A Tech-Driven Apparel Company Pockets Big Sales Scottevest has recorded steady revenue growth, expecting to finish 2013 with sales of $10 million.

If life had gone according to his original plan, Scott Jordan, founder and CEO of Ketchum, Idaho-based Scottevest, would be a highly successful internet legal executive. Instead, he's an internet apparel executive. The change in direction occurred in 2000, when Jordan, wearing headphones while rushing through an airport, got his cable snagged on a doorknob. "It practically pulled my ear out," he recalls. "I said, wow, there has got to be a way to design clothing that incorporates the wires."

As vice president and general counsel for a startup, Jordan was a frequent flier who carried a lot of gear: a PalmPilot, flip phone, data cable, hydrogen fuel cells for extra battery power, a fairly large 1.3 megapixel camera and, of course, that CD player. "That was my typical load," Jordan says, "and my keys."

He had no background in apparel or design. Nor did he have a desire to form a clothing company. His plan was to license the concept of pocket-packed wired clothing to other firms. But first he would have to reinvent the pocket to create clothing with what he calls a "personal area network" of hidden pouches connected by channels for cords and wiring. Ultimately he secured a patent on his means of incorporating wires into clothing, allowing for the potential to license the technology to third-party manufacturers.