In 2006, Michael and his brother Stephan, who were both then studying for masters degrees in industrial design in Kiel (northern Germany), decided to focus their course project on creating a stool capable of resisting any kind of shock. ‘We thought it was a bit strange but kind of cool. We had played all kinds of different sports since we were kids.’ Michael and Stephan got their first skateboards when they were ten. But the two brothers also went snowboarding, surfing, played volleyball and football ; plenty of sports to inspire the technical side of sporthocker. ‘What we'd loved about the sports we played before were the technical aspects. We invented more than twenty tricks for sporthocker in a week. But then we were starting from scratch. This sport can only improve because nobody has any previous experience.’