Build your own shoes: Skin and bones
Five years later, an entrepreneur's vision of a new shoe concept hits 100 retail stores.
(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Mark Kline is nothing if not patient: After 5½ years of R&D, five rounds of funding, and one reverse merger, he has finally rolled out his footwear dream, Skins, in 100 stores.
"I'm like the poster boy for bootstrapping," Kline jokes.
The idea for the shoes is that customers buy one set of "bones" (made-to-measure insoles) to be interchanged with a variety of soft, collapsible "skins" (uppers and outer soles) to create several stylish looks on one comfortable base. Certainly makes packing easier.
And enduring such a long wait turned out to be a positive: Except for Crocs (CROX), the shoe market saw few hits in 2007.
"Consumers got frustrated because there was nothing new," says Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at market research firm NPD Group.
Kline predicts 2008 revenues between $6 million and $10 million, and profitability during the first half of 2009. 
A quick question for FSB: For a future story, we would like to find business owners who routinely sleep no more than 4 to 6 hours per night. If you're a night-owl entrepreneur, write to Anne Fisher at afisher@fortunemail.com and tell us how you adapted to your current schedule.
GPS for your shoes
Shoeboxes that sell
Sole Survivor
