack. Thus, the Skatecase was born. Essentially, a Skatecase is a hybrid skateboard and briefcase. They’re hand made by Novitzky in his Tampa home, and completely custom- izable. The basic design is a thick piece of wood with plenty of layers, which
makes it much stronger than a regular skateboard. So strong, in fact, that it can be run over with a car and not break, or even bend. If you go to the LooshesLabs website, you can see Novitzky’s brother run- ning over, and then backing up over, a Skatecase. The board didn’t crack, it really
didn’t even move. “We had a larger customer and he needed to make sure it wouldn’t break, and I was like ‘I don’t know’ and we just ran over it a whole bunch of times, and it didn’t break. You could actually say they’re twice as strong as a regular skateboard.”

  The new Skatecases are also lined with fabric, have hinges, and locks, and handles that aren’t recycled. The original Skatecase, which I was fortunate enough to see, is incredibly different from what is be- ing sold to customers now. It was basically a huge piece of wood that

  The new Skatecases are also lined with fabric, have hinges, and locks, and handles that aren’t recycled. The original Skatecase, which I was fortunate enough to see, is incredibly different from what is be- ing sold to customers now. It was basically a huge piece of wood that
Novitzky had used his knowledge of engineering to shape the plank into a skateboard. The handle of the Skatecase? It was the handle of one of Novitzky’s old guitar amplifiers.
The inside lining was a green foam purchased from Michael’s, radically different than the cotton fabrics with peace signs that line today’s boards. “The design was very primitive.”  As odd as it sounds, this DIY board was functional “This is the board I rode at school [USF] everyday.” Novitzky says that he always knew he wanted to own his own business, based off of his own inventions, but he doesn’t think his degree added to his ability to make a Skatecase. “I’d say I’ve been building things my en- tire life. Like this is something else I’ve made.” Novitzky says while holding up a solar cigarette lighter that he made, nonchilantly. Like it was so easy that anyone could do it. For Novitzky, it is. “I have hundred of ideas, this is the only one that has anything to do with skating. I never thought I would make more than one Skatecase.” Which is shocking to hear, due to the amount of time that Novitzky puts into each board. The boards he has in stock sell for $190, while fully custom boards, hand painted with any design you wish-I was able to see one Novitz-ky made for a customer that was inspired by Ghost Busters. Let me assure you, he is no
amateur artist- are $240. Which is a complete steal. It take $90 to make, and 8 hours of labor “I’m not making anything.”
He’s sold between 30 and 40. Which isn’t bad, seeing as how his only marketing is “me riding around and being like ‘hey, check out my skateboard.’ That, and Facebook.” He’s partnered with someone in Or lando who is taking him to the Surf Expo on September 8th, where he’ll find out if the Skatecase will “make it big. The surf expo is where all of the global distributors come and are like ‘wow, we’re going to put this in our stores.’” Part of Novitzky’s five year plan is to sell 500 Skatecases in the next year. Help him reach his goal by checking out his website at
Loosheslabs.com, and look out for Alexei Novitzky’s next big thing.