A Tech-Driven Apparel Company Pockets Big SalesScottevest 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-basedScottevest, 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."