Hoverboard inventor says he has made no money - mostly because of cheap Chinese knock-offs

Shortly before Christmas, with sales of hoverboards surging as the must-have gadget of 2015, Shane Chen flew to China to confront his tormentors.

Chen is the man who developed and patented the hoverboard design in his lab on the US west coast four years ago. With its two wheels, the “hoverboard” doesn’t quite match up to the promise of its namesake in Back to the Future – but that has not put a dent in its popularity.

Hundreds of thousands of hoverboards have been flying off shelves; celebrities have posted videos of themselves riding – and falling – off them. Even a Filipino priest got in on the act – and was promptly suspended for riding one during Christmas Eve mass.

Someone was making lots of money, but it wasn’t Chen. He marketed his design under the brand name Hovertrax, which sold for about US$1,000. Cheap imitations, made in Chinese factories, have flooded the market at about one quarter of the cost.

“We only made maybe a few thousand,” Chen said. “I got a report that there are over 11,000 factories making them in China. They made more than a million.”

In December, Chen went to China to see for himself. “I visited some of the knock-off factories. They actually thanked me for having the imagination to invent it. They understand they’ve infringed my patent but they know there’s nothing I can do,” he said.